The End of Eddy (Unicorn Theatre)
Sept 16, 2018 11:52:00 GMT
Snciole and addictedtotheatre like this
Post by n1david on Sept 16, 2018 11:52:00 GMT
Interesting little show based on the memoir of Édouard Louis, a young gay man growing up in a depressed post-industrial northern French town, in abject poverty, with violence commonplace.
I read the book a couple of years back, and it's a tough read, and I was intrigued how it could be adapted to a stage production. They've done a fascinating job here, albeit one I think doesn't quite come off, although it got decent reviews when it played in Edinburgh.
Two energetic young actors both play Eddy, passing the role between them effortlessly and both telling the story. Everyone else (father, mother, siblings, etc) is mostly played by the two actors but on four TV screens with which the actors interact. It's an interesting device, and must have been hell to develop and rehearse, but it works really well.
My issue is that the stage production is a play about the book, and not the story in the book. There are moments where the action stops, and the actors discuss what the book is saying and what Eddy might be feeling at this point - which feels a bit like spoonfeeding the YA audience, and could potentially have been better done by better dramatising the scenes so that we sense how Eddy and his family feel rather than getting a mini-TED talk about why people in deprived circumstances sometimes hate other minorities like immigrants and gay people.
There's also an odd passage in the play saying that the play is going to miss out some of the bits of the book because they're inappropriate to stage because "theatre is a public place". Well, the show is for 16+ and actually it does cover the most significant aspects of sex and violence from the book (albeit again in tell-not-show mode), so although there is obviously adaption it's not as cleaned up as that statement might suggest.
OH liked it very much but he hasn't read the book, and it's true to say that this would be an ideal introduction to the book - highlighting the major themes, making them more visible through the sometimes dense translated prose. For me, it felt a bit superficial. But it's undoubtably a very clever production and a good way in to the this book, specifically, and other themes of deprivation and oppression.
Runs until 6 Oct then off to Dublin. Runs 90 minutes. My first time at the Unicorn, too, a nice space.
I read the book a couple of years back, and it's a tough read, and I was intrigued how it could be adapted to a stage production. They've done a fascinating job here, albeit one I think doesn't quite come off, although it got decent reviews when it played in Edinburgh.
Two energetic young actors both play Eddy, passing the role between them effortlessly and both telling the story. Everyone else (father, mother, siblings, etc) is mostly played by the two actors but on four TV screens with which the actors interact. It's an interesting device, and must have been hell to develop and rehearse, but it works really well.
My issue is that the stage production is a play about the book, and not the story in the book. There are moments where the action stops, and the actors discuss what the book is saying and what Eddy might be feeling at this point - which feels a bit like spoonfeeding the YA audience, and could potentially have been better done by better dramatising the scenes so that we sense how Eddy and his family feel rather than getting a mini-TED talk about why people in deprived circumstances sometimes hate other minorities like immigrants and gay people.
There's also an odd passage in the play saying that the play is going to miss out some of the bits of the book because they're inappropriate to stage because "theatre is a public place". Well, the show is for 16+ and actually it does cover the most significant aspects of sex and violence from the book (albeit again in tell-not-show mode), so although there is obviously adaption it's not as cleaned up as that statement might suggest.
OH liked it very much but he hasn't read the book, and it's true to say that this would be an ideal introduction to the book - highlighting the major themes, making them more visible through the sometimes dense translated prose. For me, it felt a bit superficial. But it's undoubtably a very clever production and a good way in to the this book, specifically, and other themes of deprivation and oppression.
Runs until 6 Oct then off to Dublin. Runs 90 minutes. My first time at the Unicorn, too, a nice space.
