Continuing my catch-up account of plays seen and not reviewed in detail, here are the productions I saw in 2023:
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare on 5th January 2023 at Bella Vista Farm, Sydney. An open-air production played in front of the historic farmhouse with a genial warning that the opening scenes might be overwhelmed by birdsong until the twilight set in (they were).
Blue by Thomas Weatherall on 15th January 2023 at the Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney. An assured monologue written and performed by the young Thomas Weatherall (22 at the time) as a 'very personal fiction', portraying the development of Mark as he and his mother exchange letters because it is easier than meeting face to face after family trauma and Mark's consequent depression. Themes of loss and anxiety which to me seemed all too applicable to any young person are, according to the friend who attended the performance with me, statistically more prevalent among the indigenous community, of which Weatherall is a member, although I viewed Mark's experiences as more universal than indigenous. The play was gripping, by turns entertaining and moving, showing great skill in both writing and performance.
Watch on the Rhine by Lillian Hellman on 26th January 2023 at the Donmar Warehouse. A fine revival of the 1941 play in which the daughter of a wealthy Washington DC family returns home after years in Germany, with her German husband and three children in tow. It transpires that they are in fact refugees, so that elements of social comedy collide with impassioned political points - Hellman's attempt to alert her American audience to the perils of doing nothing about the Nazi menace.
Richard II by William Shakespeare on 15th February 2023 at Holy Trinity Church Guildford. The Guildford Shakespeare Company presented Richard II in their winter venue; it was possible to sit at tea tables while the performance took place in various parts of the nave of the church. In modern dress the play still packed a punch: the examination of failed leadership and political machinations is timeless.
Duet for One by Tom Kempinski on 23rd February 2023 at the Orange Tree Theatre. A violinist (Tara Fitzgerald) struck by multiple sclerosis attends sessions with a psychiatrist (Maureen Beattie) in an effort to deal with the crisis. Earlier productions had a male psychiatrist, so the dynamics are shifted here, but the play, which sounds very schematic, is very compelling to watch. Inevitably one thinks of the cellist Jacqueline du Pré, similarly afflicted, though the playwright disavowed the connection (or inspiration). In the intimate space of the Orange Tree, with the stage slowly revolving to ease the sight-lines for the audience, the battle of wills between the two women, the psychiatrist patiently waiting for emotional honesty and fielding all the diversionary tactics the violinist can throw at her, is utterly engrossing.
Romeo and Julie by Gary Owen on 15th March 2023 at the Dorfman Theatre (National). Only loosely connected to the Shakespeare play, in that the titular protagonists are teenage lovers, this play takes place in Splott, the working-class area of Cardiff, where Romeo is a struggling teenage dad and Julie, who takes up with him and falls pregnant herself, aspires to escape from Splott and study astrophysics at Cambridge. The strains in their lives, exacerbated by poverty and familial pressures, make for grim bleakness shot through with tenderness and resilience; the tragedy of the Shakespearean original is averted.
Phaedra by Simon Stone (based on Euripides, Seneca and Racine) on 29th March 2023 at the Lyttleton Theatre (National). Transported to the present day with re-named characters, Helen (Janet McTeer) falls in love with the son of her former and now deceased Moroccan lover. The bare bones of the Phaedra myth (ungovernable passion for a stepson leading to catastrophe) are thus maintained, but also somewhat subverted by themes of cross-cultural exploitation and complicated but somehow quite ,modern family dynamics. All the action was enclosed in a large revolving box, showing various rooms in Helen's comfortable home but eventually leading to the Moroccan desert. In a curious feature, several characters often spoke at once. Though this may well happen in heated family discussions or arguments, it is a risky manoeuvre in the theatre when one expects to be able to hear all the characters clearly. Surely it was all too easy to miss something important through trying to guess which voice to follow.
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams on 29th April 2023 at the Phoenix Theatre (transferred from the Almeida). The big drawcard in this production was the actor Paul Mescal in the role of Stanley; Patsy Fernan stepped in to play Blanche even at the Almeida after Lydia Wilson had to withdraw due to injury. The production would definitely have been better seen at the Almeida, a more intimate setting and one for which the soundscape in particular would have been more suitable. In a larger and more conventional proscenium arch theatre the musical and percussion accompaniments were too distracting as they too often swamped the actors. In its West End home it all made for a too-distanced experience of the raw passions erupting throughout the play, which was a shame since the performances were clearly very strong.
The Circle by Somerset Maugham on 11th May 2023 at the Orange Tree Theatre. Tom Littler, the new artistic director of the Orange Tree, here continues its fine tradition of reviving neglected classics from the early part of the twentieth century, in this case a poised comedy of manners with cynical, or at least worldly-wise, undercurrents of dissatisfaction with conventional social and marital relations. Waspish, amusing, and surprising in its twists and turns, this was well worth seeing.
