A word of warning - wear a stout pair of shoes for this show, the first in Southwark Playhouse's temporary new home. Flip-flops are utterly inadequate for the dank, muddy tunnels beneath London Bridge station through which this promenade production will lead you, often in semi-darkness.
Yet the dripping shadows and claustrophobic vaults are a wonderfully apt backdrop for the story of Abelard and Heloise, the free-thinking 12th-century lovers and intellectuals whose relationship ended in tragedy thanks to the vengeful intervention of Heloise's uncle. Today they are known most for the extraordinarily passionate letters they wrote to each other throughout their life.
Goat And Monkey theatre company includes founder members of Punchdrunk, whose site-specific production of Faust wooed audiences earlier this year. The latter's atmospheric, art installation feel is stamped all over this show, but rather than having to chase the story cat and mouse style, here the audience becomes part of it.
Dressed in cowls, you are initiated as young monks into the same order as Abelard and, like his young, jealous and tormented friend Thomas (played by Michael Cox), spy on his relationship with his young pupil Heloise within the bowels of the monastery through gaps in his library walls. This is a place of whispers, secrets, conspiracies and danger: dimly lit tunnels open up before your eyes; bodies hang above your head; eerie noises crackle within the walls. In one extraordinary scene in Heloise's bedroom, a transparent ceiling slowly reveals the evidence of her uncle's unhealthy obsession with her.
Director Joel Scott is guilty of exploiting the setting at the expense of some of the more interesting parts of Abelard and Heloise's story. Certainly Gillian Clarke's script gives short shrift to Abelard's groundbreaking intellectual arguments and to the flesh, blood and eloquent sensuality of their actual relationship (we only see them alone together once). Moreover, Heloise's proto-feminist ideas feel more bolted on than properly served. Yet the vicious momentum of their violent persecution by an enemy within reaps rich dramatic rewards.
Reverence: A Tale Of Abelard And Heloise
Southwark Playhouse
Shipwright Yard, corner of Tooley Street and Bermondsey Street, SE1 2TF
