La Musica, Young Vic ***

The Maria, in my short experience, has always provided very alternative theatrical pieces and Jeff James' production of Margarite Dumas' play about a couple meeting up after their divorce is no different. La Musica is a very stereotypically French play. Even Barbara Bray's translation keeps the references and the contemplative tone. The first half sees Emily Barclay and Sam Troughton facing a window away from the audience with cameras capturing the smallest facial expression. This move is less grating than the video usage in Measure for Measure on the main stage and gives the audience a meaningful insight into these people's lives with a cinematic quality. The second sees the action relocated to an in the round setup with the audience moving to both sit and stand whilst the two actors sharing similar sentiments in a more dynamic way. However, at times the repetition bores and despite Ultz's extraordinary design Bray's translation of Dumas' play just isn't interesting enough. Barclay and Troughton try to breathe life into the text with a powerful and complex relationship which is wonderfully and fascinatingly staged by Jeff James yet I just couldn't get over the plodding and static text which disappoints, in spite of the first rate production values.