Anna Burnside reviews a disappointing production that has some interesting visuals.
A choir is singing clangy, atonal music. In a circle in the centre of the stage sits a collection of what looks like gnarly driftwood. A percussionist adds the occasional bang from his gong.
And so it continues for four chapters, told over an hour and 20 minutes.
The visuals change and, for the third segment The Ten Sons, are hypnotic and compelling, if a little slow. The suns, represented by swinging paper lanterns on long poles, change colour as if by magic. It’s like an ASMR video for toddlers, although with a discordant soundtrack.
Composer and librettist Huang Ruo creates a unique language for this production and Ars Nova Copenhagen do a tremendous job of navigating its disjointed bars and beats.
Director and designer Basil Twist eventually brings the driftwood to life into a giant puppet. This is handled with great skill, but once the audience has admired the artistry, there’s nothing else there.
The Edinburgh International Festival has unwittingly programmed two pieces from different ends of the stimulation spectrum back-to-back. The acrobatic Orpheus and Eurydice has so much happening on stage that the music almost fades into the background.
Not so here, where the slow and often repetitive visuals foreground the libretto. Unfortunately, this is choppy and impenetrable, with scant prompts that say nothing that’s not in the programme notes.
It was a relief to leave the mountains and seas for the concrete of Lothian Road.
Book of Mountains and Seas is part of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival and performs at the Lyceum Theatre until August 16, 2025.
Photo by Andrew Perry.
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