THEATRE REVIEW: Delirium, Theatre O at the Barbican Pit

Alchemy is the mythical process by which base metal is transformed into gold. The word is more generally used to heap praise upon those who can produce something which is better than it should be$$s$$ a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The best chefs are often referred to as modern day alchemists.

I do not know whether Enda Walsh is a dab hand in the kitchen but he’s introduced more than a touch of magic into Theatre O’s Delirium in the Pit at the Barbican. There is nothing base about The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky’s masterpiece from which Delirium derives its skeleton plot. Walsh’s alchemy is the flawless transposition of the story into the 21st century$$s$$ he entirely avoids the jarring anachronisms that plague adaptations of classic novels and delivers 155 unmissable minutes of high-energy theatre.

The play charts the declining fortunes of the three Karamazov brothers and their father. All four men are variously affected by what they call the Karamazov ‘insect’ – a disturbance of mind which drives them to extremes of rage, lust, grief or piety as they battle fiercely with each other. Central to the family feuding are politics, religion, money and women but not in that order: the two female characters more than hold their own in an über-masculine environment.

The Universe conjured by Dostoevsky and Walsh is far from simple: moral ambivalence abounds and even the ‘good’ characters are capable of careless, callous cruelty. All are flawed, all are fallen and all are their own worst enemies. The contention is that God cannot possibly exist in a world where terrible things are allowed to happen$$s$$ an argument playing out right now as we contemplate cases of infanticide and kidnap. Believers blame such atrocities on the Devil but what happens when God does not exist and the bad things keep happening? Can it be that God is dead but the Devil flourishes? Can you have one without the other? How do you fight an enemy you cannot find?

These weighty questions are posed on a simple set littered with little more than rehearsal furniture. Clever costume changes, dance and powerful musical scenes allow an excellent ensemble cast to keep up the intensity required by this story throughout. It is difficult to single out company members for particular praise but Denis Quilligan is excellent as Fyodor Karamazov ageing disgracefully and it is worth going just to see Julie Bower’s Grushenka cause most of the family trouble.

Delirium

Theatre O/Enda Walsh

Barbican box office 0845 120 7550