'Battlefield' Young Vic ***

What some people may not realise that theatre productions can last longer than the traditional two and a half hours, yet if a re-working of a nine hour show into the space of sixty minutes piece really affects the flow and pace of it? The Young Vic’s production of Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne’s , ‘Battlefield’ which is originally based on Jean-Claude Carriere’s, ‘The Mahabharata’ was an adequately depicted story of waring families and a voyage of discovery and the interpretations were watchable.

‘Battlefield’ is set in the Sanckrit myth of the Kurukshitra War which apparently lasted for eighteen days as well as conveying the fact that millions of people’s butchered bodies have been left all over the floor. Firstly, we are given a brief but comprehensive analysis of the homicide and we are soon familiarised with Yudishitra tries to track down the ancient king, Dritarshatra and in addition to this, he takes advice from the queen, Kunti on his whereabouts as he does with many other philosophers. To instil the entangled old family saga reachable to us the audience is the fables and chronicles of their eradicated kings who are desperate to choose the direction of the light. Over the course of the performance, we can see how each character interconnects with one another even though there’s a somewhat dislike due to the fact that there’s a rivalry between the quarrelling families. In addition to this, there’s a pleasing amount of still moments present here which is helped with Toshi Tsuchitos’ drumming as well as conveying the voyage of trying to not be murdered in the hellish environment where a large proportion of people have been exterminated.  There’s a reasonable amount of amusing aspects where the materials are being used to represent humans, animals and others; such as where a scrunched up cloth is pirouetted into a baby and a snake to portray a biblical reference. Moreover, another is where one character moulds into a worm where it is trying to cross the road without being stepped on, yet even a miniscule animal may not be able to escape the battleground. At the finale, it appears that Yudishatra has been able to find the old ancient king and it feels that the quest has been fruitful but the warzone atmosphere may not help his new rule regime. Brook and Estiene’s narrative is reasonable as it is quite challenging and difficult to so where the characters are going and I couldn’t focus well on how the bickering families are coming across and this should have been an integral element to the whole plot.  

One found the performances by the company of, ‘Battlefield’ to be passable as the four performers do well to encapsulate the feeling of a world which is full of calamity and destruction. Jared McNeill is agreeable as, Yudishitra; in particular how his journey to find the old ancient king has taken him to several different avenues in which he didn’t think he would have ended up going to nut he does do this. Sean O’Callaghan is so-so as old blind king, Dritarashatra; especially how effective he comes across as a man who has ruled for such a long time but due to his impaired vision his reign as king has ultimately come to an end but his powers of wisdom would be thoroughly welcomed by all who speak to him. Carole Kremera is acceptable as queen, Kunti; specifically how she does her ultmost best to help guide Yudishatra to search for the ancient king and her advice does work with great difficulty and her persona is slightly motherly. Ery Nzaramba is okay as the many bit-parts; for example how adaptable he is to convey all the other characters which were in the original version 30 years ago played by nearly 60 performers and this is pleasing to see as it shows the performers versatility. 

Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne’s direction is reasonable here as they have been able to capture the understanding of the a mythical war that is quite well known in many civilisations but some may not be aware of it, furthermore, the representations were conventional too but it wasn’t as brilliant as I was expecting.  With no set design but with Oria Puppo’s costume design and Phillipe Vialatte’s lighting designs were quite good here as they have tried to give us an idea if the atmosphere of the war but the all black costumes were disappointing as I would have wanted more of an idea of who was which character etc. Overall, the experience of, ‘Battlefield’ was a substandard production that could have had such more potential that it kind of displeased me as Peter Brook is world-renowned for his intriguing theatrical masterpieces.