The Damage
Gilded Balloon Cave I
Edinburgh Festival
Playwright
Ken Bentley’s first full length play as a writer.
Synopsis
Fact: August 1929, Salvador Dali is working on a screenplay with his good friend, the film-maker Luis Buñuel, at his home in Cadaqués on the north-east coast of Spain. They are joined by friends from Paris, Gala Eluard and her husband Paul Eluard, a poet and art dealer.
Fiction: What begins as a relaxing holiday with friends rapidly turns into a whirlwind of desire and exploitation.
Atramuntanat tells the tragic story of a defining moment in the life of one of the 20th century’s most influential artists.
Reviews
So Real, it’s Surreal
In the inter-war years, Salvador Dali was synonymous with outrageous defiance of convention, and Ken Bentley has therefore written and directed a sensible play portraying him as an innocent, out of his depth in anything except surrealism, exhibitionism, blasphemy or the wilder shores of sex. He is ready to murder someone, if asked, but the thought of boy meeting girl leaves him a bit scared.
But Paul Eluard needs Dali’s art for his own speculations to thrive and hence his wife Gala is thrust on Dali. Dali’s collaborator, the film-maker Luis Buñuel, grows increasingly jealous.
Daniel Gabriele as the would-be cuckold Paul radiates aesthetic corruption from his rich red hair to his grasping fingertips: he would be faultlessly French if he could cure himself of inserting the Englishman’s “r” between vowels.
Kirsty Yates makes Gala credible as a journey into virginity, a sufficiently Dali paradox. Marcus Hamer as Dali is probably sweeter than the original at any stage, but cleaves well to the context. Andrew Dickens seems too kindly for the poisonous tart of the frustrated Buñuel, but does his best. A play to remember and an author and cast to watch.
Owen Dudley Edwards
The Scotsman
4 stars
Drawn from a real incident in the early life of Salvador Dali, the cast of Atramuntanat enact the torrid turn of events of a weekend in August 1929. Joined by influential friends from Paris in his family home, Dali soon finds himself embroiled in a web of lust and deception. A gripping tale of friendship and disloyalty, love and fidelity.
The Scotsman
The Hot List
Put Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel together in a Catalan villa by the sea when they were young whiz-kids and not yet global geniuses. Add a visit from Paris by Gala – Dali’s future wife and muse – in the company of her scheming husband of the moment Paul, and what have you got? A marvellous sex comedy or an insightful behind-the-scenes peek at the commercialisation of art, depending on how you look at it.
Buñuel’s irritated because he can’t finish his film script, thanks to a distracted Dali. Dali is a divine fool who’s besotted with Gala, Gala is bored but pushed to seduce the painter by Paul and Paul is scheming to get a sneak preview of Dali’s new paintings while irritating Buñuel.
The talented cast – Andrew Dickens, Daniel Gabriele, Marcus Hamer and Kirsty Yates – bounce off each other magically, something that must give great satisfaction to writer/director Ken Bentley, whose own magic provides a contemporary airing without losing any of the period feel.
An absolute must see (but what a poor title).
Nick Awde
The Stage
- Salvador Dali
- Marcus Hamer
- Gala Eluard
- Kirsty Yates
- Luis Buñuel
- Andrew Dickens
- Paul Eluard
- Daniel Gabriele
- DSM
- Samantha Schubert
- Producer
- Motiv Productions