Art does not exist in a vacuum. So it is impossible to separate the stage premiere of Howard Barker’s play (performed on BBC Radio 3 in 2013) from the Print Room’s decision to cast a drama clearly set in ancient China, and in which the characters all have Chinese names, with only white actors. On press night a vocal but orderly protest outside the theatre lambasted a decision that the Print Room has tried to defend as “artistic freedom”, but which looks more like a lack of genuine and thoughtful commitment to diversity.
There is an ever-widening pool of talented actors of east Asian descent in Britain more than ready to take major roles in any play, not only those set in ancient China. The actors cast in Barker’s play serve it adequately, but more diversity might have brought a richness, depth and breath of fresh air to a piece that has a poetic elegance yet often feels over-familiar, stultifying and removed from all reality in Gerald McArthur’s way too tasteful and reverent production.
James Clyde plays Chin, a poet who has been banished by the emperor and who can no longer find the right words. He is now the owner of a bottomless well that has become a magnet for would-be suicides. Sometimes a queue forms. Lady Hasi (Stella Gonet), the unhappy wife of Lord Ghang (William Chubb), is a regular. She is desperate to end her life but unable to make the leap into oblivion.
When her husband makes a proposal to Chin, the nature of the well shifts and becomes more dangerous and alluring for its owner. After all, love can be bottomless too. But the aesthetic of the production leeches life and dynamism, leaving something that comes across as an odd mix of arch boulevard comedy and deliberately cryptic fable.
- At the Print Room at the Coronet, London, until 11 February. Box office: 020-3642 6606.