Private Lives by Noel Coward on 25th May 2023 at the Donmar Warehouse. My third Private Lives, having seen Anton Lesser and Juliet Stevenson (excellent) at the National in 1999 and Alan Rickman and Lindsey Duncan (sensational) in the West End in 2001. Here Stephen Mangan and Rachel Stirling play Elyot and Amanda in Coward's brittle comedy with its disturbingly violent undertones. The first act, in which the divorced couple find themselves on adjoining hotel balconies on their respective honeymoons with new partners, is a little muted by having these balconies at the back of the stage, but the whole acting area is fully used in the second and third acts which erupt into spectacular chaos and recrimination in a Paris apartment. The formal poise of the conception is perhaps unbalanced by the level of violence teetering on abuse in this version, but it was a fine production.
When Winston Went to War with the Wireless by Jack Thorne on 29th June 2023 at the Donmar Warehouse. A play concerning the struggle between Winston Churchill (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) representing Stanley Baldwin's government and John Reith, at the helm of the British Broadcasting Company (soon to become a Corporation), during the General Strike in 1926. The play graphically illustrates the fact that the BBC has been subject to government pressure since its inception, as Reith sought to preserve Olympian impartiality while the government was always toying with the idea that the BBC should be a state-sponsored broadcaster. Churchill in the play is his usual bombastic self, but much time is also spent on Reith's background and personal struggles; Churchill is not really the main focus. The play is cleverly staged, with many sound effects created by the actors using props from a typical press-room of the time (typewriters, phones, etc), but it suffers from needing an enormous amount of exposition in order to familiarise a modern audience with details of the characters and the historical period - more of a dramatised documentary with added human interest than a fully fledged play.
The Motive and the Cue by Jack Thorne on 1st July 2023 at the Lyttleton Theatre (National). The prolific Jack Thorne has here another history-as-drama play (and he's also partly responsible for the script of the long-running Harry Potter play as well). This time we are looking at the preparation of a Broadway production of Hamlet to be directed by John Gielgud (Mark Gatiss) and starring Richard Burton (Johnny Flynn) - 'a classicist wanting to be modern and a modern wanting to be a classicist' according to Elizabeth Taylor (Tuppence Middleton). The whole thing risks being self-indulgent - a play in which actors are playing actors rehearsing to be characters in a play - but it is saved by the excellence of the cast and the intrinsic interest of the unlikely collaboration between two such famous men. Inevitably, as much of the play concentrates on the rehearsal process and the personal demons of Gielgud and Burton, Elizabeth Taylor is rather sidelined, which in real life is almost impossible to imagine.
The Swell by Isley Lynn on 6th July 2023 at the Orange Tree Theatre. Bel and Annie are engaged, and Annie's friend the volatile Flo comes to visit. Years later, with different actors playing the parts, Bel and Flo are together and Annie is the outsider; the narrative strands are woven together as each trio takes the story forward by turns. Part of the drive is the question of why Bel has shifted her allegiance from one friend to the other, but throughout the play the challenges of love and commitment are explored with acute intelligence and insight.
Frank and Percy by Ben Weatherill on 13th July 2023 at Theatre Royal, Windsor. A chance to see Ian McKellen (Percy) and Roger Allan (Frank) in a whimsical two-hander in which the older gay man meets the younger widower while they walk their dogs on Hampstead Heath. Both sparks and tenderness fly as the idea of romance for older people is given the attention it deserves.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare on 22nd July 2023 at the Almeida Theatre. Rebecca Frecknall, fresh from her re-imagining of A Streetcar Named Desire, turns her attention to this classic and provides a modern dress and fast paced version in which many characters seem to be mute witnesses of scenes for which they are usually off-stage - but their presence is zombie-like, not as if they are actually present to the speaking characters. This gives a sense of edginess and urgency, and highlights the incipient violence of the Montague/Capulet feud and the headlong rush of events: a fine energy prevails.
As You Like It by William Shakespeare on 29th July 2023 at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. In this intriguing RSC production it is imagined that the cast are meeting forty years after they first performed the play (except of course for the oldest member who would have been more than a centenarian by now) in order to rehearse it again. This means that a play usually imagined to be about young people is being performed by a much older cast in their sixties or seventies. Quixotic idea on paper, but in practice in worked surprisingly well, not least because the verse-speaking was a pure joy to listen to. Clearly the training in verse speaking has suffered in the past forty years as too many younger actors are too much attuned to television 'realist' work in which they mumble in the modern style.
Brokeback Mountain by Ashley Robinson based on E. Annie Proulx's short story, on 3rd August 2023 at @sohoplace Theatre. Distilled into an intense 90 minutes the heartrending story of Ennis (Lucas Hedges) and Jack (Michael Faist) from their teenage passions to their closeted adult lives is eloquently performed in one of London's newest acting spaces. The two young actors from the US are the drawcards having made strong impressions in various films (notably, for my part, in Manchester by the Sea for Hedges and the new West Side Story for Faist). They play well together throughout, and the conclusion is no less devastating for being well-known on account of the film (and the original story of course).
