Tony Tanner’s Charlatan

Assembly
9-30 August, 17.30

Sergei Diaghilev, Russian, ballet stager, art lover, impresario, founder of  the Ballets Russes, lover of Nijinsky and others, feared and respected in equal measure. A man of many contradictions, his journey from 1890 Selichi, travelling the world with his company (think The Red Shoes), to death in Venice. Along the way he encounters many of the movers and shakers of the age  – as do we in this one-man play.

Tony Tanner, British, choreographer, impresario, Tony-nominated (for Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), author, director and talented performer.

The actor (Tanner) is excellent. The play (Tanner), quite absorbing though I suspect for those who know the subject, it reveals nothing especially new. The style (director Tanner) is conventional and straight-forward. Tanner’s Diaghilev is erudite, waspish and captivating. His relationship with Nijinsky, is one of the most interesting stories to be told. What part did Diaghilev play in the his descent into madness? That theme could have been developed more, at the expense of some of his other encounters.