SPLENDOUR

The Week's Splendiferous Climax
Wow. All I can say is wow. "Splendour" is quite simply the most daring, most adventuresome theatre seen in San Diego since the old days. Playgoers longing for stimulation must hie themselves immediately to The Old Globe, where this astonishing, multi-layered and cryptic work is directed by Globe Theatres Associate Artistic Director Karen Carpenter. Long may she wave!
“Splendour" is symphonic in its repetitive building upon a theme, each embellishment or variation adding to a cumulative whole, each adding to our fragmentary knowledge of what is going on and what it might mean. Nothing is wasted; nothing is redundant. It is as elegantly composed as a scientific experiment. Carpenter's directing is old fashioned in that she sublimates any dictatorial flourish in service of the work. The play gathers momentum like the aforementioned freight train. Nothing is ever merely repeated. It is like a musical theme with variations, with bits of embellishment (more information) added each time dialogue, or action and or an entire scene repeats. The fragmented dialogue and the cryptic, repetitive scenes make for utterly fascinating theatre.
"Splendour" features a tight ensemble. Each of these women does what she must to survive in a world about to fly apart. What they have done and what they continue to ignore are keys to mysteries that fascinate and deepen upon further consideration. "Splendour" is a most important play that must be attended in every sense of the word.
-Charlene Baldridge, sdtheatrescene, and the Village News

Gripping 'Splendour'
"Splendour," receiving its U.S. premiere at the Globe Theatres' Cassius Carter stage, offers an ironically titled, kaleidoscopic look at four diverse women whose lives intersect and devolve as the society around them disintegrates. British playwright Abi Morgan's style is intricate and multifaceted, like a Cubist painting put to words, but it's not cleverness for its own sake. Ingeniously, she zigs and zags through time, shifting emphasis while continually unveiling aspects and insights as the story stutter-steps its way to its inexorable end.
Scenes are re-created, with one woman's words now spoken by another. Sentences are fragmented, abbreviated and unrelated to the one before. Separate and dissimilar conversations intermingle. For the audience, it means an initial cryptic challenge, but, with each turn of the prism, the image grows clearer. And the final picture is riveting.
The script's quirkiness makes it ideal for theater in the round, since the repetition of scenes and dialogue allows a director to reposition and refocus the characters to give everyone a fresh perspective. Director Karen Carpenter takes full advantage, guiding the movements fluidly and subtly. And she has selected a strong cast. All display powerful moments, particularly Gordana Rashovich as the wife, who, like her control, is unraveling. Rashovich manages to elicit sympathy for an unsavory soul.
Paul Peterson's sound design is like a fifth character, providing portents of doom, and Charlotte Devaux's costumes unerringly delineate each woman's position and personality, from the wife's ruffled fashions -- her red suit suggests the blood on her hands -- to the translator's peasant and combat garb. Tony Fanning's set features warmly elegant ebony-and-gold furniture and other trappings of wealth. But all around are piles of snowflakes, signaling the coming chill. And the overhead chandelier hangs at an angle, an ideal symbol for the skew in these women's futures.
-Don Braunagel , L.A. Times