Waste

by Harley Granville Barker

seen at the National Theatre (Lyttleton) on 27 February

This production is directed by Roger Michell and designed by Hildegard Bechtler, and features Charles Edwards as Henry Trebell, Sylvestra le Touzel as Frances Trebell and Olivia Williams as Amy O'Connell.

The play, banned on its initial publication in 1907, was revised in the 1920s though its subject matter was still controversial. This production uses the later version of the play, in which, among other things, the character of Amy O'Connell is portrayed as more active in creating the brief but catastrophic liaison between herself and Henry Trebell. The consequences - an unwanted child and a fatal illegal abortion - lead to all manner of waste: the child and mother dead, the promising career of the father in ruins (causing his own suicide), the political establishment seen to be immovably patrician, self-serving and misogynistic. But, crucially, everyone is complicit and no-one spotless.

Battlefield

based on The Mahabharata and the play by Jean-Claude Carrière

seen at the Young Vic on 17 February 2016

The play is adapted and directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne with lighting by Philippe Vialatte, costumes by Oria Puppo and music by Toshi Tsuchitori. Sean O'Callaghan plays the blind king Dritarashtra, Jared McNeill the new king Yudishtira, Carole Karemera his mother, and Ery Nzaramba takes other parts (as do the rest of the cast).

Famously in the 1980s Peter Brook prepared a nine-hour production of The Marabharata which was performed outdoors so that its conclusion coincided with dawn. This new play lasts only 70 minutes and focuses on the aftermath of the crucial battle which occurs towards the end of the epic. Millions lie dead, including all the sons of the blind king (on one side) and all the brothers of the new king (on the other). Yet after all this mayhem we see only four actors and a musician on a bare stage with a few cloths and sticks for props, in an extraordinarily concentrated piece of staging.

wonder.land

by Damon Albarn, Moira Buffini and Rufus Norris

seen at the National Theatre (Olivier) on 31 January 2016

This musical, inspired loosely by Lewis Carroll's 'Alice' books, is directed by Rufus Norris and designed by Rae Smith, and it features Lois Chimimba as Aly, Hal Fowler as the MC (and Cheshire Cat and Caterpillar), Carly Bawden as Alice, Enyi Okoronkwo as Luke Laprel and Anna Francolini as Ms Manxome.

Making full use of digital technology, both as a plot device and as a theatrical resource, this exuberant piece makes its presence felt even before one has reached the auditorium of the Olivier Theatre. There is an installation in the cloakroom foyer featuring virtual displays, smartphones and i-pads inspired by elements of the set, all stirring a great deal of interest among the younger members of the audience.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

by Christopher Hampton

seen at the Donmar Warehouse on 30 January 2016

This revival of the play, based on the epistolary novel by Choderlos de Laclos, is directed by Josie Rourke and designed by Tom Scutt. It features Janet McTeer as la Marquise de Merteuil and Dominic West as le Comte de Valmont, with Elaine Cassidy as Madame de Tourvel, Edward Holcroft as le Chevalier de Danceny and Una Stubbs as Madame de Rosemonde, Morfydd Clark as Cécile de Volanges and Adjoa Andoh as Madame de Volanges.

In late eighteenth-century but pre-Revolutionary France the Marquise and the Comte,once lovers but now sexual adventurers, engage in various plots of seduction to amuse themselves ; but the Marquise is playing for higher stakes than the Comte, who (as is perhaps the way with over-confident men) has under-estimated the woman whom he had thought of as an equal. The Comte at first unwillingly fulfils the Marquise's proposal that he seduce an innocent young girl (Cécile de Volonges), while at the same time he finds that the virtuous Madame de Tourvel stirs deeper feelings in him than he bargained for. In turn Madame de Tourvel succumbs to passion, but they are both destroyed by the Marquise's resentment.