Silence, Royal Shakespeare Company/Filter, Hampstead Theatre

Marital tension in a lucid, droll new play collaborating with technology

by Matt WolfWednesday, 18 May 2011

Making noise quietly: Katy Stephens plays the tinnitus-stricken Kate in 'Silence'Images © Simon Kane

If your heart breaks a continent or more away from home, does it make a noise? Very much so in the scintillating Royal Shakespeare Company/Filter collaboration Silence, the second in a series of three RSC premieres at the Hampstead Theatre. Wedding Filter's interest in the synergy between technology and text with a subset of Shakespeareans who have been wandering the Forest of Arden on and off for the past two years, Silence plunges its expert ensemble into the forest of metal that makes up one aspect of Jon Bausor's set. Will the result be as you like it?

The daily routine of a neighbour making toast finds levity in an often anxious soundscape

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