Free play is steam powered

10 April 2012

Good things do come for free. The Steam Industry's pacy, bold and determinedly accessible revival of Brecht's epic masterpiece is playing for any passer-by outside City Hall. The politicians should be thankful.

This isn't pure Brecht. Director Phil Wilmott abandons a great deal of the playwright's ideology. He chooses not to present the politically charged prologue and the narrator-singer it introduces. Instead, the tale of the servant girl Grusha and the well-born baby she saves from a revolution is told wholly by a perpetually busy cast-cumchorus.

Such is their high-energy involvement, there's little chance of Brecht's alienation effect settling upon the audience. Nor does Emma Stansfield's lovely performance as the tough but piteous Grusha encourage us to keep emotional distance.

The first half is a wonderful whirlwind of action in which Grusha's flight from the revolution is the highlight. The full potential of The Scoop's amphitheatre is realised as her journey is intercut with the perpetual chanting of soldiers pursuing her through the audience seating.

The second half doesn't match the first. The trial scene it comprises offers Willmott less opportunity for surprising staging. A large musical number falls flat for inaudible lyrics and unexciting choreography. Yet the energy of the cast and the appeal of a good myth simply told see it through.

The Steam Industry At The Scoop 2006: The Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Scoop at More London
More London Riverside, SE1 2DB

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