reviews
STAGE REVIEW
JOSEPH K AND THE COST OF LIVING Grand Theatre, Swansea, Wed 22 Mar
The second part of National Theatre Wales’ The Cost Of Liv- ing trilogy, Joseph K And The Cost Of Living is an uneven avant-garde take on Franz Kafka’s The Trial, shone through the lens of our current, economically and sociopolitically instable era.
Kafka’s story, published in 1925, centres on bank worker Josef K and his arrest for an undisclosed crime, leaving him to desper- ately plead his case within a system entirely rigged against him. A premise applicable to this day in the UK thanks to austerity, a wealth gap and public services on their knees: trust in systems erodes, truths and lies feel interchangeable.
Plenty, then, for NTW to sink its teeth into under new Artistic Director Lorne Campbell’s stewardship, with Emily White on adaptation duties. The ornate theatre juxtaposes the modern, al- most spartan set design of Joseph K: a strange combination of mid-century modern architecture and brutalist prison cell. Vol- unteers from the audience sit as a jury towards the back of the stage and sometimes take part in the play itself, holding things up or adding to the background noise. With the cast flanked on both sides, this adds to Jo K’s anxiety about constant scrutiny.
The play is fast-paced, high-energy and surprises at every turn: roles are swapped, settings and costumes are fluid and with lit- tle warning, scenes merge and transmute from one to the next. Spoken word gives way to movement and dance (no doubt Kel and Anthony Matsena’s influence as co-directors); microphones around the stage are used playfully. Along with an always-inter- esting electronic score and dynamic lighting, the atmosphere is disorienting, oppressive and intense.
LIVE REVIEW
PIXIES Cardiff International Arena Sat 18 Mar
The Pixies may be 36 years into their career, but there is no doubt they still know how to put on a show. Saturday night at Cardiff International Arena exemplified this, in a jam-packed setlist that got everyone’s money’s worth. Entering the venue really exposes the variety of Pixies fans – groups of teens, families, and the expected older crew, all uniformed in merchandise and eagerly awaiting the Boston noir-rockers.
Manchester’s Slow Readers Club live up to their name in regards to their supporting performance tonight – decent enough, if midpaced and static, with vocals reminiscent of Editors’ Tom Smith. By 8.30pm, though, the headliners are in place, and open with their classic Wave Of Mutilation, the crowd wasting no time in singing along to that pivotal Doolittle number.
The basic stage setup, with only a few large backlights, serves as a powerful reminder that for some bands, the music is more than enough. Not long into their set, frontman Black Francis bursts into Monkey Gone To Heaven, leaving the room captivated as, hypnotic and cult-like, he screams “If the devil is six, then god is seven!”
Further into the performance, the crowd become stiller during songs from latest album Doggerel (which amounts to a big chunk of the set) and other newer material. Nonetheless, it remains enjoyable thanks partly to the sheer vocal range of Black Francis, whose voice has barely aged over the years. Bassist Paz Lenchantin offers intricate, melodic rhythm lines and a lively energy to the performance, jumping up and down on stage and a joy to watch.
Late on in the set, on hearing Where Is My Mind? (something on my bucket list ever since I first heard it in Fight Club), its ethereal riffs and haunting “whoooo”s reverberated throughout the crowd, leaving me with goosebumps and admittedly a few tears in my eyes. Finishing with a cover of Neil Young’s Winterlong, the performance ends after 36 songs and almost no words at all in between them. It would have been nice to have some spoken engagement from the band, considering how long- awaited the night had been for some, but the Pixies’ efficient charge through a setlist satisfied all present.
INDIA MUNDAY 61
Not everything works as well as it should. Some of the side char- acters feel a little lost; the emotionality of Jo K – sometimes K – can also be quite one-note depending on the performer, and not all of the humour lands. It sometimes feels like its themes, including trial by social media and gender and racial optics, are being beaten into you repeatedly, yet not explored with enough depth to uncover new ground. And the cost of living crisis itself is only window dressing, with sprinkled references to unpaid utility bills and protests.
Its rambunctiousness, however, is still a refreshing departure from the norm that is static and stuffy mainstream theatre. This is a reinvented company unafraid of taking risks and engaging with its audience on issues that affect their everyday lives, something to always be applauded.
HANNAH COLLINS
Simon Ayre
Kirsten Mcternan
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