It’s one year since composer and artistic director Evan J. Lawson and librettist Daniel Szesiong Todd’s original new work, Labyrinth, premiered at Abbotsford Convent’s subterranean Store. And it’s back – with a little tinkering and most of the same artists reprising their roles – to lure you into its effortlessly entrancing and haunting world.
Not only refreshing is it to see Labyrinth return as part of Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival once again, experiencing it within the series of large industrial spaces – from the Packing Room, to the Magdalen Laundry and Boiler Room – demonstrates the exciting adaptability of the work’s immersive nature.
Based on the ancient Greek myth of the slaying of the Minotaur at the hands of Theseus, Lawson is spot on in describing Labyrinth as “a psychological dance-opera that bridges the mythological and the contemporary.”
Over the course of just under an hour, Lawson enables that remarkably with an intensely seductive, stirring and mercurial score for piano, flute and viola with hints of electronic sounds that add to tensions.
Furthermore, the musicians are integral players in the story’s progress, none more so than pianist Danaë Killian whose chilling soundscape represents the feared Minotaur.
It begins in the Sacred Heart Courtyard. After a brief introduction from Lawson, the convincingly heroic and trusting Theseus (librettist and tenor Daniel Szesiong Todd) appears and summons his audience into the labyrinth as his fellow Athenians.
From here, entering the Packing Room, the gently wafting notes blown by flautist Kim Tan could be the oxygen required to navigate the way as Theseus demands blood for his people and his father. Soon after, the eerie and ominous sounds of the piano seep through from a place unknown.
As the illegitimate and forsaken son of King Aegeus, Theseus is determined to prove himself worthy by slaughtering the Minotaur, a creature half man – half bull born of King Minos’ wife Queen Pasiphae and a bull sent by Zeus where it is imprisoned in a labyrinth engineered by the architect Daedalus. In atoning for misdeeds against Crete, Athens must send men and women each year to be committed to the labyrinth as a sacrifice to the Minotaur.
Theseus meets an initially mocking Ariadne (Teresa Ingrilli), daughter of King Minos, who is in love with Theseus and aids him by giving him thread in order to find his way out once he has slain the Minotaur. Moving deeper within, they encounter two dancers (Ashley Dougan and Charlie MacArthur) in the impressive clerestory-topped Magdalen Laundry featuring a steel framed portal criss-crossed by red twine.
To the extended laconic and meditative accompaniment brought by Alex Macdonald on viola, Dougan and MacArthur’s beautifully spun arabesque dance seems to evoke the restless ghosts of former victims who come to aid in the laying of thread.
Further on into the labyrinth, the sinewy gothic-like figure of the spirit of Daedalus (Girl Whatever) appears, characterised by music of wild angularity before the great crescendo that comes in the Boiler Room in the presence of the Minotaur, the frenzied and oscillating piano work a mesmerising force to behold as the Minotaur succumbs.
Themes of prejudice, shame and punishment resonate while Theseus and Ariadne become symbols of their triumph. It’s commendably directed by Cathy Hunt who illuminates the story with effective character blocking in tandem with thoughtful responses to emotional and spatial demands.
Not so well conveyed in this revival, however, is the slaying of the Minotaur, with Theseus simply standing nowhere near close enough to the piano, gazing with sword in hand. In addition, the different rooms created their own unique acoustic challenges which, to varying degrees, affect the clarify of the text.
Nevertheless, the overall effect is melded in great harmony through music, text, acting and the visual elements of Jane Noonan’s loosely stylised ancient Greek costumes, and Gabe Bethune’s dramatic lighting contrasts.
Szesiong Todd employs his muscular and impassioned tenor unforgettably as Theseus, along with equal measures of valiancy and sensitivity one can easily sympathise with. Ingrilli renders Ariadne with immense vigour, assuredness and expressive strength, taking Ariadne’s highlight aria, My mother … overindulged in beauty, to superb, penetrating lengths, as well as making a formidable pairing with her Theseus.
Szesiong Todd and Ingrilli confirm this in a final affecting duet in which Theseus and Ariadne agree to flee the bloodied island and escape the shame each had borne of their families, singing, “Let us stride the wine-dark sea and leave this sea of stone – Throw aside the ancient shame and cast it to the foam.”
Hooded in an oily black cape and holed, body-hugging undergarment, Girl Whatever is impactful but doesn’t quite master the vocal acrobatics in the score’s demands which were fired off astoundingly in SodaWater’s premiering performance.
And while Tan and Macdonald played their musical part through the labyrinth with aplomb, at the piano costumed in billowing dark tulle and striking the keys with focused precision, Killian created a phenomenal fusion of sight and sound.
Lawson and Szesiong Todd have a persuasive and engaging piece with Labyrinth and, without doubt, there exists a case for its adaptation for any amount of weird and wonderful architectural spaces and global festivals. Until then, take the plunge and step inside the labyrinth at hand.
Labyrinth
Magdalen Laundry & Industrial School – Abbotsford Convent, 1 St. Heliers Street, Abbotsford
Performance: Sunday 2 February 2025
Season continues to 8 February 2025
Bookings: www.midsumma.org.au
For more information, visit: www.forestcollective.com.au for details.
Image: Daniel Szesiong Todd and Teresa Ingrilli in Labyrinth – photo by Pia Johnson
Review: Paul Selar