Ventoux
***
Wed 21 Nov, Blackwood Miner’s Institute
Over the last few years the exploration of real-life sporting rivalries and their larger-than-life characters has come prominently to the fore. In 2017 the big screen brought us tennis’s Borg vs McEnroe, whilst 2013’s, Rush, explored the nerve-shredding rivalry between Formula One drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda as they battled their way towards enduring sporting glory. Given the success of such movies, it’s no surprise then that 2Magpies Theatre has decided to follow suit and thrust their spades into that rich mine of story-telling, bringing us the stage version of Ventoux.
With a minimalist set design consisting of two mounted racing bikes, a large screen, several props and just two actors throughout, Tom Barnes and Matt Wilks of the Nottingham-based theatre company have chosen to tell the riveting story of Lance Armstrong (Alexander Gatehouse) and Marco Pantani’s (Matthew Seager) staggering rivalry on Mont Ventoux, Stage 12 of the Tour De France in 2000, with simplicity and austere focus.
Weaving in and out of the story’s centrepiece that is the race along Mont Ventoux, the audience are also afforded a narrow window into the personal lives of the sporting antiheros, both of whom had tasted great success, wrestled with personal demons, and were ultimately found to be doping cheats. And all this to a hypnotic, uber-masculine soundscape courtesy of Kraftwerk.
Hopping on and off their bikes to talk of their childhoods and sporting ambitions, their media image, drug addiction, and Armstrong’s struggle with cancer, the actors engage in a form of parallel play, addressing the audience though rarely conversing directly with one another. On other occasions they’re cycling along in front of the screen as footage of Ventoux’s course plays out in front or behind them along with real-life commentary, their bicycles occasionally being repositioned in order to keep things fresh.
Although the play’s subject itself is fascinating, unfortunately for Ventoux, given its simplicity, it naturally relies on the show’s script and acting performance to be en pointe. Whilst both are perfectly acceptable, the whole thing does tend to come across as rather jejune, lacking the dark, visceral prose and impact that should rightly be afforded it especially since it tackles Armstrong’s nauseating self-aggrandisement and Pantani’s descent into cocaine addiction. Instead it feels more like a theatrical paint-by-numbers.
However, there are indeed moments of greatness. For example, in one scene Lance Armstrong dismounts his bike after a high-octane ‘attack’ on a stretch of the course, whereby, amidst an amplified onset of heavy-breathing, he draws an outline of his organs starting from his testis to his lungs with a stick of chalk symbolising Armstrong’s frightening spread of cancer throughout his body. Particularly haunting, this is a stand-out scene. The show’s attempt to depict Pantani’s hopeless and ultimately tragic battle with drugs lacks the equally necessary emotional punch.
As for the doping scandal, this too is noteworthy, especially as it elevates the disgust for Armstrong’s self-righteous denial all the while he’s busy promoting his charity work and comparing himself to U2’s Bono. Meanwhile, the play manages to evoke some sympathy for Pantani, who you view as a flawed but ultimately more honest man.
Ending with some form of an admittance of guilt from both, when it comes to soiling the reputation of the sport, Pantani insists that it is Armstrong that ‘is the wound’. However, Ventoux itself, disappointedly, doesn’t cut deep enough!
words Oliver R. Moore-Howells
Ventoux plays at various venues throughout Wales – Pontardawe Arts Centre (Fri 23 Nov), Maesteg Town Hall (Sat 24 Nov), Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon and (Wed 28 Nov).
Info: www.2magpiestheatre.co.uk/ventoux.php