Theatre: Nosferatu by the Proper Job Theatre Company at the Carriageworks, Leeds

[strange_complex]

This I saw on Friday, in company with the lovely ms_siobhan and planet_andy. It takes its cue from the 1922 film Nosferatu, but it certainly isn't a straightforward adaptation of it. Rather, it is set entirely on board the ship carrying Count Orlok from Varna to Whitby, and follows the experiences of three surviving ship-mates (one fervently religious, one

Comments

[ms_siobhan]

I thought Count Orlok did appear on the top of the ship at one point with his horrible extra long fingers...couldn't see his face though. I espeically liked the face that appeared in the door, the blood that appeared to drip down the cabin doors and his shadow or rather Orlok's shadow flitting across the stage.

I didn't care much for the superstitious man's character and am still somewhat confused as to how fervent religious man (who was carrying a cross btw and not a crucifix as it was referred to)was persuaded by superstitious man to kill the captain...was it something to do with his dead sister in the basement?

[strange_complex]

Yes, he might have done - or it might have been a fevered vision of the captain's imagination. I wasn't sure by that stage! Good point about the drips of blood, too. I had forgotten them.

As for the superstitious and religious ship-mates, I think they just weren't that well characterised, basically. That is the problem with this kind of avant-garde theatre, for me - it goes so heavy on the symbols and motifs that it loses sight of the basic human psychology which really underpins a successful story.