Reviled on its Aldeburgh debut, new opera An Ocean of Rain comes to Scotland, changed but unchastened, writes ELLA HICKSON
IN SUMMER THIS YEAR, AN OCEAN of Rain, Theatre Cryptic's latest multi-media show, was selected to open the Aldeburgh Festival by its director, Jonathan Reekie. The reception was damning. "Ill-conceived," was one London critic's doleful verdict. "Inex
cusable" said another. "Aldeburgh's festival mistake," wrote a third.
It wasn't the first time Cathie Boyd's company, formed in 1994, has had to endure a critical slamming, which has much to do with the artistic risks, and the indigestible technology, that are a part of the Theatre Cryptic experience. An Ocean of Rain was written by Canadian poet Daniel Danis, who describes his narrative as "a short story from a long poem". The plot follows the lives of five women living in Haiti. Extracts of poetry are interwoven with instrumental and electronic music, created by Cypriot-born Yannis Kyriakides, to create a synthesis of sound and verse which aims to portray scenes of child prostitution and rape in an orphanage on the soon to be tsunami-engulfed island.
While developing the show, Boyd travelled to Haiti to see the orphanage on which Danis based his text, and even took part in a chicken-slaughtering, trance-inducing voodoo ritual in order to better understand the mythic influences in his work. The script was then workshopped in Montreal, before the Dutch MAE ensemble came on board to create an international collection of highly conceptual artists.
One wonders whether it was the conceptual clash this international team created that was to blame for its apparent inability to communicate basic concepts of plot and character. When asked to comment on his inspiration, Danis talked of an "awareness of the spherical polyphony of our perceptions of time and humanity". Given the postmodern tendency toward using abstract language to justify vacuous work, you can see why critics might be weary of that which can only be described in such esoteric terms.
Boyd sees it differently. "Think of Waiting for Godot," she says. "When Godot was premiered the critics slagged it. When you're writing a new type of language, people are going to struggle with it." She defends the new by way of the old. "Opera was the first multi-media art form that ever existed," she says. "It was music, with visuals, with dance, and it's no different from what we are doing today except that we are using the technologies available to us."
The only complaint Boyd does make about the critical reaction to the show is that "it focused on Yani's music. The reason they didn't like it was based purely on taste and that's an individual thing, there's nothing I can do about that."
Audiences, however, are a different matter. "The critics have an opinion but it's your audience that you have to listen to," says Boyd. She says that she quizzed audience members in both Aldeburgh and London and, valuing people over papers, took many comments on board. As a result, she says, the show that will arrive at Tramway in next week will be much more audience-friendly. It has been shortened, with more instrumental music and – boldly – more electronics, perhaps the clearest sign that Boyd is paying little heed to the critics. "There is more video, and I have worked hard to make the rhythm of the piece quite different, making it come together as much more of a coherent narrative," she says.
Boyd sees the opportunity to rework the piece as a positive thing. "It's very important that artists get the chance to go back and revisit things and not to be afraid; when they do go back, to be ruthless." Her attitude to the Glasgow show is, she says, one of excitement, but having consistently applauded Reekie, Kyriakedes and her cast for their tenacity in sticking to an ethos of innovation, you realise the real courage comes from Boyd herself. She has spent 14 years at the head of a theatre company that blithely ignores critical reaction, whether positive or negative, so perhaps, in that respect, the Beckett comparison might not be far off. In an economic climate where the stage is fighting an ever-losing battle against the screen to keep hold of audiences, directors such as Boyd have got to be congratulated for their conviction in not bowing down to mainstream commercialism. Whatever you think of An Ocean of Rain, it will be unlike most other contemporary operas. If it's not easy, it at least promises to be unique.
• An Ocean of Rain is at the Tramway, Glasgow, 9-11 October.
The full article contains 782 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
