touching the void at bristol old vic…

Moira and I went along to the Old Vic this afternoon (along with several other grey-haired people) to see “Touching The Void”, adapted by playwright David Greig and directed by Tom Morris, based on Joe Simpson’s best-selling 1988 memoir. I read the book more than 25 years ago and can well remember being utterly captivated and stunned by its compelling story - which tells of Simpson’s and his fellow mountaineering partner Simon Yates’s struggles (best if I don’t say any more in case you have read the book/seen the film) on the perilous Siula Grande mountain in the Peruvian Andes (I’ve never seen the film based on the book).
Having an awful head for heights, my fascination for mountaineering stories is perhaps slightly worrying (I remember passing on my copy of ‘Touching The Void’ to someone – but can’t now recall who – but my book collection also contains mountaineering books by Chris Bonington, Joe Tasker and two others by Joe Simpson)!
How on earth could anyone reproduce the book’s story on a STAGE, for goodness sake?!

Well, there was no snow; there were no papier-maché mountains, no sports centre climbing wall… but, amazingly, they DID manage to capture all the drama, all the terror and all the suspense (literally!)… quite, quite magnificently.

It was superbly done. I loved how, in the mountain sequences, they converted vertical planes to horizontal planes so simply and yet so effectively. I loved how they were able to address crucial decision-maker options so powerfully and issue a “well, what would you have done?” challenge (to one of the characters and to the audience), I loved the way Joe’s was such a central character in the whole drama… I could go on and on.
The acting was also superb – all four characters: Fiona Hampton (who played Joe’s sister, Sarah), Josh Williams (Joe), Edward Hayter (Simon) and Patrick McNamee (who played the base camp hippy) were just brilliant.
As I think you might have deduced(!), everything about this production was simple wonderful as far as I was concerned. Theatre at its very best – creativity, conception, imagination, design, implementation… live performance at its very, very best.
It’s an amazing story and this production is an absolute ‘must-see’.
PS: At the interval, I described the story as “a bit of a cliff-hanger” and quickly regretted it!
PPS: I also love that the theatre programme reproduced Joe Simpson’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ music from 2004… I think I’ll be re-living it all via Spotify over the coming days!
PPPS: I need to re-read the book!