Tess

Last night, I finally got to see Tess.  I was supposed to see it at the Leeds Playhouse on 31 May 2025, but the show was cancelled at the last minute owing to staff illness. I was sorry to learn of that illness and hope that the person(s) affected made a full recovery.  I managed to get a ticket for a performance at the Home, a new arts complex just off Whitworth Street in Manchester.  It was my first opportunity to visit that venue, and I liked that arts complex a lot.

Ockham's Razor, the company that stages Tess, introduced themselves as "a contemporary circus company" on the home page of their website. They describe Tess as weaving "together acrobatics, aerial, physical theatre, spoken word and an inventive, evocative set to conjure Hardy’s world."  I agree with that. The was a lot of dance but it was not a ballet.  There was a spoken narrative, but it was not a play.  There were also a lot of acrobatics, precarious balancing on planks of wood and feats of amazing strength.  At one point, a single performer bore the weight of three others on her shoulders.  The women seemed as strong as the men, lifting the men as easily as the men had lifted them.  The performers shaped their bodies into all sorts of forms, even resembling a horse and cart at one point.

Although contemporary circus has much in common with dance and drama, it is best considered as an art form in its own right. I have seen only one other performance which I can compare with Tess.   That was Citrus Arts'Savage Hart in the grounds of Oakwell Hall in Birstall, which I reviewed in  Citrus Arts' Savage Hart on 23 July 2017.  Although contemporary circus is a separate art form, it tells a story through dance, mime and movement just like ballet. Indeed, one of the performers in Savage Hart was Krystal Lowe who had been a dancer with Ballet Cymru.  In fact, Darius James and Amy  Doughty of Ballet Cymru have collaborated with Citrus Arts and incorporated circus into their productions of Cinderella and The Light Princess. 

Tess followed Hardy's novel pretty faithfully.   For those who have not read it, a digital copy of Tess of the D'Urbervilles can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg's site.  There is also a good summary in Wikipedia.  The phases of Tess's life in the novel - "The Maiden", "Maiden No More", "The Rally"et cetera - were flashed onto the backdrop together with the occasional quotation.  Planks of wood were arranged to create scenes such as the dairy in "The Rally"and Stonehenge and, chillingly, the gallows of Wintoncester gaol in "Fulfilment".  

Telling a story which once appeared in a 3-volume novel with 7 performers must have been a challenge for the directors, Alex Harvey and Charlotte Mooney and the producers, Alison King and Carina Simões. The role of Tess was divided between the narrator, Lila Naruse, and Anna Critchlow, who danced, mimed and otherwise represented Tess on stage.  There were powerful performances by Joshua Fraser as Alec D'Urberville (Tess's seducer) and Nat Whittingham as Angel (her husband).  Lauren Jamieson, Victoria Skillen and Leah Wallings played several parts in the show.  They raised a laugh from the audience with their plaintive sigh to attract Angel Clare's attention.  One of the strengths of the show was its score, an amalgam of several musical genres by composer and sound designer Holly Khan.  Choreographer Nathan Johnston interpreted that music imaginatively and spectacularly.   Another strength was Tina Bicât's designs combined with Aideen Malone's lighting and Daniel Denton's projections.

The audience rewarded the performers with a standing ovation.   I have noticed recently that Mancunian audiences are increasingly inclined to rise to their feet for just about anything, but on this occasion, I think it was justified.  For many, it would have been their first experience of contemporary circus, and there were plenty of spectacular acrobatics and aerial displays to impress them.

Finally, I should say a word about Ockham or Occam's Razor, from which the company that staged Tess appears to take its name.  It is a logical concept with applications in mathematics, natural science and philosophy.  The way it was taught to me is that the best way to solve a problem is to reduce it to the minimum number of variables.   It is attributed to the 14th-century English friar, William of Ockham. For the sake of completeness, Ockham is a village in Surrey.   There is a good introduction to the concept on The New Scientist's website by Chris Sims.