In choosing the one-hander Novecento, McBrinn has given herself a deceptively difficult piece. The Donmar Trafalgar season aims to showcase the talents of graduates of the Donmar Warehouse’s Resident Assistant Director scheme. Hugely expressive in voice and facial features, Bonnar draws us into the story, teasing out the humour in Baricco’s words and making the most of lines like “when you don’t know what it is, it’s jazz”. For an hour and a half Bonnar is alone on stage as he relates the strange and mystical story of musician Novecento, who was born on a cruise liner and died on a cruise liner, playing sublime jazz piano during the pre-war years in between.įor the most part, Bonnar is the narrator, a trumpet player who worked for years on the same transatlantic ship as Novecento, playing with him, befriending him and witnessing his unusual life first-hand. His play Novecento is a narrated story rich in imagery that could just as easily be read on the page as seen on stage.īut for this production at Trafalgar Studios under the Donmar Trafalgar banner, director Róisín McBrinn and actor Mark Bonnar have done their very best to animate Baricco’s words to the hilt. It is obvious that Italian writer Alessandro Baricco is a novelist.
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