Rachel West- director RAW Theatre company

	OFF PLAN	Splendour	Under Ice	Electronic City	Family Stories	Winter
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Splendour Under Ice Electronic City Family Stories Winter	Reviews for Splendour “ a thoroughly engaging and thought-provoking production, here we can enjoy political art as an aesthetically accomplished, challenging night out.” - Irish Times- Peter Crawley “ Rachel West’s production presents this absorbing and stylish experiment in form with impressive clarity” - The Guardian “ RAW’s Irish premiere of Abi Morgan’s work is a delight!” - RTE Back to Top Reviews for Under Ice “ The universe of THE SYSTEM, the first two parts of which are given a lucidly impressive Irish premiere by Rachel West, is Beckett’s entropic cosmos, in which identity dissolves into amnesia, language loses its meaning and becomes a mere cry to fill up the silence, and humanity itself seems like a dying anomaly on an indifferent planet. But Richter sees these conditions not as an existential imperative, but as a political product, the consequences of a media-saturated, high-tech, market-driven globalisation. [...]Richter’s distinctive contribution is in the peculiar combinations and confrontations of familiar elements, and the ingenious mixture of forms, from monologue to video (superbly realised here by Martin Rottenkolber), from stand-up comedy to absurdist ballet, and from direct satire to a strange, fragmentary poetry. [...]Richter’s bone-dry wit, beautifully captured in translations by Marlene J Norst and David Tushingham that are so articulate that they don’t sound like translations at all. Richter is best when he is funniest and there are times when his humour, both satiric (the arrogant media language of the TV team in Electronic City) and absurdist (the childhood memories of the ageing businessman in Under Ice) is scintillating. [...]The other factor is the quality of West’s production, which is designed with acute precision by Andrew Clancy and Suzanne Cave, and performed with terrific skill by an outstanding cast. In Electronic City, Emma McIvor’s astonishing fluency as the dominant member of the TV team and Orla Fitzgerald’s wonderful command of different registers as she acts out her assigned role are utterly compelling. Adam Fergus’s rendition of the glib consultant in Under Ice is also memorable for the way it gradually pushes realism into preposterousness. And West’s deft control of the plays’ constant shifts of style and mood maintains a focus that is as sharp as it is unblinking.” Irish Times - Fintan O’Toole “ Through a torrent of good writing, Falk Richter succeeds in re-freshing all the standard neo-Marxist arguments against our version of capitalism. The excellent cast succeeds in articulating criticisms we all know, but have never condensed with such precision” -Irish Examiner UNDER ICE IN EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE “ Existential stagnation is not easy to dramatise, but Beckett made a career of it, and this production from his native city, Dublin, tackles the play with confidence and intelligence, emphasising its bleak, absurdist humour and its underlying compassion. As played by Gary Murphy, Niemand is a traumatised shell of a man, pouring out his despair in a blank-eyed, semi-conscious stream. His stoic stillness stands in stark contrast to the slick, vigorous performances by Adam Fergus and Phillip McMahon as the two younger men. All three give a spirited account of the wordy, partly abstract text. Under Ice is directed with acuity and vision by Rachel West, who has worked closely with Richter in Berlin. Her intelligent treatment of the drama is enhanced by a menacing electronic score by Denis Clohessy and a video backdrop of oppressive buildings and dreamy clouds by Martin Rottenkolber. Richter drives his dystopian vision to its logical conclusion – the eradication of humanity – but leaves us clinging to the hope that this is satire, not prophecy.” The Scotsman - Andrew Burnet “ Awestruck is the best way to describe the audience at the UK premiere of Falk Richter's UNDER ICE. The German playwright's finely crafted monologues, delivered here by a strong Irish cast, are intricately woven together in this gripping tale of Paul Niemand... flitting between the hilarious and the harrowing, this slick, highly intelligent production will leave a lasting impression on those fortunate enough to catch it this year. “ ***Three Weeks. Back to Top Reviews for Electronic City “ The universe of THE SYSTEM, the first two