We Will Hear the Angels review – five characters in search of connection
Scottish theatre company Magnetic North reached their 25th anniversary last year. Over the past quarter-century, they have collaborated with a range of artists working in various media to create plays, music theatre, installations, films and online events. Almost all these elements are present in the hour-long We Will Hear the Angels, written for the anniversary by Nicholas Bone (also a co-director and performer).
In the former warehouse space, with its bare brick walls and metal girders and columns, the audience sits on three sides of the playing area. Dotted around this are five desks or tables; on each, a different set of objects; beside each, a musical instrument (guitars, violin, cello, small percussion). Sometimes images or text are projected on to a bare brick wall behind them (designed by Marisa Zanotti, also a co-director).
At first, the five actor-musicians crisscross the space like strangers in a crowd. They settle, each isolated, at the tables. One (Marie-Gabrielle Koumenda) acts as a guiding spirit, moving between the other four, silently eliciting from each their own tale of unrequited love, rejection, and betrayal, delivered through words and movement. Two accounts are based on characters in Katherine Mansfield short stories; two on characters from Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya (the source of the quote that forms the title). Shorn of their context, though, the narratives lack depth and texture (although performed with conviction by Bone, Apphia Campbell, Caitlin Forbes and Greg Sinclair).
Having established isolation, the piece moves towards connection. Each of the four characters sings (beautifully) a solo song that communicates their particular heartache. These blues, jazz, and country numbers resonate with a wider sense of shared experience. Although there are still no direct interactions among the four, gradually they begin to accompany one another.
These tendrils of connection are woven together in the culminating number, which seamlessly segues from JS Bach’s Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit into Spinning Away by Brian Eno and John Cale. A harmonious ensemble of instrumental quartet and vocalist demonstrates a heavenly paradox: loneliness and isolation, when expressed through music, are simultaneously affirmed and denied.
