Pictures From An Exhibition

Walking into the Young Vic I wasn't quite sure what to expect of "Pictures From An Exhibition". What Daniel Kramer puts on-stage is a whirlwind of gritty imagery, a panoply of gratuitous nudity and cavorting devils. That it never truly amounts to much is a little disappointing but there isn't a dull moment and the scattergun portrayal of Mussorgsky has its moments if not a total cohesion.

As someone who only vaguely knows the background to Mussorgsky and the Five, the abstract concepts are quite hard to follow. The smashed egg motif suggested to me some sort of immortal Koschei vibe, but what relevance that had to the composer eludes me. There are plenty of neat visuals, vodka coming out of baby bottles, which in turn are used as phalluses, but beyond their nightmarish feel they don't amount to much. Things aren't helped by the overly elliptical script, well delivered by Edward Hogg in the title role but less well by most of the rest of the cast. The choreography is constantly engaging, if not always entirely original, but a couple of the more static scenes such as one at a dinner table jarr with the flow of the piece. Much credit must go to the designs. The action is surrounded by enormous doors which are a triumph of clever design and the slick, evocative lighting grabs the eye. The costumes occasionally border on the unintentionally hilarious but as a whole they looked great.

The cast, led by Hogg, throw themselves at everything with great aplomb. Michela Meazza makes for a wonderfully ethereal presence as the mother and Carl Joseph is simply terrific at the piano. The consistency at the dancing does not entirely extent to the acting however. Whilst both Hogg and Joseph are compelling, the rest seldom make you believe it whatever character they are playing, Kath Duggan in particular has little success.

I can't help but feel that some will love this; some will hate it and plenty with be impressed but unmoved. It has powerful elements, great use is made of the titular score (I loved the techno-remix) and the dance has some really thrilling sections, but as a total work I felt like I had learnt little either about Mussorgsky or anything else. The Young Vic wasn't nearly full at the performance I attended which is real pity as despite the mixed results there is much to admire in this collaboration. This wasn't so much style triumphing over substance so much as a show with lots of depth beneath the surface just crying out to be understood.