Word: caste
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Jane Nichols' direction, with the undoubtedly invaluable aid of stunt choreography by Thomas Derrah, keeps the staging under control while allowing the cast to unleash the script's zaniness...
...safety net for any foul-ups: the audience is watching a play within a play. If the sound effects are off, the set tacky, the lines flubbed, the sardines late for their entrance, it can be blamed on the crazily inept production of "Nothing On," rather than the cast and crew of "Noises Off." Fortunately, HRST is more than capable of working without a net. The production, at least from the house, runs flawlessly...
...Hair, Original Cast...
...perhaps the trendiest and most threadbare gambit now popular in Europe. Some of the stage pictures are inspired, like the glassy, green, undulating * plates that suggest the forest in Siegfried, but too often the choices seem arbitrary. In addition, Kirchner's stage maneuvers are inept. Time and again the cast is left singing directly to the audience -- just like the bad old days when operas were turned into stiff pageants. Some awkward direction will be corrected next year. Bayreuth stages no new productions of Wagner's other operas during the second year of any Ring cycle, wisely using time...
...evidently classical -- warriors all wear plastic breastplates. Unfortunately they suggest Jean-Paul Gaultier's Paris more readily than ancient Athens. More striking are the costumes containing Oriental references. They make the wearers appear larger -- read fatter -- than they are, a particular pity with a fit and youthful-looking cast. The inspiration seems to have come from Issey Miyake, a master at making small figures look grand. Rosalie received her curtain-call boos in an outfit by the Japanese designer, but his magic touch turned out to be untransferable...