Saturday, 28 December 2024

Apology for a long silence

It has been just over thirty months since I last posted a theatre review. Unfortunately I failed to maintain my custom of writing a review within a couple of days of seeing a play, and the number of unwritten reviews escalated quickly, making the task seem ever more formidable. 

With apologies for the resultant brevity, here is a brief account of what I saw in the remainder of 2022 since the last post in June of that year. Subsequent posts will deal with 2023 and 2024.

It's most likely that the email notifying you of this post will not contain the full text, so I recommend following the link to read everything (if you are still interested).

Oklahoma! on 25th June 2022 at the Young Vic. This was a fascinating re-imagining of the classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical, in which the characters of the story made their own music, with a small band on stage and the actors themselves replacing the usual lush orchestra of a Broadway/West End musical. From the moment when Curly's tuning of his guitar morphed into the opening chords of 'Oh, What a Beautiful Morning' there was a special atmosphere of excitement about the whole enterprise. The production also saw the raunchiest Ado Annie and the most handsome Judd one is ever likely to see. The food and drinks for the various social occasions were prepared onstage by the cast, but the party atmosphere was offset by a constant reminder that life was hard, family dynamics could be oppressive, and guns were everywhere. The dream sequence in the second act, always problematic, was perhaps the least successful segment of the show, which was otherwise a revelation.

The False Servant by Pierre Marivaux on 30th June 2022 at the Orange Tree Theatre. A witty and cynical look at human relationships with trickery, disguise and deception at its heart. The French style of comedy is something of an acquired taste, the poise and rhetorical flourishes of the language often seeming too ornate and lacking in emotional depth to an English audience.

The Southbury Child by Stephen Beresford on 6th July 2022 at the Bridge Theatre. A probing play in which a vicar's refusal to accommodate a grieving family's plans for their child's funeral exposes a wide range of social prejudices and moral quandaries. Excellent performances by Alex Jennings and Phoebe Nicholls as the vicar and his wife in a play that does not quite deliver on its initial promise.

A Doll's House Part 2 by Lucas Hnath on 14th July 2022 at the Donmar Warehouse. Does Nora ever return to the family home after the notorious slamming of the front door at the conclusion of Ibsen's play? Lucas Hnath imagines the return of a successful woman many years later when Nora faces more bruising encounters with the family and household she left behind. The production opened with the house dominating the stage; it was literally drawn up into the fly area to reveal the acting area. The play amazingly managed to introduce new dilemmas which were plausibly just like those deployed by Ibsen himself, but it was strange to witness characters in full nineteenth century dress cursing and swearing in a very modern way.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare on 20th July 2022 in Stoke Park, Guildford. The Guildford Shakespeare Company presented an open-air production in various locations in Stoke Park. We were seated in front of an acting area which allowed the staging of the opening tempest and an indication of Prospero's dwelling, but we were instructed to walk to different locations in the park to visit Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo, and the shipwrecked courtiers. In a daring move these scenes were acted concurrently three times over, with the audience split by badges handed out on arrival to watch them in assorted order. It so happened that I saw them in the order of the text, but it clearly worked in any sequence. In the second half, in the late summer twilight, we were back on our seats just as the heavens opened (plastic ponchos available at the bar). Half the audience on this evening were schoolchildren who were entranced, with no complaints or restlessness despite the rain, a sure sign that the production was a success.

South Pacific on 17th August 2022 at Sadlers Wells. Another Rogers and Hammerstein classic performed on more traditional lines than Oklahoma! and very enjoyably so despite its now problematic racism and sexism. These were addressed intelligently without tearing the fabric of the play itself through some sensitive interventions and adjustments by the director Daniel Evans.

The Trials by Dawn King on 25th August 2022 at the Donmar Warehouse. Teenagers in a world of poisonous air and general climate disaster preside over trials of their elders who have squandered the environment and now may be deemed 'climate criminals'. Is retribution the answer? The invincible self-righteousness of the young may encourage this response at whatever emotional cost; three trials in a claustrophobic space where peer-group pressure runs rife lay bare the high stakes. I found the production intense and confronting, as it was doubtless intended to be, but also worryingly blind. There was great emphasis on the climate catastrophe and the collusion (whether deliberate or 'accidental') of us all in the worsening degradation of the environment, but virtually no recognition that the high-minded search for justice among the young prosecutors and judges was degenerating into a dangerous vindictiveness. In a piece of virtue-signalling there was no physical programme; one had to read everything online (though there are environmental costs to unlimited internet coverage). The young actors, all of whom were excellent, expatiated in the programme notes on how much their awareness of the climate crisis was heightened by taking part in the play, but none of them expressed any reservations about the 'justice' meted out, or seemed to have any awareness of the bitter cycle in which idealistic movements all too soon begin to eat their own.

