It is obvious that Italian writer Alessandro Baricco is a novelist. His play Novecento is a narrated story rich in imagery that could just as easily be read on the page as seen on stage.
But 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. 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.
For 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. 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”.
The Donmar Trafalgar season aims to showcase the talents of graduates of the Donmar Warehouse’s Resident Assistant Director scheme. In choosing the one-hander Novecento, McBrinn has given herself a deceptively difficult piece. By keeping things simple – Bonnar has no costume changes and is never off stage – McBrinn is able to maintain focus on the words and rely on Bonnar’s ability to keep us engaged.
Paul Wills’s set conjures the deck of a ship through chain rigging and metal railings, while Olly Fox’s music is evocative but not intrusive. These elements make the intimate Trafalgar Studio 2 atmospheric, at times almost spookily so. Whether evoking a mighty storm at sea or conjuring the smoky bar of the first class lounge, where Novecento plays jazz, blues and ragtime, the production does just enough to pique our imagination to do the rest.
When Bonnar morphs into Novecento himself towards the end, he brings this almost mythical tale to an unusual, eerie end.
CB