Knives in Hens and Frames of Reference

Tonight I went to see Knives in Hens at the Tramway Theatre with Gareth Vile.

It was a really bizarre experience for me because the director made the decision to execute the piece in a sort of surrealistic style which (I am told on good authority from Gareth) is popular in Belgian theatre. This is supposedly very much at odds with how the writer (David Harrower) is usually interpreted, in a very naturalistic style typical to British theatre.

What made this so strange and educational is I felt I had no frame of reference to judge the piece by...
I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed it all the way through, but I couldn't say that anything was wrong with it either.

In other words, if you give me a piece of music to look at I can tell you whether it's good or not, if you think good is subjecive lets say i can say whether it works or not. I can tell you if the harmonic changes are clever or basic, if the melody is inspired or average, if there are interesting rhythmic features, if the parts are written idiomatically for the instruments that have to play them, etc.

I can tell you those things because I have a reasonably sophisticated understanding of music.

Basically I couldn't say whether this piece was good or not because I didn't know what criterion I should be judging it by. That's a very interesting experience for someone who doesn't believe the quality of art in entirely subjective and aesthetics go beyond reason (hence, in part, the name of this blog.)

I was so glad that I didn't have to review it because in this instance my opinion would really not be a qualified one. I'd have to fake it. Until I've seen another four or five pieces in this idiom I wouldn't have much to say about it other than I found it a bit too long and intense, but there were some beautiful moments.

Gareth explained a lot of context on the walk home which helped clarify what was going on to a degree.

It's amazing how everything you see broadens your awareness, especially if you can discuss it in detail with someone on the way home :-) This was a funny point because we were talking about whether it was successful or not and as we reached the door Gareth said something like, "If the point of the play was to get people to discuss whether they liked it or not all the way home then it would be an outrageous success." True.

Here is an insightful review of Knives in Hens by Lyn Gardner at The Guardian, she's a very good critic, I've read a couple of her reviews.

Another review of Knives in Hens by Mark Fisher writing for The Guardian in Edinburgh

I've looked at other  reviews as well but none I found particularly worth sharing.