Handbagged by Moira Buffini on 21st September 2022 at the Kiln theatre. An exploration of Thatcherism and Margaret Thatcher's influence on British politics presented through the imagined conversations between the divisive PM and Queen Elizabeth II (conversations which occurred more or less weekly, but which in reality are completely confidential). An older and a younger version of both women take the stage, with two other actors filling in all the supporting roles (with a greater or lesser degree of competitiveness depending on who is to be portrayed). A sharp political piece which has lost none of its bite or relevance.

Yellowman by Dael Orlandersmith on 22nd September 2022 at the Orange Tree Theatre. A coloured couple in South Carolina reveal their relationship with one another from childhood friendship to adult coupledom, and show how deeply it is affected by the social and familial pressures surrounding them, which are often frighteningly toxic. In my general ignorance I had not imagined that the coloured communities in the US are themselves so fixated on gradations of colour, having assumed that white prejudice alone was the principal manifestation of prejudice. This was a salutary revelation of strong attachments battling with deep-seated self-loathing.

John Gabriel Borkman by Henrik Ibsen on 5th October 2022 at the Bridge Theatre. Not one of Ibsen's better known plays, this does nevertheless provide three actors with stunning opportunities: I have seen Paul Scofield, Eileen Atkins and Vanessa Redgrave at the National in 1996; Ian McDiarmid, Deborah Findlay and Penelope Wilton at the Donmar in 2007; and now Simon Russell Beale, Clare Higgins and Lia Williams take the parts of Borkman, his wife Gunhild and his sister-in-law Ella, all with powerful results. This new production presents the action in modern dress, which is at times disconcerting, though the nature of male narcissism has hardly changed and therefore the women's subservience is still all-too-credible.

The Solid Life of Sugar Water by Jack Thorne on 27th October 2022 at the Orange Tree Theatre. Indiana Lown-Collins, the winner of this year's JMK Award, directs Katie Erich as Alice and Adam Fenton as Phil in this short play which charts the life of a couple from their meeting to their attempt to deal with a catastrophe, the still-birth of their child. It takes place in and around a bed, and is intimate, funny, poignant and powerful. As required by the author (and the premise of the play), Alice is played by a deaf actor, and the wrenching denouement given in sign languages with titles projected on the gallery walls.

Othello by William Shakespeare on 4th November 2022 at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford. The play in this production by Frantic Assembly is re-set in modern gangland, Othello being the macho leader brought low by Iago's insinuations. Desdemona is no shrinking violet, and the action scenes are infused with dance-like energy and visceral rage: a revelation in a high-stakes approach to staging a classic.

Mary by Rona Munro on 24th November 2022 at Hampstead Theatre. Continuing her cycle of history plays revolving around Scottish monarchs (her three James plays were among the first productions I reviewed in this blog in 2014) Rona Munro has created an unusual play in which the titular figure makes only a fleeting and wordless appearance at the very end: everything is about the opinions and reactions of three people around her: an unsympathetic maidservant, a manservant with ambivalent allegiances, and Sir James Melville, a hitherto loyal courtier. It is intensely wordy but forensically gripping, and the mystique which still surrounds the figure of Mary Queen of Scots is cleverly maintained by our awareness that she is just in the next room but apparently unable or unwilling to speak for herself.

Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw on 26th November 2022 at the Orange Tree Theatre. Continuing a run of Shaw plays Paul Miller directs one of his most famous farces as his last major production as artistic director of the Orange Tree. He goes out on a high, with consummate performances all round, while the play itself, nearly 130 years old, has lost none of its fun nor its clever critique of mindless militarism and overbearing patriarchy.

The Band's Visit by Itamar Moses (script) and David Yazbek (score) on 1st December 2022 at the Donmar Warehouse. An Egyptian police band turns up mistakenly at a small Israeli village in the Negev and they and the locals interact during this unplanned visit to a place where 'nothing happens'. In short scenes aspirations are evoked, past disappointments revealed, and life goes on: a lovely conclusion to a year of theatre-going.

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