Insanity, they say, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.
asserted
they → say → outcome
Someone should tell composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and his co-author and prime lyricist Alain Boublil.
asserted
Someone → tell → Schönberg
The French duo has spent three decades, with many different creative teams, trying to reshape their 1996 pudding Martin Guerre into something that will stand comparison with their operatic juggernauts Les Miserables and Miss Saigon.
asserted
that → spend → juggernauts
The historic story of a 16th century French peasant who returns to his wife after years away but is then suspected of being an imposter has inspired many fictional retellings, including three musicals.
asserted
who → return → musicals
The Schönberg/Boublil version won an Olivier Award in 1997 despite being constantly rehashed during its original run.
asserted
version → win → run
It’s been revised and rewritten several times since.
asserted
It → revise → ?
The latest iteration is a pared down, 95-minute, in-the-round staging developed and directed by Matthew Warchus.
asserted
iteration → par → Warchus
It’s been squeezed in before his annual Christmas Carol, towards the tail end of his 11 estimable years in charge of the Old Vic.
asserted
It → squeeze → Vic
It’s certainly not ponderous, as I vaguely remember the troubled, stop-start 1996 West End premiere to have been.
asserted
premiere → ’ → start
Indeed, it plays out like a pacy, screamy folk-horror, but one that takes itself far too seriously.
asserted
that → play → itself
Everyone wears black, and French rusticity is implied by northern English accents.
asserted
rusticity → wear → accents
Here, characters are forever heaving their hearts into their throats and yowling about God, witchcraft, love or jealousy at their interlocutors or the audience.
asserted
characters → heave → interlocutors
But “overwrought” doesn’t begin to describe it.
asserted
overwrought → begin → it
The largely through-sung score is driven by plangent strings, with a recurring upstart penny whistle and what I think is a wistful harmonium.
asserted
I → sing → what
Phrases flower, fade and recur as scenes sprint forward.
asserted
scenes → flower → ?
Some of the set numbers are very fine, particularly Someday and Live With Somebody You Love.
asserted
You → live → Somebody
But too many feel like sketchy placeholders, there to move the story on.
asserted
many → feel → story
New songs have been written, some old ones possibly renamed, and three English-speaking lyricists are credited.
uncertain
lyricists → write → ?
The list of musical numbers bears very little resemblance to that of any previous version.
asserted
list → bear → version
Though simple, the plot weaves together big themes.
asserted
plot → weave → themes
The teenage marriage of Martin and Bertrande is supposed to cement the prosperity of their farming families but their childlessness coincides with a punishing drought.
asserted
childlessness → suppose → drought
Witchcraft is presumed.
asserted
Witchcraft → presume → ?
Martin runs off to war to become a man: Bertrande is left to endure her accusing neighbours and her rejected suitor Guillaume (Barney Wilkinson).
asserted
Bertrande → run → neighbours
Seven years later Martin (Shane O’Riordan) reappears and bingo!
asserted
Martin → reappear → ?
Bertrande gives birth, the rain comes, and everyone is happy.
asserted
everyone → give → birth
Until doubt arises.
asserted
doubt → arise → ?
Looming over it all is the question of whether any of us can truly know another.
asserted
any → loom → another
Unfortunately, everything here is a bit too obvious or on-the-nose, from the Traitors cloaks and chalk-smeared faces of the beginning to the flag-waving war flashbacks and the deployment of village idiot Benoit (Colin Ryan) and his doll-bride Louison for light relief.
asserted
everything → smear → relief
Warchus’s direction, and Rob Howell’s basic design of a circle of benches strewn with red chaff, are succinct and effective.
asserted
direction → strew → chaff
But my god it’s over the top.
asserted
it → ’ → top
Everyone here sings with a tremulous, volcanic passion, but on the bus home I realised I was humming the signature number “Martin Guerre” to the “Go Compare” ad jingle.
asserted
I → sing → jingle
Critics have been asked not to reveal the ending, which is okay, as there isn’t one at the moment, just a series of false climaxes then a slow withdrawal from the stage.
asserted
which → ask → stage
Perhaps the story is itself the problem: the very mystery that makes the real-life tale of Martin Guerre so tantalising doesn’t lend itself to an easily resolved narrative.
asserted
tale → make → narrative
The Aporia
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