2 May 2010, Anna Picard, The Independent
Review (en)
I Went to the House But Did Not Enter
Four poems provide the framework for composer-director Heiner Goebbels' I Went to the House But Did Not Enter. Naturalistic in rhythm and harmonically conservative, choreographed to the minutest detail, these a capella tableaux explore actions considered and rejected (Eliot's The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock), nurtured slights (Blanchot's La folie du jour), giddy fantasy (a Kafka short story), and paranoid self-doubt (Beckett's Worstward Ho). Belongings are packed and unpacked, night traffic illuminates the front of a suburban house, slides are projected across the dowdy upholstery of a hotel room. As exquisitely lit as a Terence Davies film and sung with unflappable purity by the Hilliard Ensemble, it wears its seriousness lightly but very, very well, the poetry is crisp and clear, as though heard for the first time.
on: I went to the house but did not enter (Music Theatre)