Coping with genius (and not your own)
Just back from Bach and Sons at The Bridge, which very much does what it says on the tin.
How do you cope as a good musician and composer when your father is a genius, and knows it, and that you’re not? When he’s a workaholic and perfectionist, and you’re not.
This is a story, of course, of a dysfunctional family headed by a dysfunctional parent and husband with no realisation that he is, and without care when it is pointed out. A man emotionally flawed who sees his every action as channelled by, and for, his God.
Simon Russell Beale is not, course, the only actor who could have played this role, borrowing from his Lear, his Beria, his Stalin – but once he’s played it, it’s very difficult to think of any other who could. Inter-threaded through this very domestic drama is a scholarly exposition of Bach’s musicality, what a fugue actually is, what counterpoint means, and why it’s important for Bach’s style of music.
Beale is supported by a very able cast, and a simple but wholly engaging set.
It’s one of those plays where the relatively complex blocking (in for instance danced sequences) looks effortless and natural. It’s had excellent reviews, in the main, and wholly deserved them. We were late to the game because our early booking was overturned by cast Covid (and the auditorium still has gaps) – but if you can get seats, do.