Drama
Take one all-male play with a large cast of Spanish conquistadors and Incan warriors. Then direct it with an entirely female cast. Depending on how you look at it, you can call that decision brave, foolhardy, or inspired.
Director Holly Race's radical concept for this play is a spectacular success. No doubt there will be fans of the play who feel that it has been stripped of its central themes; that Race has removed the masculine heart of the text and replaced it with her own ideas about feminine understanding. And maybe that's true. But the fact is that she has created, against the odds, a totally original production of the play which is dramatically successful and rich in new ideas.
A handful of Spanish troops, under the command of their general Pizarro (Lizzy Acker), invade Peru, and massacre thousands of unarmed Incas. The God-King of Peru, Atahuallpa (Naomi Hudson), is taken prisoner, but Pizarro makes a pact to set him free if an entire room can be filled with gold. During the long months that the Incas spend filling the room with their treasures, Pizarro and Atahuallpa develop a strange friendship, in the course of which Pizarro's ideas of faith are turned upside-down.
Acker's strong, central performance holds the play together in places, as some inexperienced and underpowered supporting actors struggle to muster the necessary grit to match her. Amy Jackson plays Estete, the first soldier to turn against Pizarro, with a crystal voice and an icy tone; Cliodhna McAllister finds depths of passion in the character of the priest, Valverde. It is, however, the relationship between Pizarro and Atahuallpa on which the play turns, and Hudson, although she moves, speaks and sings beautifully, never quite achieves the sort of dramatic trajectory and development that would fascinate an audience. Instead, Atahuallpa's role in the friendship too often seems merely responsive to Pizarro's changing attitudes.
Much of the pleasure in watching Royal Hunt of the Sun comes from the visual spectacle. Some bold, expressive blocking and powerful tableaux reveal a director with exceptional spatial awareness. There is never a figure out of place. The vocal work is not always of the same quality, but at the key dramatic moments the combination of spectacle, voice, and music pack a huge emotional punch.
This is a production to split audiences down the middle and leave some in tears as others rant about interfering directors. Cliché it may be, but there's only one way to find out. Go. Watch. Decide.
3rd Apr 2004