IN the short time since Arthouse and the new Gallery of Photography opened, it seems as though a Temple Bar house style has already begun to emerge. The bad news is that this style involves focusing time and effort in producing neo Celtic mythologies of rocks, stones, wind and water, which yell at the top of their lungs "Genuine Hibernian audio visual product."
Throwin' Shapes's version of The King of the Great Clock Tower has W.B. Yeats "to blame for its watery scenario, but that hardly exonerates the company. Yeats's poetic, page bound drama concerns the activities of a king, a queen and a poet. All are locked in a symbolistic scenario in which the two males appear to struggle for the attentions of or even for some sign of life from the female.
The story is therefore evoked through a combination of live actors, dancers, prerecorded Enyaesque music, live singing and large scale projections of both live and prerecorded film segments.
Raymond Keane, as the king, is firm with a leaning towards stridency, while Jack Walshe as the strolling poet, clad only in Chisato Yoshimi carefully toned and slashed rags, is also forceful, though more varied. Despite their intensity, neither actor hits upon a way of working comfortably with the video screen, and consequently the show remains detached, dislocated, a jumble of parts resting awkwardly together.
The production leaves most of the questions about this kind of complex collaboration unanswered, as no real imperative for wedding these various techniques together comes into focus.
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