(Note: this post is adapted from an email I sent to a group of my NYC-area friends on January 12, 2006. I reprint it here and now as a prelude to reviewing Red Bull's latest production.)
Last weekend my mother and I went to see the spectacular Red Bull Theater production of "The Revenger's Tragedy", a Jacobean blood-and-gorefest. This is not unusual for one of our mother-daughter outings; one year we decided "Titus" (Shakespeare via Julie Taymor) would make a perfect heartwarming family Christmas movie. Most of my friends seem familiar with RT from its use in Pamela Dean's Tam Lin. I read that many years ago and didn't care for it, so I'd forgotten the reference, but it seems to have made an impression on a lot of people. I'm not sure Dean had a production like this in mind.
The show starts off with a creepy and superbly staged masqued dance which segues neatly into a graphic
simulated rape. I suspect that from some angles in the theater the "simulated" part would not be obvious. (There's no frontal nudity in the play, but there are a lot of scrumptious back views of the buff male actors.) From there we move into a Hamlet-like scene of the Revenger of the title talking woefully to the skull of his beloved, who was murdered by the evil Duke of Venice and his family. Shortly thereafter, the Revenger makes a visual shift to the James-Marsters-as-Spike look and takes employment in the Duke's household to facilitate his revenge upon the Duke, the Duchess, the Duchess' three sons, the Duke's son, and the Duke's bastard.
Above left, the Revenger in Hamlet mode. Below right, in Spike mode.
Since this a Jacobean tragedy, most of the cast comes to a gory end. Since this director does not appear to recognize the concept of subtlety, most of this takes place on stage. This is not a production for the weak of stomach. People are stabbed with gushing sprays of blood. Body parts are ripped out and tossed across the stage with more sprays of blood. Things biological as well as sharp and pointy are inserted in various orifices. Bones are broken with an audible crunch. Brains are blown out. Sex is simulated in a variety of positions. A severed head in a dripping bag and a rotting corpse get significant stage time. The homoerotic subtext has been dragged out from under the text and made central. The audience spends much of the play recoiling in horror while laughing with an increasingly hysterical edge. And just in case the point about the corruption power breeds might possibly be missed - yes, it's a gorefest with social commentary - the director tweaks the plot with some judicious cutting and stage business to add a more cynical twist and a bit of fellatio. (This production is accurately billed as an adaptation.) The bludgeon approach works better than you'd think and is perhaps appropriate for a play whose character names are mostly descriptors: Vindice for the revenger, Castiza for his chaste sister, Spurio for the bastard, Lussurioso and Ambitioso for two of the sons, and - of course - the aptly named Supervacuo.
The costumes look like someone knocked over a few fetish clubs: punk Elizabethan with plenty of leather, vinyl, fur, and feathers. The decadent sons swish around in fur coats and feathery ruffles. The duchess (left; click to enlarge) does a Marilyn Monroe impression as filtered through Madonna's sex book. It's all black, white, and grey on a red and black stage until they shift to all red when it winds up for the final big massacre. (Speaking as someone who's costumed a Jacobean gorefest, these are very practical choices with this much stage blood flying around.) The music and sound design are superb. The lighting is excellent. The masks are delicious. The actors handle the language with aplomb. And the director should switch to decaf before he directs anything more delicate.
I was one of two people who gave it a standing ovation; I think the rest of the audience was still in shock.
Update, January 2007:
I was pleased to discover that the author/adapter/director Jesse Berger has made the play available via Dramatist's Play Service, Inc. I purchased a copy (autographed, at a highly-inflated price which I regard as a worthwhile donation to Red Bull) and pored over the notes with fascination. Two brief quotes that really touch on what made me so passionately pleased by this production:
All the characters in The Revenger's Tragedy are hyper-aware - they know they are in a play, they know the role they play, and they play it with abandonment until they meet their predetermined ends in the requisite blood-bathing finale.
and
The play works best when it is dancing on a razor's edge between tragedy and comedy. It is neither Hamlet nor The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Think of it as the scariest, most truthful, most fun roller coaster you have been on. It works as the best kind of thriller: one that provokes, horrifies, entertains, amuses, and shocks. It should contain a non-stop series of surprises, and play at a relentlessly fierce, fast clip. Nothing is precious.
I love roller coasters, and this production was one of the most spectacular ones I've ever ridden; two years later I am still enthralled by the memory of it.
The play sounds like something that Quentin Tarantino would enjoy making into a movie. That being said, I'm glad that you had a good time. A belated Happy New Year...
Posted by: Serge | January 10, 2008 at 07:30 AM
Serge:
RT has in fact been made into a film, though not by Tarantino. You might recognize two of the stars - Christopher Eccleston as Vindici and Eddie Izzard as Lussurioso. I'm told it's excellent, but I haven't seen it. I'm still trying to hold the Red Bull version in my head and am not yet ready to have any other production replace it. Someday, though.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | January 10, 2008 at 09:26 AM
A quick trip to IMdb.com... Yes, there it is. I think I'll ask my wife to put it on her NetFlix queue. Thanks for the tip.
By the way, your description of the play reminded me of the ad campaign used by the Bay Area's Shakespeare Festival about 10 years ago:
"Why go to the movies and be exposed to wanton sex, needless profanity and gratuitous violence? Experience it live!"
Posted by: Serge | January 10, 2008 at 09:52 AM
Sounds like a great show! How nice that you and your mom see these!
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | January 10, 2008 at 11:04 PM
The movie version is now on our NetFlix queue. I notice that it was moved to a post-apocalyptic setting. Speaking of such a change... Did you know that Ridley Scott's Tristan and Isolde originally was going to have a futuristic setting? I remember reading an interview with him circa 1980 and the article showed lots of pre-production designs, all very influenced by Philippe Druillet and Moebius.
Posted by: Serge | January 11, 2008 at 10:17 AM
I love how Revenger's Tragedy seems to bring out the kink in directors and designers. Back when I was in college, I saw one of the costume department professor's designs for a production some years before that used Jacobean sihouettes, but built the garments themselves out of leather and PVC and plastic, with lots of transparent materials and exposed skin. It looked incredible and I wished I could've seen it in person.
And now I'm struck with the potential of running a double bill of Revenger's Tragedy and Marat/Sade. (Not likely in my blue-collar town, alas.)
Posted by: Dan Layman-Kennedy | January 11, 2008 at 11:17 AM
I watched the 2002 movie of Revenger's Tragedy on my laptop last night. Eccleston's accent sometimes made it hard to catch the details of what was being said, but I got most of it. Thanks again for the recommendation. Say... Did the movie closely follow the play's plot? I ask because it was nowhere near as bloody as I expected. (That is why I played the DVD on my laptop. My wife, feeling squeamish, decided she prefered watching the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice on our TV.)
Posted by: Serge | February 18, 2008 at 11:47 PM
As usual, I have no idea how well the movie followed the play, 'cause I rarely see movies and haven't seen this one, as noted above when I mentioned it.
As noted in the original post, the production I saw was heavily adapted, which is not unusual for period pieces. The movie probably was as well, and differently, but I really have no idea.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | April 05, 2008 at 08:44 PM
Interestingly, the movie kept most of the old language. Some people would find it jarring, set against a very rundown futuristic Liverpool. Me, I liked the contrast.
Posted by: Serge | April 06, 2008 at 08:44 AM
(By the way, my apologies for asking how faithful to the play the movie had been when you had indeed told me you had not seen it. I may have written that earlier post after a long day of corporate punishment that resulted in tired and/or forgetful brain cells.)
Posted by: Serge | April 06, 2008 at 08:57 AM