Four people travel into the wilderness for a 40-day retreat. Through the heat and dust of the journey they think they see a shadowy fifth behind them. A grasping, greedy merchant believes a young man from Galilee has saved him from death. A boy in a cave throws his clothes to the angels and starves himself to death. Is he mad or holy? Is his death a sign or a betrayal?
The desert throws up many mirages and a familiar biblical story takes on many facets in Jim Crace's novel, adapted here for the stage by Birmingham Rep's literary manager, Ben Payne. But despite the inventiveness of Bill Alexander's promenade production, this remains a rather literary evening in which the intensity of the book translates into mere ponderousness on stage.
There is too much signposting and not enough subtlety, so what seems ambiguous in the novel is obvious in performance, and the ironies and oppositional tensions feel creakily contrived. Right from the start you know that in seeking God the pilgrims will find the Devil, that they are prepared to give up everything only because of a secret need, and that good can come from bad, miracles from the mundane.
A lighter touch, more humour and considerably less dry ice would help leaven a long evening burdened by self-importance as it examines the unreliability of testimony and the nature of faith. As it is, that task is left entirely to the actors, who play it to the hilt as a bunch of all-too-human nutters, self-deceivers, saints and wise men, all chasing their own shadows and dreams in the sand dunes.
Till May 20. Box office: 0121-236 4455
***** Unmissable **** Recommended *** Enjoyable ** Mediocre * Terrible
