...Some Trace of Her
On stage sprays herself vigorously with water before joining in front of one of several cameras. She moves into frame as if walking out of the rain, looking mournful and distracted, while across the stage another actor reads aloud the thoughts of his character, Myshkin. All of this translates into a seamless cinematic encounter on the screen hanging above the stage. In her adaptation of , , has attempted to distil the essence of the relationship between the three main characters: a beautiful but emotionally damaged woman (Nastasya Filippovna), a passionate and violent man (Rogozhin) and the idiot of the novel's title (Myshkin), whose foolishness relates more to his good intentions rather than to any lack of intelligence. Other characters from the book appear in the play, but the focus is on this trio who are bound together, both by passion and by the idea of whether they can redeem or be redeemed.
Mitchell returns to the method she developed for her of , both presenting beautiful images and sounds which crystallise moments in the drama, but also showing how these elements fit together. When watching this play you are not expected to suspend your disbelief, instead you are made acutely aware of the precariousness of what you are seeing. Have the actors pulled it off - does the scene fit together? In the case of ...Some Trace of Her, sometimes it does and the effect is powerful, but sometimes it doesn't, and that is a problem. Virginia Woolf isn't an author known for her humour, but she can be very funny, and the adaptation of The Waves incorporated her astringent wit so that it felt quite natural to be laughing at some elements of the production. I watched the intricacies of a dinner party being created and laughed at the sheer complexity, but my reaction came out of delight at the company's inventiveness and audacity. When I had the urge to laugh at Myshkin, bobbing away on a train seat, completely out of time with the glass on the ledge beside him, it felt like I was being taken away from the action rather than involved in it. For this performance style to work it has to be stripped of its most absurd elements or embrace them so that the humour feels intentional.
There were moments when I was convinced, when the magic worked. The actors are very good, in particular Ben Whishaw, who catches Myshkin's vulnerability and steeliness. Mitchell has mentioned the black and white photographs of as an inspiration for the look of the film footage, and the images sometimes are very arresting. The scene where Nastasya Filippovna burns the money that Rogozhin has given her is full of excitement and intensity, as is the episode of Myshkin's epileptic fit when he smashes a vase, seen spinning overhead on the screen, alongside his shaking hand. It's a challenge, however, for the actors to both be giving a performance and to be framing and filming the scenes. I found myself asking the question whether this resulted in something interesting or if the complexity itself had become the point. ...Some Trace of Her is intriguing, but despite the work that has obviously been put into it remains - if not quite earth-bound - obstinately low-flying.
You can watch Mark Kermode's feature on the production here, as well as extra footage from his interview with Katie Mitchell.
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