A DRAMATISATION of the past deserves a historic and atmospheric setting. For Hidden Voices, put on by the ReStage company, the ancient and beautiful Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, effortlessly provided that intensity for the production's inaugural performance last night.
Written and directed by Chris Green, Hidden Voices recounts a thousand years of York history in 75 minutes, episodically charting everything from ninth-century Danish heroism to the fanatical moralising of Puritan England.
Like the similar docudrama 1539 , staged in May at Durham Cathedral, Hidden Voices fully engages the audience, with the spectators following the cast around the church as they re-create the strands of narrative.
The melancholic strings of Arvo Pärt's Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten are an evocative background to Christina of Markyate's (Christina Cairn) opening monologue on the Trinity, the medieval abbess's words appropriate to both venue and theme. Twenty-three scenes then convey ten centuries of religious fervour, impassioned devotion, and, finally, a return to the modern day.
Characters range from the well-known St Augustine (Tom Straszewski) and Julian of Norwich (Cairn), to those locally significant, such as heretic Christopher Kelke (Chris Green) and the wife (Janice Lowther-Newton) of Reverend John Walker, supervising the design and execution of the 15th-century East Window.
That the play is as much a biography of the building in which it is performed as it is the story of a city, gives the events an added pertinence, stressing spectator involvement rather than mere passivity.
We see certain of the actors taking on multiple roles, and especially impressive is the versatility with which they traverse the serious and the deadpan. Green, in particular, stands out for his seamless shift from the artist who turns window symbolism into a seminar for a bamboozled vicar's spouse to the blood and thunder Stuart priest pontificating from the pulpit.
An early scene, Purgatory, sees Dante meet Monty Python in a wonderfully surreal evocation of how excess in life means punishment in death. Straszewski and Green are clearly having great fun as they clash over Robert de Holmes's miserly benefaction of three shillings and four pence to a profligate son.
Perhaps the standout performance comes from Cairn as Markyate, whose commitment to God a powerful reminder of medieval faith and deftly communicated by Cairn’s hard-hitting commitment to her character.
This is a superb production informed by rare insights into York's past, combined with impeccable performances and a setting central to the stories memorably told.
Hidden Voices, ReStage, Holy Trinity Church, Goodramage, York, tonight and tomorrow at 7.30pm. Tickets: ReStage5@gmail.com or on the door.
Review by Sam Cane
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