The subtitle of this concert is: From the Ancient to the New World. This expresses in concise form one of the major projects of the great viol-player and doyen of early music, the Catalonian Jordi Savall.
The audience, subdued by the sheer power of the writing and the mastery of the performances, sits seemingly stunned by what they are hearing, but we all chose to see this play because we have a need to know and the actors to see if they can pull it off.
We certainly are given a fair range of material to give us an insight into the rank stench, the rats, lice, endless rain, bodies in the trenches, yearning for home, the horrible wounds and ghastly deaths, the vile, cruel, terrifying gas and the forever present mud – thick, slimy, stinking, clinging, drowning mud.
A thrilling, queasy, intermittently dull yet frequently hilarious romp through a stained fantasia of a society seemingly in the process of eating its own tail.
This production of Aladdin may stray from the original, add back story where previously none was available and may have tweaked a little to fit a local audience (Tim Tam reference, anyone?) but it is sure not to disappoint any fan.