Brokeback Mountain (Review)


Brokeback Mountain

(Critique en Français : Cliquez ici)

Songs: Dan GILLESPIE-SONGS

Short Story: Annie PROULX

Playwright: Ashley ROBINSON

Director: Jonathan BUTTERELL

Designer: Tom PYE

Lightning Design: David FINN

Sound Design: Christopher SHUTT

Fight Director: Kevin McCURDY

Intimacy Director: Tommy ROSS-WILLIAMS

Prodution manager: Phil WILDING

Costume Supervisor: Zeb LALLJEE

Wigs Maker/Supervisor: Sam COX

Props Supervisor: Lily MOLLGAARD

Vocal/Dialect Coach: Mary IRWIN and Ben FUREY

Casting  Director: Shaheen BAIG

 

Starring:

Rob ALEXANDER-ADAMS, Emily FAIRN, Mike FAIST, Lucas HEDGES, Paul HICKEY, Tom MAHY, Martin MARQUEZ, Eddi READER and Sophie REID

Band:

Sean GREEN, BJ COLEGreg MILLER and MEELIE TRAILL

Until 12th august 2023

At @Soho Place

You won’t be able to hold back your tears when faced with so much passion. Love and its complexities are explored with an intensity that screams realism and truth. The acting of Mike FAIST and Lucas HEDGES surpasses everything. Their feelings go beyond the story. They are exalted. We easily become attached to their characters. They are overflowing with emotion. We love the tenderness, the hidden cuteness between the two boys. They are touching.

For every moment of intensity, a song comes along at the right time. Songs with great bittersweet sounds… Eddi READER‘s interpretation is penetrating in his soothing country ballads. His melodies, often underlined by the harmonica, take us into our intimacy. The scores lull us into a state of love, as love can lull us into a state of illusion. It is worth noting that the show is not stingy on the songs.

We can’t help but compliment Emily FAIRN for her ability to make herself as torn as she is human in her posture as a scorned woman.

The setting, or should we say the landscape in certain aspects, is natural. Authentic also by the use of patinated materials. The details are intelligent.

The lines and the direction are scathing when they should be. Some moments seem to be overdone, not to say sloppy, but this is only to magnify the scene a moment later. The play has the power to make us hold our emotions until the explosion. A bit like the protagonists whose every thought must be held in a bubbling secret until it bursts out of control. We are glued to the wall. Stunning!!! And at the same time, we laugh more often than we think.

The show is close to the original film while moving away from it in certain aspects, notably with the integration of an additional role that is not superfluous. In fact, the opposite is true for this older Ennis: a striking success.

Like ricochets, we go from contemplation to contemplation.

Brokeback Mountain is a punchy musical play that will make any heart come alive. It awakens the conscience.

 

Credit photo : Manuel Harlan (with the courtesy of the production)

Synopsis

Wyoming 1963: a wild landscape where people live in extreme rural poverty in tight, insular and conservative communities. When Ennis and Jack take jobs on the isolated Brokeback Mountain, all their certainties of life change forever as they flounder in unexpected emotional waters of increasing depth. Dan Gillespie-Sells’ beautiful Country and Western songs weave heartbreakingly through this intense tale of an irresistible and hidden love spanning twenty years and its tragic consequences.

 

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Aurélien.

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