On Wednesady 30 July Irmante Sungailaite and Sita Thomas joined the professional theatre critics in our Cottesloe Theatre to cast their knowing eye over ...some trace of her, a new show by controversial director Katie Mitchell.

You can read what they thought of this multi-media productiob below.......

Have you imagined a perfect lover, amazing place, thrilling emotions and magical existence? Have you dreamed of fear, beautiful people and pure life? In this play Katie Mitchell brings the intimacy of relationship on stage where every single one of us fears that the story is told about everyman?

This play begins the journey into deepest corner of the most vulnerable feelings. It takes the viewer through the doors of hate, down the corridor of fear and turns right to passion, passes the obsession and stops next to consciousness. Actors creating the performance proof that theatre have no limitations and that controversial opinion about film being "canned" play can be deniable. The action on stage is instantly projected on the screen creating cinema - like atmosphere. The stage at this point is the proof of action where who ever is hesitating can see the colourful view.  The devoted crew creates a happening on stage and a story about woman and her two men. One character can be played by couple of actors so on the screen audience sees Prince Myshkin carefully having his cigarette and Ragozhin contemplating to take burning money. Probably Dostoevsky's (the play is based on his novel "Idiot") work requires much more than authentic space between performer and spectator so Cottlesoe theatre expanse was the best solution to perform "...some trace of her". The play is untraditional way of building up the character and developing the story. The longest shot of the dead woman reminds me the main characters journey in Andrei Tarkovsky's film "Nostalgia" where the actor was asked to show birth, life and death in more than 5 minutes sequence with candle.

Can you see birth, life and death in Nastasya's body? In this unique play it's not only the trace of her, it some trace of every one of us...

Irmante Sungailaite

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This is theatre with a spanner thrown into the works- or perhaps more aptly- a full blown film set thrown into the works. ‘... some trace of her' combines the mediums of theatre and film with the script inspired by Dostoevsky's ‘The Idiot'. The effect and success of this is determined by personal taste. For me it felt like going to the cinema but having the hustle and bustle of the filming process played out beneath the big screen. Director Katie Mitchell's concept seems to be inspired by Brecht- there is no fourth wall dividing the actors from the audience; rather we are behind the scenes viewing the mechanics and technicalities of the performance. This is indeed what makes the concept so interesting, but it is perhaps only the precision and phenomenal focus of the small cast that stops the production from falling into chaos. Ben Wishaw and Hattie Morahan give masterful performances which somewhat balance out the dissatisfaction of watching actors playing technicians. Expect a piece of theatre that builds up a haunting atmosphere, but that replaces compelling tension and emotional journeys with a display of the convergence of the different mediums.

Sita Thomas