JADAR

★★★★☆

Contemporary circus company Ockham’s Razor present their evocative and ingenious adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, filled with the same passion and tragedy conveyed in the novel and its many haunting images.

Tess offers a fresh perspective on the most emotive aspects of the novel, reflecting on the titular character’s struggles and strife using and omniscient older-version of herself that both watches and tells the story as it unfolds, using direct extracts from Hardy’s vastly poetic novel. It does a great job in focusing on the most important parts of her life, summarising 400 pages into a 2-and-a-half-hour play.

As with the original, the story follows Tess as she explores her life, with her alcoholic father and workaholic mother needing financial support to keep the family going, thus sending her to a nearby wealthy neighbour, who shares their family name, to ask for support.

As trouble ensues, she later meets her love, the ironically named Angel, who must face the turmoil of her past and decide whether he can be with her despite her so-called “cousin’s” actions.

Initially, I was a little confused by the premise of the show, which opened with Tess (Macadie Amoroso) narrating her origins with accompanying dancers before interacting with one of them in particular. Little did I realise, at first that this particular dancer was also Tess (Lila Naruse), but a younger representation of Tess that we will see presently experience betrayal, love and anguish throughout the tale, under the watch of her older, haunted and more solemn self who sees the fleeting flames of her life dance precariously, knowing the tragedies around the corner.

With a fairly simple yet somehow classically Victorian set made from rags and linens, ropes and planks galore. The planks are in fact a key prop used to construct house structures, frames for the acrobats and dancers to dangle and perform stunt from, or they can become background props like decorations for the wedding or tables.

Yet they are also used to convey movement, with most structures being climbable and moved, pulled and pushed with the actors still balanced on them, especially when the characters are going from town to town or crossing fields on balancing beams to avoid the ‘mud’ around them, while playfully swooning and giggling over Angel (Nat Whittingham) as he carries them to safety.

While they were simple constructs, they were fascinating to see and almost unbelievable in the way they functioned and supported everyone’s weight as they balanced precariously from beam to beam, up and down valleys and travelling through the turbulent passages of her life with accompanying naturalistic abstract images and chapter names on the screen behind them.

At first, I wasn’t convinced that the planks would work well, and for the first two scenes I remained pessimistic, but after more time, the planks seemingly transformed into elements they could convey heights, excitement, sadness, journeys, and different environments with, making them surprisingly supple and flexible prop pieces. They help Tess traverse, until later they become like blockades for her to knock down or steps leading her to her doom.

The only downside is that the transition between set pieces does take awhile as we have to watch them deconstruct the last piece, pull the pins out and take out the planks before constructing new pieces. At times, this made for an interesting watch, but other times it felt a little elongated and unnecessary for the
audience to see.

The show was at its most interesting when pure emotions were shown through dance, especially in the scenes following Tess meeting Angel and their relationship, as the story expresses itself so well through their acrobatics and clear emotions, even without the narration from Tess.

There is one thing I must mention about the narration that confused me, however, as I found it a little strange that at times there were only noises and breathing, but other times the other characters were allowed to talk and shout too, almost like an old recording with the audio fading in and out, which was at times eloquent and strangely jarring at other points.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by how well they dealt with traumatic themes, such as rape and the death of her child and his exclusion from a church administered burial, and how well they lightened appropriate moments with humour, such as when the girls fawn over their crush.

Acrobatics and dance were used in fabulous ways to capture the energy and atmosphere of each place, each emotion, each quote… whether it be the chaos of the laundry washing scene, the mischief and love associated with Angel, the mixture of sadness and hope when waiting for her baby’s birth, or the turmoil felt by Angel as he struggles to accept Tess’ past.

Despite the trauma and woman-blaming she faces, with her “cousin” and mother blaming her, Tess asserts agency; she is an active heroine.

One particularly magical moment concluded the show with a starry sky and ethereal quote from Hardy before Tess herself is transported from the gallows to the star-spangled night sky, dancing from the heavens as the audience watched in an enchanted awe.

In a short Q and A after the show, director Charlotte Mooney discussed how “language of the circus” can deliver a “nuanced voice” in theatrical performances, rather than be the
typical silly side-act.

Circus is instead a genre of exploration, emotional conveyance and breathtaking acts. It truly transformed a heartbreaking story into a performance that you could feel the weight and emotion of each action radiating from each character, especially aided by a cast of strong performers and personalities. It carries all the emotion from the novel, as well as haunting images and a pinch of acrobatic flair.

Ockham Razor’s Tess runs at the Lowry (Quays Theatre) until February 17 and tours the UK until June 5, with more dates to be announced for summer.

Photo: Daniel Denton