The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other
April 10, 2008
The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other, at the Lyttelton Theatre, is a play without words. It's by no means silent but there is no dialogue. It's People Watching as an allegory of innocence and loss, space and time, love and death, wisdom and experience, war and peace; with a bleak grey set after De Chirico and lighting suggesting the passing of time.
I wasn't previously familiar with the work of Peter Handke or the history of this play but apart from the annoyingly untidy fact that it is 45 minutes longer than an hour it is surprisingly engaging. I was only once tempted to try to count how many of the cast of 27 were on stage at any given time. Maybe several times I wondered how many costume changes there were. There are apparently 450 characters, but some of them appear more than once. For something that sounds like it is being overly pretentious for the sake of it it is actually pretty funny in parts. An old lady cuts up another with her shopping trolley at one point and another couple of old folk have an impromptu "sword fight" with their sticks.
There is a lot more here about Handke's work and lectures but the site isn't very user friendly but it may explain some of the odd characters that appear amongst the everyday residents, workers and tourists in this fictional square [or is it more than one square?]. Charlie Chaplin, Tarzan and Moses spring to mind. The biblical references I can understand, characters from different era's I can understand [assumingly passing through the square at a different time?] but the fictional characters and the buffoon in the yellow tank top that mimics many other members of the cast were lost on me!. I'm not sure if this is James MacDonald's interpretation or whether they were there all along.
Any road up! It finishes on the 12th if you want to give it a try. I liked it. I can't say I fully understood it but it beats going home and watching Eastenders! Try the mezze in the Lyttelton Terrace Cafe as well. Very good! Spotted Brian Murphy on the tube on the way home too!
Really want to get to Sheffield to see Stefanie Posavec's On The Map series of works. On until mid June and top marks to the BBC for the trail for the new Medieval Mind Trip series on BBC 4. Looking forward to the Gutenberg Press and How To Build A Cathedral programmes.
Categories: Art, London, Food & Drink, Theatre
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