THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=281892

by René Solis, 12 March 2005


“A gothic tale:” this is how the director Gérald Garutti defines The Fall of the House of Usher, the short story of Edgar Allan Poe in which two aristocrats at the end of their line, a twin brother and sister, melt in their decayed mansion in front of an impotent witness. Upturned chairs hang from the ceiling as chandeliers, the ancient looking costumes, red and white, could have come from a trunk in the attic; filtered light, smoke, hypnotic music that evokes the sitar (really an acoustic contrabass), give the whole thing a sort of Rocky Horror Picture Show aesthetic. The three actors (Shane Bordas, Mark Lawrence, Diana Rosalind Trimble) naturally move between expressionism and ellipsis. The author, Steven Berkoff, who is responsible for the adaptation of the story, has turned it in to a opera libretto : solos, duos, trios, everything could be sung and the same interpretation would work. Garutti, who works between London and Paris with a company (Coincidence Theater) that was founded at Cambridge (his previous works are: Roberto Zucco and Richard III), has great potential and will go far.


© Libération