What’s in a name? Quite a lot, if you’re the first named character in the title of a play. Particularly when almost every other legend written about you has you named second, or not at all. This is the plight of Isolde, an Irish princess, star of many stories, but most notably Wagner’s influential opera Tristan und Isolde. Her legend is centuries old, one of the most famous involving a love potion – and now, Sport for Jove brings it to the beloved basement stage at the Old Fitz Theatre in the form of a play written (and crucially, named Isolde and Tristan) by German playwright Esther Vilar, and translated by Udo Borgert and Laura Ginters.
The original legend features Tristan, a prince of Cornwall, and Isolde, the princess of Ireland, whose countries are at war. After Tristan defeats the Irish giant Morholt (the Irish King’s brother-in-law) he is tasked with traveling to Ireland to bring Isolde back to marry his uncle, the King of Cornwall. However on the journey, Tristan and Isolde fall madly into forbidden love, thanks to a love potion. Deception, punishment, and death ensue.
Vilar’s play not only switches the names, but also some of the details, and turns the legend from a sweeping and dramatic warning against being “consumed” by love into something pointier, and more complex.
It’s certainly not your regular medieval romance, or even your regular opera… clever, biting, and appropriately eerie.
Damien Ryan (Artistic Director of Sport for Jove) directs this production, setting it upon a huge, shiny black set (designed by Tom Bannerman) that gives the suggestion of a ship. Right in the centre, an imposing silver sword hangs from the ship’s mast. Embedded into the set is an upright piano (also shining black), played live by Justin Leong from the moment you walk into the space. Extracts from Wagner sung by Octavia Barron Martin open the play, and punctuate the more emotionally heightened points, without any of the pomp and circumstance of larger-scale operas to distract from the power of her voice.
Emma Wright plays the cunning Isolde alongside Tom Wilson’s Tristan, and their dance of seduction is expertly choreographed. Vilar’s writing is dark, but not without its moments of lightness and humour. This humour, and the impossibility of Isolde and Tristan’s love, comes to the fore when Sean O’Shea boards the ship as King Marke. O’Shea plays the King as a doddering fool with a mean streak simmering underneath, bringing the story to a satisfyingly gruesome end.
It’s certainly not your regular medieval romance, or even your regular opera. Set against a blackened void, all of the colour is focussed in Bernadette Ryan’s costumes, who dresses the Irish princess in the greens and golds of her homeland, and later in nudes and creamy whites. The two men in the play, the King of Cornwall and Tristan, his nephew, never venture further than dark navy and bright white – and this inky colour palette starkly contrasts the warmth of their skin when the characters start to entangle themselves in one another.
If you’ve never experienced the high drama of an opera (or you have, and you’ve found it uncomfortable) this production is a great window for approaching Isolde’s legend in a different way. It’s clever, biting, and appropriately eerie – and also a great starting point to dip your toes into Wagner’s music (of which, Tristan und Isolde was an incredibly influential work in 19th century music, particularly for its use of dissonance and strange harmonies). But aside from all of that, it’s yet another exciting, ambitious production brought to Sydney audiences by the new team running the show at the Old Fitz. Go soak up the drama.
Isolde & Tristan is playing until June 1, 2024. Tickets start at $35+bf and you can snap them up over here. Sitting below Time Out Sydney’s favourite pub in Woolloomooloo, the Fitz is Australia’s last remaining pub theatre – so really, it’d be rude not to grab a comforting pre-show meal and a post-show debrief over a glass of something.
Note: Between May 21–31, you can catch a double bill, with Lally Katz's black comedy The Eisteddfod playing after the cast of Isolde & Tristan take their final bows. (Booking a ticket to both a paired Mainstage and Late Night show will automatically apply a 20 per cent discount to your Late Night ticket at checkout.)
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