Kneehigh’s Tristan and Yseult: A Passionate Tale Retold for a Twenty-First Century Audience

Photo: Richard Termine. Dominic Marsh (Tristan) and Hannah Vassallo (Yseult).

Although new to Boston, Great Britain’s Kneehigh Theatre Company is over thirty years old. Based in Cornwall, the company, composed of ever-changing international actors, tours widely. Their repertoire tends to showcase works drawn from mythology. Tristan and Yseult, the production currently playing at Boston’s Cutler Majestic is representative of their imagistic style, which frequently features acrobatic movement, live folk music, song, and dance. The work was adapted and directed by Emma Rice.

Kneehigh has updated the medieval romantic tale of Tristan and Yseult by adding vaudeville, musical comedy, and circus techniques. Wagner’s lush music from his 1865 opera often takes a backseat to recorded bluegrass, Latin music, jazz, Carl Off’s “Carmina Burana” and modern pieces such as Nick Cave’s “Sweetheart Come,” as well as Stu Barker’s compositions written especially for the show, played by the company’s four musicians.

The frame for this potpourri is the Club of the Unloved composed of nerdish onlookers wandering in the world of romance. During the preshow and again at intermission, they mix with the audience, sing along with the band, hand out pamphlets and balloons. Garbed in balaclavas, navy blue rain jackets and horned rimmed glasses, sometimes carrying binoculars, they clown, sing, and dance. Their spokesperson and the show’s narrator is Whitehands (Kristy Woodward), outfitted in a pale yellow dress and jacket – circa 1950s – hat and white gloves. (The versatile actress returns in the second act in a brief, but crucial role.) On occasion, the club members are joined by actors costumed as the Unloved. Because of their identical outfits, the cast of eight appears more numerous as they move about the stage and theatre.

The myth of Tristan and Yseult has many iterations although the basic story of a passionate love induced by a potion, which ends in the death of the two protagonists, is at the heart of them all. Kneehigh has cut and changed incidents to incorporate the comedy of the loveless.

Tristan (Dominique Marsh), whose name denotes sadness, is a French-speaking Breton adopted by King Mark of Cornwall (Stuart Goodwin) whom he loves and respects. Sent to Ireland to bring back a war tribute, the “girl with chestnut hair,” Yseult (Hannah Vassallo), as Mark’s bride, Tristan arrives wounded by the Irish invader Morholt whom he had killed in single combat. Yseult, unaware that he is her brother’s killer, cures him with her healing hands. Discovering Tristan slew Morholt, she turns on him, but her hatred turns to ecstasy when they lustfully drink from two huge indistinguishable bottles, one wine, the other a love philter intended for her wedding night.

Fearful that Mark will discover she is not a virgin, Yseult persuades her maid Brangian (Niall Ashdown in drag), to take her place in the King’s bed. Ashdown skillfully moves from playing the role for laughs, softens and becomes love-struck. Mark, unaware of the trick, learns of Tristan and Yseult’s betrayal only when the envious Frocin (Damon Daunno) – here a macho type instead of a deformed sorcerer – shows the king digital photos of the two lovers. Mark, a man of honor, takes no vengeance in this version.

Act one is given over to comedy and joyous young love, which reaches its pinnacle in Tristan and Yseult’s sensual aerial dance; the deeply moving second act explores the tragic aspects of the romance, ending in their deaths caused by Whitehand’s jealousy. Yseult dies to the music of Wagner’s beautiful “Liebestod.”

Bill Mitchell’s charming and ramshackle set is an imaginative director’s dream and Emma Rice takes full advantage of it, moving actors hither and thither with proficiency. The main acting area is a raised circular platform with a ramp leading to the stage proper. Up center is a multi-use pole, which, when sails hang from it, represents Tristan’s boat. At other moments, a trapeze is mounted on it, as well as ropes from which performers dangle and twist. A flight of stairs, stage left, leads to the bandstand. A bridge upstage center is used for Yseult and Tristan’s entrances and exits.

Malcolm Rippeth’s effective lighting enhanced the two different stories.

Tristan and Yseult runs at the Cutler Majestic through March 15.

Director and adapter: Emma Rice

Writers: Carl Grose and Anna Maria Murphy

Composer: Stu Barker

Designer: Bill Mitchell

Lighting designer: Malcolm Rippeth

Sound designer: Gregory Clarke

Cast

Whitehands …………… Kristy Woodward

Tristan ………………… Dominic Marsh

King Mark …………….. Stuart Goodwin

Frocin …………………. Damon Daunno

Yseult ………………….. Hannah Vassallo

Morholt/Brangian ……… Niall Ashdown

Love Spotters and Brutes.. Robert Luckay & Tom Jackson Greaves

Musicians ………………. Lizzy Westcott, Justin Radford, Pat Moran, James Gow