6 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday4 March 2020

ARTS

Steve Earle sings original songs in ‘Coal Country’ —Joan Marcus

Max McGuinness

In April 2010, a coal dust explosion

killed29minersattheUpperBigBranch

Mine in West Virginia. Six years later,

the playwright Jessica Blank and her

husband and collaborator Erik Jensen

recorded interviews with survivors and

relatives of the victims, which they have

adapted into this 90-minute verbatim

playaboutthebiggestminingdisasterin

theUSsincethe1970s.

Documentary theatre, such as the

work of David Hare or Anna Deavere

Smith’sFires in the Mirror, often derives

its energy from virtuoso performers

who juggle many different roles as they

piece together complex political contro-

versies. By contrast, as directed by

Blank,Coal Country as a patient, steadyh

focus that yields an exceptionally lucid

account of the disaster and skilfully

drawn portraits of the play’s eight char-

acters. These include Thomas

Kopache’s Gary, a bluff old hand with a

meticulous knowledge of how mines

operate; Michael Gaston’s Goose, an

affablefamilymanwhoforeseesthedis-

aster amid collapsing safety standards;

and Deirdre Madigan’s Judy, a miner’s

daughter and doctor who has become

detachedfromherworking-classroots.

They are joined by the singer Steve

Earle, who introduces the play and goes

on to perform eight original folk songs,

accompanying himself on the guitar

and banjo whilekeeping time with his

boot. Echoing Woody Guthrie, these

ballads — one of which becomes a

singalong — are rich in leftist pathos.

And, like the characters’ overlapping

testimonies, they drill home the mes-

sage that strong unions offer workers

their best defence against corporate

greedandexploitation.

As Gary and Goose recount, the seeds

of catastrophe werelaid when the mine

was sold in the 1990s to Massey Energy,

which withdrew union recognition and

ramped up production. By the time of

the disaster, the miners were being told

to keep working even after finding

explosive levels of methane.Massey’s

CEO Don Blankenship was eventually

jailed for conspiring to violate federal

minesafetystandards.

IfCoal Country ere a work of fiction,w

all this would seem like a scarcely

believable caricature of capitalist mal-

feasance. But the only invention in this

rigorously unsentimental play is Earle’s

hauntingmusic.

To March 29,publictheater.org

Capitalism’s dark side laid bare

T H E AT R E

Coal Country

Public Theater, New York

aaaaa

Laura Cappelle

Béjart Ballet Lausanne has handled the

transition after its founder’s death bet-

ter than most dance companies. Mau-

rice Béjart’s designated successor, Gil

Roman, has been at the helm since the

popular French choreographer’s death

in 2007 — smooth sailing compared to,

say, Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wupper-

tal, which has seen four directors come

andgosinceherdeath.

Artistically, however, Béjart Ballet

Lausanne has mostly been treading

water. While a few dance-makers have

worked with its dancers, the current

season features only works by Béjart

and Roman, who also choreographs.

Andthis mixed bill,Béjart Celebrates

Maurice, at the Palais des Congrès in

Paris, positioned Roman’st’M et varia-

tions... s the supporting act beforea

theBéjarthits.

In the event, it was hard to disagree.

t’M et variations.. ., which was created

for the 10th anniversary of Béjart’s

death and heavily references his style,

is pleasant enough thanks to the pres-

ence onstage of Citypercussion, a duo of

percussionists who bring a surprising

array of instruments to their dialogue

with the dancers. In the most memora-

ble duet, two male dancers interact

sweetly, holding each other’s faces

beforeslowlylockinghands.

Still, most of the audience was there

for Béjart, and for one blockbuster

in particular: hisBolero. It came at the

tail-end of a series of uneven excerpts

from his repertoire after the interval,

with the nimble-footed Masayoshi

Onuki a highlight in a virtuosic male

solo,Und so weiter. (Béjart’s taste for a

jagged kind of balletic orientalism

hasn’tagedaswell.)

The tension in the auditorium

went up several notches when two

technicians wheeled Bolero’s large

red table onstage. It has seen quite the

list of soloists over the years, and in

Paris the Russian superstar Diana

Vishneva claimed the spot for one

night as a guest. At 43, she has led many

stage lives, and it shows: the unerring,

sensual precision of her shoulder line

speaks of her ballet training in St

Petersburg, yet Béjart’s broken wrists

and hip swerves look just as second

naturetoher.

More so than anyBolerosoloist I’ve

seen, as she reached for her neck and

leaned into distortions reminiscent of

Nijinsky, Vishneva also made the con-

nection with the sacrificial victim inThe

Rite of Spring. Call it revenge: here, she

looked ready to lead the corps of men

around the table, and the audience into

battle. Many would have gladly

followedher.

palaisdescongresdeparis.com

D A N C E

Béjart Ballet Lausanne

Palais des Congrès, Paris

aaaae

Heroic: above, Grafton

Architects’ Bocconi

University in Milan

(2008). Below: Yvonne

Farrell, left, and

Shelley McNamara of

Grafton Architects

Federico Brunetti; AP Photo/Antonio Calanni

individual architect. In the past, when

more than one individual has been

selected simultaneously, it is because

their work has been inextricably linked.

Such is the case this year.” Thus the

award has been given to McNamara and

Farrell, rather than Grafton Architects,

which might make for a consistent leg-

acy of laureates but which fails to chime

with what might have been a healthy

andwelcomemessage.

Nevertheless this is an award that will

be welcomed well beyond Ireland.

“We’re evolving with every project and

treat each one as an opportunity to test

newideas,”Farrelltoldmein2017 henw

the pair were curating the Venice Archi-

tecture Biennale. “You don’t know what

you’re going to get. An architect’s career

isn’t linear, it’s made up of moments.”

