Chess (Tour – Northampton)

Now director Craig Revel Horwood is taking a new production out on the road, working with long-time musical collaborator Sarah Travis. Between them, the pair have successfully used the technique of actor-musicians to stage versions of Sweeney Todd and Mack and Mabel, among others.

Unfortunately, the technique falls down with this particular show. Around half-a-dozen or so central characters, a sizeable chorus of fabulously dressed chess ‘pieces’ double up as the on-stage orchestra, commenting on and driving the action that unfolds on a central checkerboard area.

The designs (Christopher Woods) are extraordinary, the visual effect dramatic and powerful. But Horwood’s focus on how the thing looks has the side-effect of diminishing any drama or emotion to be found in the playing. And having a Russian grandmaster tinkle out a musical counterpoint on a glockenspiel is just faintly ridiculous.

There are also impossibly huge demands made of the performers. While some of the singing voices on stage are truly terrific, both in quality and range, there’s a trade-off against the acting, which can be patchy. Exceptions to this are Shona White, a real musical star who somehow makes sense of the difficult and dysfunctional character Florence, and James Graeme and Steve Varnom, both relishing their second-string roles with cameos of style as well as substance.

There are sound problems too, and when so much of the narrative is reliant on Rice’s clever and complex lyrics, it’s a major failing not to be able to hear them properly.

The production is epic, overblown and slightly bewildering. There’s no denying the money and effort spent on putting it all on stage. But in the end, it’s full of sound and fury while, for me, it signified nothing very much.

– Michael Davies