Hypnotic musical acts

Press, 5 August 1980, Page 6

Hypnotic musical acts

By

HEATH LEES

The trouble with music, .’as political artists, have found to their cost, is that it tends to be enjoyable. - When the composer Kurt Weill collaborated with Bertolt Brecht in the late 1920 s the object was to produce.\an Epic Theatre which would move audiences to awareness and to political action. The experiment was short-lived; .though, since it transpired that audiences found the music pleasant, even tuneful? <

Hie low-life frenzy of “The ' Threepenny Opera,” ■ for moved; few men. to the barricades, yet everyone knows the,delicious swing of v?Mack the Knife.” Themusic /is oftenfsb agreeable, that the message cannot get through. Yet\; the. collaboration' produced some fascinating works, including “The Rise

and Fall of the City, of Mahagonny,” and the marvellous final venture entitled “Happy End.” Last evening the the Court Theatre Darien Takle opened a season of performances that feature Songs from these works, and include a sidelong glance at some - of the more sentimental American nightclub numbers. Miss Takle has a fragile crispness about her singing that beautifully catches the wistful atmosphere of many of the songs, though ; sometimes one wished for a fullerbodied, resilience to life than her versatile but willowy voice betokened . . /

But /.the diction . and the acting are of .such high quality, that the words and the music,. .the projection- of decadence; and foreboding, come across with a fe-

discovered meaning and a new energy. In a week that sees a tragedy like that of Bologna, the mindless, escalating violence of “Mack the Knife” is given a new significance in its slow, gloating treatment. The electric change in atmosphere from “Surabaya Johnny” where the brittle mask nearly slips completely, to the enforced strut , of “As You Make- Your Bed" is a moment among many. The words of the songs are delicious. The music is (often hypnotic and yet beguiling. But the strongest element of all is the performance that Miss Takle offers. Each song becomes a one-act play, and every line a statement. In all, the show last for little over an hour but seems .to embrace—indeed to create—a whole world.