Ockham’s Razor: Tess

Wed 20 – Thu 21 Mar 2024

Pentland Theatre

Ockham’s Razor: Tess

Wed 20 – Thu 21 Mar 2024

Pentland Theatre

Performers wear rustic 19th Century style costumes. Centre stage, one performer poses as Tess, with her arms out, mid-dance, hair billowing behind her, looking straight down the camera lens. Behind her, other performers are exhibiting acrobatic skills.

This event has now finished.

Ockham’s Razor produced by Turtle Key Arts presents Tess, a groundbreaking adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

★ The Guardian ★ The Scotsman ★ London Theatre Review ★ Plays To See ★ The Wee Review ★ The Stage ★ Manchester Theatres ★ Everything Theatre

An ensemble of performers weave together Hardy’s words and the extreme physicality of circus to tell this tale of power, loss and endurance.

Against a backdrop of shifting projections the cast wield wooden planks, climb shifting walls and move through ropes and swathes of linen to evoke the vast landscapes and interior worlds of Hardy’s Wessex.

It is a story which still has extraordinary relevance for our times in its incredibly nuanced evocation of female relationships, sexual desire, consent, privilege and poverty.

This retelling captures the beauty, heartbreak and yearning of the novel and draws upon the incredible strength of the circus body to create a Tess as heroic as Hardy intended.

Presented by Ockham’s Razor

"Dreamlike... a highly original interpretation"

The Guardian

“Captivating and exhilarating, this production is hypnotic and teeming with physical creativity. Unmissable.”

Everything Theatre

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