Kicking over the traces
The programme coming up on 29 July features theatre director Katie Mitchell, whose methods are seen as untraditional by some: her 2006 production of had some critics sharpening their nibs (for nibs read knives). In our item Mark Kermode visits the rehearsals for her new production, , and interviews Mitchell, who is also an associate director at London's National Theatre. Some Trace of Her is based on by Dostoevsky, and is an interesting choice for a stage adaptation. The novel is a fascinating portrait of a truly good person, whose goodness doesn't seem to exercise a positive influence upon the world and the book is as puzzling in certain sections as it is dazzling in others.
I've seen a couple of plays directed by Katie Mitchell at the National and I really like her dynamic approach. Her version of Virginia Woolf's The Waves - - is coming back to London ahead of an international tour, and it captures the beautifully fragmented nature of the original novel, as well as being extremely funny. Visual tableaux are set up and filmed so that they appear on a screen above the stage, while sound effects are created in front of us. We watch a group of contemporaries grow older and see snatches of their lives, in a way that seems to echo memory - moments stand out and the rest is darkness. In a Mitchell says, "The question is whether you think theatre is performing and speaking words, or whether you think it's representing human behaviour,". She may upset traditionalists, but Katie Mitchell produces truly vibrant theatre.
Comments