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More than a decade ago, I saw the companys very first production, a thrillingly stripped downSt.
Sadly and it is legitimately sad with thisArcadia, Bedlam completely misses the brief.
What the weepy strains of Wicked Game say to us is: Hey, dont worry.
You may have heard that this play isdifficultandsmart, but its okay, its really about LOVE and SEX.
Why do we need reassuring?
The irony of this productions thick layer of would-be edgy horniness is that it makes the show infinitelylesssexy.
Has Tucker never heard ofantici … … …pation?
More important, what of the things, apart from each other, thatactuallyturn these people on?
Its wanting to know that makes us matter, says the researcher Hannah Jarvis (Zuzanna Szadkowski).
The thrill and glory ofArcadiais in watching articulate passion unfold itself.
The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is, Valentine tells Hannah.
Its how nature creates itself, on every scale, the snowflake and the snowstorm.
It makes me so happy.
To listen to Labbadia deliver this speech, youd think Valentine means irritated when he says happy.
You imagine him sulking in a basement surrounded by pizza boxes and unwashed novelty T-shirts.
These are people who say things like, Do not dabble in paradox, Edward.
(It has worked for the company with Shaw.)
Accent is one thing, and affect is another.
This is buoyant, intricate stuff, and trying to muscle through flattens and deflates it.
In the words of the Magnetic Fields, You cant use a bulldozer to study orchids.
And yet, there are times the play still makes itself heard; its beauty will out.
Directorially, he seems to have been hungering for this kind of conceptual choreography, for something todo.
(This is part of the issue: Hes avoided really doing the play itself.)
Arcadiais at the West End Theatre through December 23.