Guys and Dolls by Frank Loesser et al on 11th August 2023 at the Bridge Theatre. A hugely entertaining revival of the classic musical based on Damon Runyon's stories, in which the Bridge Theatre has once again proved its versatility in providing a promenade experience for those wishing to be more participative. Rostra rise and fall throughout the evening as the story moves from cafe to bar to revival hall, and the musical numbers are delivered with huge energy and flair. I'm not sure now at the time of writing whether I saw the original cast, but the scheduled run until early September had already been extended and in fact, with several cast changes, it has been running at the Bridge until the end of 2024.
Vanya by Anton Chekhov on 29th August 2023 at the Theatre Royal Richmond. Andrew Scott gave a tour de force performance of this adaptation in which he took all the parts. Astonishingly, it was always clear when he shifted from one character to another, and the stifling atmosphere enfolding both Vanya and his niece Sonya was no less powerful for being placed in a bare modern space. Occasionally the sheer versatility involved becomes distracting, and some choices may seem excessive, but in the hands of a consummate actor such as Scott the experiment is fascinating.
Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics) and Tom Kitt (music) on 7th September 2023 at the Donmar Warehouse. A powerful musical about the often misunderstood subject of bipolar disorder, this production was both exuberant and poignant. The Goodman family appears 'normal' at first, but Diana, the mother, is revealed to be suffering from bipolar disorder, having to face the dilemmas surrounding the options for treatment and/or medication, while other members of the family find their coping mechanisms under increasing strain. A pivotal revelation of family history recasts the whole story in a new light and leads Dan, the father, to a hugely moving new challenge. The cast managed the dizzying turns of mood and the complexity of handling such a difficult subject sympathetically through the music, with great skill.
That Face by Polly Stenham on 5th October 2023 at the Orange Tree Theatre. Another dysfunctional family with a mother mired in addiction and despair, and her two children damaged and bewildered - it's hard to watch but brilliantly acted in the intimate space of the Orange Tree.
Clyde's by Lynn Nottage on 26th October 2023 at the Donmar Warehouse. Clyde's is an unprepossessing sandwich bar in a down-at-heels part of Pennsylvania, which the fearsome manager Clyde rules in a reign of terror: her staff are released prisoners, which means she can control their destiny to keep them in line. A long-term employee is constantly pestering her to improve the quality and variety of the food, but she will have none of it; he sees the devising of the perfect sandwich as a means of redemption for his colleagues. In typical American style, the play is loaded with significance, but the execution carries the weight effortlessly.
Hamnet by Lolita Chakrarbarti based on Maggie O'Farrell's novel, on 1st November 2023 at the Garrick Theatre London (transferred from the Swan at Stratford). The novel evokes the short life and premature death of Shakespeare's son Hamnet (who died in 1596 at the age of 11), and also features the boy's mother Agnes (better known as Anne Hathaway). The narrative voice closely following both these people is extraordinary but is almost entirely missing from the stage adaptation; the decision to have Shakespeare's young children played by adults (or at least young actors too old for their parts) further dissipates the intensity of the crisis. In order to cover the story of Will's and Agnes's courtship, the fate of their son, and their differing experiences of grief, the play loses focus and becomes too expository and episodic. One can understand the RSC's interest in commissioning and producing the piece, but I felt that reading the novel was a far superior experience.
She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith on 23rd November 2023 at the Orange Tree Theatre. Given a 1930's Christmas setting this sparkling comedy is a delight to witness; Tom Littler has taken to the Orange Tree's distinctive ethos with great aplomb in his first season as artistic director. The ludicrous misunderstandings and hesitancies of the original, and the mixture of boorish and mercurial characters, transposes well to the new setting, proving that not only Shakespearean classics can flourish in having their period settings re-imagined.
Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen on 29th November 2023 at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. The famously candle-lit playhouse attached to Shakespeare's Globe in Southwark would seem to be the ideal space for Ibsen's claustrophobic drama of a mother and son crushed by events in their pasts, but the intensity of the piece was slightly dissipated by the sometimes heavy-handed directorial decisions of this production - the language sometimes too colloquial, the vivid scarlet carpet too symbolic. I have seen two other productions which packed more punch - one in Sydney in the 1980s and one at the Almeida in 2013.
My Neighbour Totorro by Tom Morton-Smith adapted from the Japanese animated film, on 30th November 2023 at the Barbican Theatre. I missed this stunning production from the RSC during its first London appearance a year ago (and it is now running again at the end of 2024), but on the advice of some relatives who had seen it I decided to see for myself in what turned out to be my last theatre visit of 2023. It is a brilliant piece of stage work bringing an unfamiliar aesthetic to life in the form of a folk tale happening to modern Japanese children. Beautifully staged with magical theatrical effects, it was a wonderfully satisfying treat.
