Page 514 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

Time in the Eckberts' world moved differently, with Jamie Platt’s lighting suggesting various points

within the day, with a captivating purple hue appearing for the Bird’s aria. Miskelly’s Bird, an agile
storyteller, brought humour and pleasing clarity with her rhyming couplets and playful energy.

William Morgan as Hugo with Simon Wallfisch as Blond Eckbert | Photo: Richard Hubert-Smith

By Act 2, we were fully within Norton-Hale’s ‘Film Noir’ influences. The eerie astaticism became a
downward spiral. Nature appears blocked-off, with white blinds turning the Scandi house into what
felt at first like an abandoned burger van, then revealing itself as a lightbox, behind which the

shadows of Eckbert’s hallucinations brought a chilling terror to the story. The beginning of
overthinking in Eckbert was masterfully acted by Simon Wallfisch, whose enigmatic emotional life

unraveled with startling terror.

The set, designed by Eleanor Bull, was shadowed by what Norton-Hale says was a Turner-
influenced mountainous backdrop, with three thick tree trunks to the right of the stage ‘celebrating
the beauty and majesty of nature, but shot through with awe and terror’. The house’s setting felt

eerily claustrophobic, with wooden slats and white blinds that manipulated the size of the space,
becoming smaller as the inner world of the characters dislocated.

The cast showcased vocal prowess with impeccable musicality and intonation. Flora McIntosh as

the traumatised Berthe brought great strength to her Act 1 aria, telling her life story with intimate
beauty. The listening Walter, William Morgan – later becoming Hugo, then the Old Woman –
brought a clear tenor voice to all three roles with striking resonance.