© Johan Persson RB 'Mayerling' reviews 'Mayerling' reviews Harvey in reviews Rojo in reviews recent RB reviews more Paul N reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

As posted on our Postings pages...

Harvey, Rojo, Hatley, Hewitt, Arestis, Drew and Cuthbertson in the afternoon; Watson, Galeazzi, Lamb, Loots, Jourdain, Tuckett and Morera in the evening; (Rudolf, Mary, Marie Larisch, Stephanie, Elisabeth, Franz Josef and Mitzi Caspar, respectively).

The two performances differed from each other quite markedly in terms of characterisation, but both were very good. I left feeling that I had seen a good work but not a masterpiece, and with doubts about the suitability of the medium of ballet to convey this story with full depth.

The surface plot was well presented and, with the help of a bit of homework, easy to follow: who was who, and who did what and to whom and where and with what. The work was less satisfactory in the mining department however – in digging below the surface to explore, in full breadth and depth, the motivations and reasons behind the tragic events. I longed to see more of both the dispositional and situational forces that lay behind the actions. Any uncertainty over true events and circumstances is no barrier. A lot is known to form the basis and the ballet must then fill in the missing bits to provide its own complete, coherent and consistent picture.

As far as dispositional factors go, there are many characters with complex personalities but we cannot quite see deeply enough into them to fully understand them. A problem is that when the ballet picks up the story and these characters are introduced to us, we can detect that they are disturbed but receive little information regarding the nature, degree and underlying reasons of these disturbances. We have to make guesses and accept a lot at face value. This is an uncertain starting point from which to follow the subsequent development of the characters. This is the case for Rudolf, Larisch and Elisabeth. I found myself wondering about the true regard that Rudolf and Larisch had for one another and the reasons why Larisch persisted in bringing Rudolf and Mary together. Mary herself first appears as a perfectly normal teenager. That’s clearly not the case, yet there’s no hint of her background and her already unstable and fragile mind.

Some of the situational factors fare better. We see the difficulties in Rudolf’s relationship with his mother, many of the court and political pressures and his morphine addiction. But there are still some black marks. His venereal disease and incapacity to produce a male heir remain hidden. Worst of all, we see nothing of the influences upon his childhood; for example his harsh upbringing, his growing obsession with guns and his isolation from his mother. And what do we know of the role played by Archduchess Sophie? The ballet is silent – she is a cardboard cut-out. Similarly, we need to see Mary’s childhood and adolescent experiences to understand her opening state of mind, but unfortunately do not do so.

This is all in stark contrast, for example, to Juliet, who takes us with her every step of the way, from (importantly) innocent child to the desperate moment following Romeo’s exile when she feels trapped with no way out and then on to the final tragic ending.

In Mayerling, the narrative and drama are understandably pre-eminent over the dancing (sure, there are poignant and intense pdds and solos, but it gets somewhat repetitive, there’s nothing memorable from the corps to write home about and after three hours I’m left feeling a little mal-nourished). Here, we are dealing not with fictional or fairytale characters, supernatural beings and silly plots where we can take things at face value, but with real people and real events. A high level understanding of the underlying complexities of the tragedy - including the much-missed prequel to the ballet – adds so much. Alas, the on-stage narrative falls a little short. Conversely, the essays in the programme deliver something approaching the breadth and depth required from a masterpiece.

The strength in Mayerling for me came through its (fulfilled) potential to serve as a vehicle for many strong individual performances from the cast.

In the evening performance, Edward Watson was quite outstanding, delivering in compelling fashion on all fronts. He was completely up to the job in all the pas de deux. His Rudolf gave solos that were both intensely personal to him, yet communicated his torments to us with discomfiting, almost undignified clarity – it was like looking through a wide open door straight into his core, into his personal abyss. His acting and characterisation were exemplary.
 

Edward Watson as Crown Prince Rudolf of Austro-Hungary and Iohna Loots as Princess Stephanie in MacMillan's Mayerling
© Johan Persson

For me though, the afternoon performance just shaded it. Martin Harvey was somewhat restrained, narrower and closed in his interpretation. He was less focussed on the more violent, sadistic and deranged aspects – or at least he didn’t release these with the same intensity. However, he more than made up for this in other ways. He really made the most out of his numerous relationships with the women in his life, contrasting well the differences between them. They, more than anything else, provided a much needed sketch of some of the forces at play. The pas de deux could hardly have been delivered with more intensity, brittleness and poignancy.

Harvey was undoubtedly assisted by a first rate cast of ladies. It almost goes without saying that Rojo was nigh on faultless as Mary, an impressively maladjusted teenager in her own right, leaping upon every encouragement and opportunity to indulge in and explore her passions. But more than this, she and Harvey bonded to each other fatefully well, a bond that carried them along with a life and energy all of its own, through the course of acts 2 and 3. Hatley brought a high degree of stage presence to the ballet, thoroughly alive as a scheming Larisch. She relished her pivotal role and enjoyed being a major player in some power game. She was very much a driving rather than a moderating force – witness her delight during the card scene and in her sustained plotting to bring Rudolf and Mary together. She was concerned with Rudolf, although possibly had her own interests more at heart than his. Lamb’s interpretation was considerably different: a very interesting alternative and just as commendable – she showed Larisch to be a more complex personality, with a softer caring side to accompany the plotting. Her Larisch was less extrovert, outwardly more variable and difficult to read on a single viewing. Lamb’s acting was first-class – the tiniest facial expressions and use of the eyes, particularly on the occasions when she was put in her place, were particularly memorable – I’m inclined to believe that her complex interpretation, although perhaps less immediately accessible, is closer to the mark.

The other lady from the afternoon cast that simply has to be mentioned is the Princess Stephanie of Victoria Hewitt. Unforgettable, outstanding, utterly convincing. In a highly charged pas de deux, she was terrified and subjected to deeply shocking and traumatic abuse. Not forgetting that she was concentrating on each coming few seconds of choreography, she brilliantly conveyed a sense of operating in survival mode – of making continuous decisions as to whether to adopt the flight or fight option – without any sense of calculation mind – all totally instinctive. But more than this, she was completely in character at all times, with no hint of overacting. Bearing in mind that we see Rudolf’s flirting pretty much on day one, Hewitt was distressed and distinctly ill at ease for the whole of her thoroughly unhappy time in her marriage, almost paralysed in the aftermath of that consummation of marriage.