Camden New JOurnal - Theatre: Jenufa

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The Review - THEATRE by JOHN COURTNEY O'CONNOR
Published:25 October 2007

The troubled path of love

JENUFA
Arcola Theatre

THE most recent offering in the award-winning space of the Arcola Theatre – once a textile factory – is Jenufa, by Czech writer Gabriela Preissova. It was originally entitled Her Stepdaughter and presented in Prague in 1890, when it proved a success despite critical attacks for its “brute nationalism”.
Timberlake Wertenbaker (Our Country’s Good and The Love of a Nightingale) has adapted the piece which is based on events in Moravia in the 19th century.
The story is of a religious young woman, Jenufa (Jodie McNee), who is in love with a local mill-owner`s son – Steva (Ben Mansfield), a handsome drunk – to the chagrin of her over-protective stepmother Kostelnichka (Paola Dionisotti) and the anger and rage of Latsa (Oscar Pearce), the hardworking, poor relation who craves the love of Jenufa. Nothing too original in the plot then, but with a bold narrative and canny use of movements, rhythms, music and dance a vibrant and eerie landscape is created.
Other elements are used by Russian-born director Irina Brown, including a chorus (much used in Greek tragedy) at times sounding like Irish mummers.
Turin-born Paola Dionisottis gives a strong central performance as Jenufa’s proud stepmother, who is driven to infanticide by the petty bourgeois values of the townsfolk in this close-knit emotional gas chamber of a community. The minimalist set designed by Louis Price and creative lighting add to this atmospheric and subversive production. “A long life will be Hell” proclaims Kostelnichka – indeed!
Until November 17
020 7503 1646

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