A sinister world unfolds in gripping, forceful music theatre performance
The Wasp Factory recounts the disturbing acts of Frank Couldhame, a troubled 16 year old teenager living on a remote Scottish island. In this isolated environment, Frank has retreated into a self-invented universe of obsessions and rituals, in which he acts like a cruel God ruling over life and death. When Frank’s brother Eric escapes from a psychiatric institution, his world is in danger of collapsing and Frank is confronted with a truth that nobody could have thought possible, even not Frank himself. Combining a bleak stage design with a mix of extreme sonic structures, classical, minimalist and raw pop music, composer and director Ben Frost has succesfully transformed Iain Banks’ chilling cult novel into gripping, forceful music theatre.
dates
Sun June 22 2014 10:30 PM
Mon June 23 2014 10:30 PM
information
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English
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Duration of performance unknown (zonder pauze)
Ben Frost's music theatre production The Wasp Factory, based on Iain Banks' cult novel of the same title, has caused quite a sensation since it premiered at the Bregenzer Festspiele on 1 August last year. Moving on to the Linbury Studio Theatre of the Royal Opera House in London, the production sold out all performances.
Frost (1980) is a young Australian composer and producer who over the last ten years has built a remarkable body of work in experimental and electronic music. The Wasp Factory marked his debut as a director and the first time he had taken a text as a point of departure for a performance. His greatest challenge was to get to grips with the compulsive, sometimes gruesome narrative, but he more than succeeded in turning it into an overwhelming piece of music theatre, which seizes you by the throat from the moment the opening music starts, never letting go until it's finished.
The Wasp Factory tells the story of troubled teenager Frank Cauldhame, who lives on a remote Scottish island. In an isolated community, with no mother around, he is left to his own devices by his reclusive father. Frank has invented his own warrior cult and believes he can control the world around him with words, having made up some sinister names for various places that define and protect the borders of his territory, such as the Sacrifice Poles, the Boiling Room, the Ice Chamber and the Volt Room. The Wasp Factory is a device which he found on a dump and has rebuilt to use as a cruel instrument to predict the future.
The Wasp Factory was the first novel by the Scottish writer Iain Banks. When it was first published in 1984, it was initially greeted with some controversy, due to its gruesome depiction of violence; at the same time it was also immediately acclaimed as a work of great importance, be it from a completely unknown author. In a comprehensive poll in 1997 The Wasp Factory was voted as one of the top 100 books of the 20th century.
The 'Wasp Factory' of the title is a huge clock face encased in a glass box, salvaged from the local dump. Behind each of the 12 numerals is a trap which leads to a different ritual death (for example burning, crushing, or drowning in Frank's urine) for the wasp that Frank puts into the hole at the centre. Frank believes the death 'chosen' by the wasp predicts something about the future. The imminent return of his brother Eric, who has escaped from a mental asylum, builds up the suspense, reaching its climax when Frank makes a shocking discovery, a secret that undermines all that he believed about himself.
Writer David Pountney adapted Banks' novel for this theatre performance, a very complex task, as the book is almost completely in the interior monologue of the disturbed teenager, whereas opera as a genre is dependent on interaction and dialogue. Director and composer Ben Frost has solved this problem by having the inner thoughts of the protagonist conveyed by three singers (Lieselot de Wilde, Mariam Wallentin and Jordin Richter). Dressed in scruffy punk outfits, they sing and act on a stage filled with loose earth. Frost has created three-dimensional sonic structures which envelop the audience in extremes of volume and texture. The music is a mix of minimal music, pop and noise, whilst Mirella Weingarten’s set designs evoke a bleak, natural landscape, in their own way working towards the decisive twist in the performance.