Thisisquiteamoment.

pritzkerprize.com

L

ike so many seemingly mete-

oric rises, Grafton Architects’

success has a long tail.

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley

McNamara established their

practice as a co-op above a shop in 1976,

namingitaftertheiraddressonDublin’s

main shopping street. Forty-four years

later they havewon architecture’s big-

gesthonour,thePritzkerPrize.

The award cements an already mem-

orable year for the architects, after hav-

ing received the RIBA’s Gold Medal in

February, and opening their first build-

ing in the UK, the impressive Town

House at Kingston University, in Janu-

ary. It will also, I think, be a popular

choice. The Pritzker has tended to go

either to the big figures in architecture

— the lone, usually male genius — or, in

more recent years, toobscure architects

with more regional than global ambi-

tions. So this decision to award it to a

female-led practice who havebuilt a

reputation for collaboration, considera-

tion, education and generosity should

bea crowd-pleaser.

After starting small in Ireland with a

series of houses and arts projects,

Grafton worked its way up to heroic

buildings in sculptural concrete such as

the astonishing Bocconi University in

Milan (2008) and UTEC University in

Lima (2015) — structuresthat owe a

profound debt to the Brutalism of the

1960s (notably the kind practised in

Brazil). The practice also creates a civic

presence and shows a generosity

towards cities, treating architecture as a

public good. It is currently working on a

new building for the London School of

Economics, and the recently completed

Town House in Kingston has created a

new image for a dispersed suburban

institution with a spatially stunning

libraryandstudentcentre.

The award is also, importantly, a rec-

ognition of an active, engaged and

increasingly influential architecture

scene in Ireland. Grafton has always

beeninvolvedineducationandhasnur-

tured at least two generations of archi-

tects in Dublin (as well as further afield,

at Harvard and Yale),creating a lively

culture of discussion and debate. Farrell

and McNamara are not the first Irish

architects to win the Pritzker:Kevin

Roche received it in 1982, but only after

makingacareerintheUS.

They also bring a different attitude to

architecture as a discipline, a recogni-

tion of itscollaborative nature. It’s typi-

calthattheirpersonalnamesdonotfea-

ture in the practice’s name; when they

attended the dinner to celebrate their

Riba Gold Medal in London earlier this

year, they brought the whole office with

them — making the point that architec-

ture is not about individuals butabout a

collective working for the greater social

good. If the Pritzker has been criticised

for lionising individuals and propping

up what seems an increasingly unsus-

tainable star system, this might have

beenseenassomethingofaredress.

Except that the press release came

with these words: “It is vital to note that

the Prize does not, and has not, hon-

oured a firm, rather it honours an

Brutalism and generosity

John Rockwell

François Girard, the Canadian

stagedirectorandfilm-maker,had

a hit withParsifalin 2013, his Met-

ropolitan Opera debut. He seems

now, after the stumblings of a fel-

low Canadian, Robert Lepage,

to have become the Met’s go-to

Wagnerian producer, with a new

Fliegende Holländer his week andt

Lohengrintocome.

TheParsifalhad its oddities but

was smart and powerful. So it is

disappointing that thisHolländer

— previewed last summer by the

Opéra de Québec — is nowhere

near as persuasive. It falls short on

almost every level: dramatically,

scenicallyandmusically.

Girard brings along a normally

compelling designer, John Mac-

farlane, underused here, and

deploys a heavy dose of black-and-

white projections (Peter Fla-

herty), mostly skyscapes. But

scene after scene is fudged. The

overture is accompanied by spi-

derylinedrawingshintingataship

tossing in a stormy sea, and by an

intrusive dancer double for Senta

(Alison Clancy), who gyrates dis-

jointedly in slow-motion choreog-

raphybyCarolynChoa.

Daland’s ship noses out from the

wings,butweneverseetheusually

terrifying Dutchman’s ship.

Instead our hero slinks in from the

rear carrying a glowing rock, rep-

resenting part of his treasure;

later, everyone carries such a rock,

which makes them look like fire-

flies. The huge chorus is asked to

move in robotic synchronicity. At

the end Senta disappears into the

scrum and presumably leaps into

theocean,butweneverseethat,at

least from the stalls. The backdrop

turnsred,asinmaybeasunrise.

The dramatic failings are not

redeemed (to use a favourite Wag-

nerian word) by the music-

making. Valery Gergiev has done

good work in Wagner, but here his

conducting sounds slow and life-

less; the tension and drama are

constantlybecalmed.

With his fractured ankle, Bryn

Terfel was replaced in the title role

by Evgeny Nikitin, a Mariinsky

regular whom Gergiev reportedly

helped enlist. Nikitin is comforta-

ble in German and Wagner and

started strong. But by the end of

the first night he was struggling, as

was Anja Kampe in her belated

Met debut as Senta. She sang well

in the ballad and duet, but in the

third act (the opera is being done

in the intermission-free version)

she came close to screaming.

Franz-Josef Selig is a practised

Daland but sounds worn, and

Mihoko Fujimura makes an

underpoweredMary.

The best singing comes from the

tenors. David Portillo is the sweet-

voiced Steersman and Sergey

Skorokhodov, another Mariinsky

regular, provides an idiomatic,

forthrightErik.

To March 27,metopera.org

O P E R A

Der fliegende Holländer

Metropolitan Opera, New York

aaeee

Architecture’s biggest honour,

the Pritzker Prize, has gone to

a female-led Dublin practice.

Edwin Heathcote reports

Evgeny Nikitin

and Anja Kampe

in ‘Der fliegende

Holländer’

Ken Howard

MARCH 4 2020 Section:Features Time: 3/20203/ - 18:11 User:david.cheal Page Name:ARTS LON, Part,Page,Edition:EUR, 6, 1