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David Greig’s survival-story adaptation has clawed its way to the West End – and it is a triumph of resolve and innovation
When this adaptation of Joe Simpson’s mountaineering memoir, Touching the Void, opened at Bristol Old Vic in September last year, it was festooned with five-star reviews. Both David Greig’s script and Tom Morris’s production were praised to the skies for achieving the seemingly impossible: putting on stage the ascent by Simpson and Simon Yates of the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes and the former’s heroic survival after being left for dead during the descent. Now the production has arrived at the Duke of York’s in London and faces the possibility of critical backlash. People will inevitably ask: was the initial enthusiasm justified?
Coming fresh to the story – neither having read Simpson’s memoir nor seen Kevin Macdonald’s 2003 film adaptation – I was fascinated by Morris’s skill in applying the techniques acquired from experimental theatre over the past 30 years to this mountaineering saga. Continue reading...