Friday, 10th May 2024 at York Theatre Royal.
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How do you turn just over 400 pages of dense, rich prose into two hours of theatre while preserving the heart and soul of the piece? Especially when a certain clutch of classics inspire such connection with their readers? This particular adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s incredibly moving tragedy – Tess of the D’Urbervilles – comes from a fantastic contemporary circus company and frankly, the Ockham’s Razor team should be giving masterclasses.
The story is approached on two levels: the later Tess Durbeyfield (Hanora Kamen) tells her own story, watching her younger self (Lila Naruse) live through each phase of her life. I do think knowledge of the novel enriches the experience of this production, but it’s possible to follow the narrative threads here without prior knowledge: Tess is of poor rural stock and discovers a high-ranking lineage. This puts her in the reach of an opportunistic kinsman, Alec D’Urberville, who shifts the trajectory of her life to one of hardship and turmoil, with pockets of great happiness when she crosses paths with the charming Angel Clare.
Rarely do creative teams produce work as fluently crafted as this; it’s tricky to find the seams joining the component parts, and that lays the foundation for an enthralling journey through Tess’ story. With direction from Alex Harvey and Charlotte Mooney alongside choreography from Nathan Johnston and stage designs from Tina Bicât, the story is told with remarkable accuracy to both plot and sense of setting, but it also heightens the emotional arc of Tess through circus skill, dance, visual spectacle and transportive narration.
Bicât’s costumes are perfectly rustic for this tale of labouring lives, and set design is equally rustic with a deceptive sense of simplicity – not to mention the ingenious approach to materialising the dairy farm. The set lends itself to suggestion over concrete shapes (beautifully in-keeping with Hardy’s famous blending of realism and the more abstract), mostly revolving around unembellished planks of wood which transform the space and drive the physical feats of the company. It’s gripping to watch the scaling of landscapes conjured so imaginatively through this direction, against the backdrop of Daniel Denton’s vivid video designs.
Those video designs bring so much depth to the piece too, from Tess’ journey with her beloved horse to the splintering influences of fateful moments – particularly her later act of desperation which is beautifully rendered with its connection between later and earlier Tess and Aideen Malone’s fiery lighting. And the production benefits tenfold from Holly Khan’s composition and sound design, with musical accompaniment capturing the shifting tones of the physical and emotional worlds, spanning light-heartedness, repetitive labour in the fields, awe at the natural world and more ominous moments of anguish.
Every member of this company is uniquely magnetic, too. Hanora Kamen creates strong connection with the audience; earthy and heartfelt, she guides us through each fateful development with a youthful innocence punctuated by moments of painful reflection – including some of the most moving lines and passages from Hardy’s novel. Lila Naruse’s young Tess builds on that same characterisation of youth and pain in a highly physical performance full of unspoken experience, creating swift and secure connection with the audience.
Joshua Frazer’s Alec D’Urberville is all loftiness and ominous control, perfectly captured in a sequence with a Cyr Wheel – a moment which certainly highlights the meaningful originality of adapting Tess with circus elements. Lauren Jamieson demonstrates astonishing skill and strength as Marian, one part of a fabulous trio of women at the dairy farm – and her skill is matched readily by Victoria Skillen as Retty and Shannon Kate Platt as Izz. The three perform unbelievable acrobatics, bringing a wonderfully light playfulness to the production with their youthfully amorous lassies. Their scene with the equally skilful Nat Whittingham – whose Angel Clare bridges the gap between playfulness and pain in the life of Tess – is a real highlight. And Whittingham also moves between incredible strength on the farm and beautifully tender moments with Tess.
Tess is everything it promised to be: bold, innovative and highly visual. It’s also much more; an exceptional adaptation which does the near-impossible: harnessing all the beautiful and dark theatricality of Hardy’s work to transpose a rich novel into an even richer multidisciplinary experience. As far as adaptations of classics go, Tess is uniquely brilliant.
Tess is at York Theatre Royal until May 11th 2024 (more information and tickets here).
Always Time For Theatre 