The Lady from the Sea

by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Elinor Cook

seen at the Donmar Warehouse on 12 October 2017

Kwami Kwei-Armah directs Finbar Lynch as Doctor Wangel and Nikki Amuka-Bird as Ellida, with Helena Wilson as Bolette, Ellie Bamber as Hilde, Jonny Holden as Lyngstrand, Tom McKay as Arnholm, Jim Findley as Ballestred and Jake Fairbrother as the Stranger, in a version of Ibsen's play reset by Tom Scutt in the Caribbean in the late 1940s or early 1950s (the tutor Arnholm limps from a war wound from 1943).

Macbeth

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Barbican Theatre on 6 October 2017

This is a revival of Yukio Ninagawa's famous 1980 production of Macbeth, first seen in Britain in 1987. Last year Ninagawa died at the age of 80, still working on this and other productions (many of them Shakespearean), and this revival is touring as a tribute and memorial to him by his company. It features Masachika Ishimura as Macbeth and Yuko Tanaka as Lady Macbeth, with Kasunaga Tsuji as Banquo, Kwia Oishi as Macduff and Tetsuro Sagawa as Duncan, and a large supporting cast. The production, with a set designed by Kappa Senoh, was given in Japanese with English surtitles (naturally, and abbreviated Shakespearean text, though the spoken words were more extensive than the text provided).

The Ferryman

by Jez Butterworth

seen at the Gielgud Theatre on 30 September 2017

Sam Mendes directs Butterworth's new play set in rural Northern Ireland in September 1981, as news of the death of an IRA hunger striker reaches a farming family busy with the harvest and hoping that their involvement in the Troubles is more or less behind them. Paddy Considine as Quinn Carney and Laura Donnelly as his sister-in-law Caitlin lead a superb cast of over twenty actors in this stunning evocation of a family beset with memories, tragedies and evasions, with both chaotic and affectionate interactions between generations, with deep engagement in the business of farming, and with a fateful vulnerability after all to the political situation around them.

The Lie

by Florian Zeller

seen at the Menier Chocolate Factory on 29 September 2017

Lindsay Ponsner directs Christopher Hampton's version of Zeller's new play with Samantha Bond as Alice, Tony Gardner as Paul, Alexandra Gilbreath as Laurence and Alexander Hanson as Michel.

Anna Fleischle has designed a stylish French apartment's living room for a very stylish and very French play about the thorny issues of lying, being honest, being tactful and being deceitful, set around Alice's disquiet at hosting her husband's friend Michel and his wife in the evening after by chance seeing Michel kissing another woman in the street during the afternoon. Paul argues that neither Michel nor Laurence should be confronted - it is Michel's business and not theirs to interfere - but this raises large questions about honesty amongst friends and in a marriage, with spiralling and unforeseen consequences for all concerned.

After the Rehearsal / Persona

based on the films of Ingmar Bergman

seen at the Barbican Theatre on 28 September 2017

Once again director Ivo van Hove has devised a theatrical event by adapting cinematic works - two in one evening in this case. Gijs Scholten van Aschat (Hendrik and the husband), Gaite Jansen (Anna and Alma) and Marieke Heebink (Rachel and Elisabeth) feature in both plays, with Lineke Rijxman as the doctor in Persona, and the production is designed by Jan Versweyveld, van Hove's usual collaborator. It is spoken in Dutch with English surtitles provided.