Previously, Grzegorz Bral’s avant-garde group amused the Battersea audience with its Polish-Scottish play Return to the Voice, in which the band recreates and reinterprets old Gaelic songs. A few years ago Song of the Goat Theatre presented a musical Macbeth and their already legendary Songs of Lear play, both of which were appreciated at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2012 and awarded with Fringe First and Herald Archangel prizes. Each show gathered crowds and received standing ovations. The British press was also very generous with their compliments for the artists.
If this review was a song, it would be a hallelujah of gratitude – one of The Herald’s enchanted reviewers wrote.
Matt Truman of The List added:
This is essence of Lear, desiccated and condensed; sensed rather than watched and absorbed until it hasn’t just got under your skin, but right into your bone marrow. For the half hour that followed, I was static electricity, too knock-kneed to stand. It is a full-body detox; catharsis pure and simple and transcendent.
The play shows the world of energy and rhythms which govern the Shakespearean drama. The creators of this touching musical show chose key scenes from King Lear, which served as the inspiration for the story – told with gestures, words and music. Each song is the starting point for another “dramatic poem”; music turns into characters, connections and happenings. The shows are coproduced by the Polish Cultural Institute in London and supported by Arts Council England.