SARRASINE
Drill Hall Arts Centre, London WC1
Opened 26 June, 1991

It is simply impossible even to begin to detail the wealth of all aspects of this production in a re-review of such brevity: Neil Bartlett has fashioned a work which ravishes the eye, ear, heart and mind. Ostensibly re-telling Balzac's tale of a young man's doomed obsession with a castrato whom he believes to be a woman, it comments upon love, gender, power and its own theatricality in a heady and swirling blend that can leave none but a concussed stoat uncaptivated. The remarkable Bette Bourne excels amongst a universally gifted company by his ability to hold an audience spellbound merely by standing there. Sarrasine's return demands attention: it demands to be seen. Do so immediately.

Written for City Limits magazine.

Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.

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