parts of which are given a lucidly impressive Irish premiere by Rachel West, is Beckett’s entropic cosmos, in which identity dissolves into amnesia, language loses its meaning and becomes a mere cry to fill up the silence, and humanity itself seems like a dying anomaly on an indifferent planet. But Richter sees these conditions not as an existential imperative, but as a political product, the consequences of a media-saturated, high-tech, market-driven globalisation. [...]Richter’s distinctive contribution is in the peculiar combinations and confrontations of familiar elements, and the ingenious mixture of forms, from monologue to video (superbly realised here by Martin Rottenkolber), from stand-up comedy to absurdist ballet, and from direct satire to a strange, fragmentary poetry. [...]Richter’s bone-dry wit, beautifully captured in translations by Marlene J Norst and David Tushingham that are so articulate that they don’t sound like translations at all. Richter is best when he is funniest and there are times when his humour, both satiric (the arrogant media language of the TV team in Electronic City) and absurdist (the childhood memories of the ageing businessman in Under Ice) is scintillating. [...]The other factor is the quality of West’s production, which is designed with acute precision by Andrew Clancy and Suzanne Cave, and performed with terrific skill by an outstanding cast. In Electronic City, Emma McIvor’s astonishing fluency as the dominant member of the TV team and Orla Fitzgerald’s wonderful command of different registers as she acts out her assigned role are utterly compelling. Adam Fergus’s rendition of the glib consultant in Under Ice is also memorable for the way it gradually pushes realism into preposterousness. And West’s deft control of the plays’ constant shifts of style and mood maintains a focus that is as sharp as it is unblinking.” Irish Times - Fintan O’Toole “ Through a torrent of good writing, Falk Richter succeeds in re-freshing all the standard neo-Marxist arguments against our version of capitalism. The excellent cast succeeds in articulating criticisms we all know, but have never condensed with such precision” -Irish Examiner Back to Top Reviews for Family Stories** “ There are moments in Rachel West's impeccably calibrated production for Bspoke Theatre Company when we can see quite directly that Andrew Bennett's hectoring Daddy figure is Milosevic and that the excellent Pauline Hutton, tapping away at her typewriter with a red flower in her hair is his wife and chief ideologue Mira Markovic. But these are occasional splashes of primary colour in a much more muted pattern of political commentary. [......] Nadezda, embodied in a fiercely physical performance by Mary Murray, who is both a traumatised child and a dog. Chained as she often is to a dumpster, cowering and whimpering, she evokes the terrible violence against women that underpins Srbljanovic's tracing of the conflict to a warped sexuality. The challenge of having adults playing children is, of course, the natural tendency of such a device to become winsome almost regardless of the tone and subject matter. It's a challenge to which West and her cast rise superbly. If anything, the humour and playfulness of the writing, which come across strongly in Rebecca Rugg's translation, are reined in a little too tightly - a very minor problem that stems from the overwhelming virtues of the production: its tact, intelligence, clarity and utter commitment.” The Irish Times- Fintan O'Toole “ Rachel West's production for Bspoke Theatre Company is as pared-back and uncompromising as the script. Paul Keogan's smart set lines the floor with dirty cardboard and papers the walls with children's drawings of warplanes and bombed-out houses. The four fine performers are committed and effective as they play the layers of the story[...] Bspoke and West are doing brave work here, trying to create a context for important European plays in a theatre culture whose politics are still very much defined by national issues.“ **The Guardian – Karen Fricker “ Family Stories is an extremely sobering play [...] it picks the bones of nationalism until they shine with a nightmarish glow, and it is given a splendid production by bspoke.” Irish Independent- Emer O'Kelly Back to Top Reviews for Winter RTE Radio One arts programme 'Rattlebag' review of WINTER http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0208/rattlebag.html BACK to TOP				(Photos as credited on each play's page)



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