Notes From Underground, Print Room at the Coronet
In the first show at Print Room's new home, Game of Thrones star Harry Lloyd and experimental director Gérald Garutti collaborate in an intense adaptation of Dostoyevsky's classic novel
By Bertrand Couderc
The play
The paranoia, pain and precarious mental state that shape the canonical Russian novel translate seamlessly to the stage. Lloyd and Garutti worked together in the adaptation of Dostoyevsky's text, and the result is stunning. The monologue, performed by Lloyd, explores the irreconcilable rift between the claustrophobic isolation of the underground world, where the play is set, and the world Above. The narrator, confined underground for the last 10 years, lures the audience into his captivity and suffering with the kind of intimacy that provokes anxiety and the urge to look away.
In an ingenious use of the new space at the Coronet, which is at the beginning of a lengthy five year renovation process, the stark black box studio was transformed into the atmospheric underground: a papered over crescent window, a stage carpeted with books, and a single, shabby chair fill the tiny performance space. The claustrophobic and airless setting acts to intensify Lloyd's hysteria.
Creating the show
Having worked together to great acclaim in a stripped back production of Dangerous Liaisons for the RSC, Garutti and Lloyd's second creative collaboration was created in just two months. When Lloyd contacted director to say that he was 'ready to be brave', the seed of the show was born. Garutti explains how Lloyd wrote the first draft of the adaptation and the two spend 'the next ten days editing, rewriting, structuring together'. This rare intimacy in the creative process is reflected in the tautness of the script and the balance and pitch of the performance.
Harry Lloyd
Along with roles in BBC dramas, including Doctor Who, Harry Lloyd is perhaps most know for his role as Viserys Targaryen in Game of Thrones. But the old Etonian is also a direct descendant of Charles Dickens. He's impressed on stage, Playing Ferdinand in the Young Vic's 2011 production of Duchess of Malfi. The Guardian described how Lloyd captured his character's "decline into wolf-impersonating insanity with a chilling quietude and avoidance of rant.". This skill comes into its own in his portrayal of Dostoyevsky's unhinged narrator.
Gérald Garutti
The esteemed and experimental French director is as comfortable working in English as his native tongue. As artistic director of French English theatre company C(h)fractures he's built a formidable reputation at the helm of fifteen shows at the top theatres across France, Garutti has also directed for the RSC, and translated plays by Tom Stoppard and David Hare.
The paranoia, pain and precarious mental state that shape the canonical Russian novel translate seamlessly to the stage. Lloyd and Garutti worked together in the adaptation of Dostoyevsky's text, and the result is stunning. The monologue, performed by Lloyd, explores the irreconcilable rift between the claustrophobic isolation of the underground world, where the play is set, and the world Above. The narrator, confined underground for the last 10 years, lures the audience into his captivity and suffering with the kind of intimacy that provokes anxiety and the urge to look away.
In an ingenious use of the new space at the Coronet, which is at the beginning of a lengthy five year renovation process, the stark black box studio was transformed into the atmospheric underground: a papered over crescent window, a stage carpeted with books, and a single, shabby chair fill the tiny performance space. The claustrophobic and airless setting acts to intensify Lloyd's hysteria.
Creating the show
Having worked together to great acclaim in a stripped back production of Dangerous Liaisons for the RSC, Garutti and Lloyd's second creative collaboration was created in just two months. When Lloyd contacted director to say that he was 'ready to be brave', the seed of the show was born. Garutti explains how Lloyd wrote the first draft of the adaptation and the two spend 'the next ten days editing, rewriting, structuring together'. This rare intimacy in the creative process is reflected in the tautness of the script and the balance and pitch of the performance.
Harry Lloyd
Along with roles in BBC dramas, including Doctor Who, Harry Lloyd is perhaps most know for his role as Viserys Targaryen in Game of Thrones. But the old Etonian is also a direct descendant of Charles Dickens. He's impressed on stage, Playing Ferdinand in the Young Vic's 2011 production of Duchess of Malfi. The Guardian described how Lloyd captured his character's "decline into wolf-impersonating insanity with a chilling quietude and avoidance of rant.". This skill comes into its own in his portrayal of Dostoyevsky's unhinged narrator.
Gérald Garutti
The esteemed and experimental French director is as comfortable working in English as his native tongue. As artistic director of French English theatre company C(h)fractures he's built a formidable reputation at the helm of fifteen shows at the top theatres across France, Garutti has also directed for the RSC, and translated plays by Tom Stoppard and David Hare.
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| What | Notes From Underground, Print Room at the Coronet |
| Where | The Coronet Theatre, Print Room, 103 Notting Hill Gate, London, W11 3LB | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Notting Hill Gate (underground) |
| When |
06 Oct 14 – 01 Nov 14, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM |
| Price | £17-£25 |
| Website | Click here to book via the Print Room |