Solaris

by David Greig from Stanislav Lem's novel

seen at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith on 31 October 2019

Matthew Lutton directs Polly Frame as Dr Kris Kelvin, Keegan Joyce as Ray, Jade Ogugua as Dr Sartorius, Fode Simbo as Dr Snow and Hugo Weaving (on video) as Professor Gibarian in this new adaptation of the 1961 science fiction novel, which has been twice adapted for the cinema, in 1972 (Tarkovsky directing) and in 2002 (Soderberg directing, George Clooney starring). Actually, I also saw an intense and strange theatrical version presented at Nottingham University in 1980.

The premise of the story is that the members of a scientific expedition orbiting the planet Solaris have strange 'visitors', taking the form of people from their past lives, which are presumed to be the attempt of the vast planetary ocean to contact the humans. The play opens with the arrival of Dr Kelvin on the station; she has arrived after the death of her mentor Professor Gibarian, who has left her some tapes; only Drs Snow and Sartorius are left. Kris Kelvin's 'visitor' is a past lover, Ray, an attractive oceanographer whom she dated in her student days but later lost touch with. (In the book and films, Dr Kelvin is male, and his visitor female.)

Waiting for Godot

by Samuel Beckett

seen at the Barbican on 10 June 2015

This production from the Sydney Theatre Company forms part of the Barbican's Inernational Beckett season. It is directed by Andrew Upton and features Hugo Weaving as Vladimir, Richard Roxburgh as Estragon, Philip Quast as Pozzo and Luke Mullins as Lucky, with Keir Edkins-O'Brien as the boy (in this performance).

The set contained the requisite tree and a mound to perch on, but also a few stumps (or truncated poles). A stage proscenium appeared to be set at an angle across the acting space, though it was not entirely clear which way it was facing. There were light bulbs all around it but these could have been stage lights (to be concealed from an audience on the other side) or part of a lighting effect to be used as a framing device (and hence visible to the audience) - in the event they were not used.

Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh made a brilliant duo as the tramps Vladimir and Estragon - by turns exasperated and touchingly reliant on each other, bored, frustrated, animated, confused, determined. Philip Quast and Luke Mullins provided the extraordinary and very disquieting distraction of Pozzo and Lucky - apparently a clear case of master-slave exploitation in the first act, unaccountably transmuted to a more ambivalent mutual dependency in the second.

The action is so stripped down, the situation so enigmatic, the prospect so bleak, yet the actors summoned the highest degree of attention from the audience to provide an exploration of humanity which in its final moments was deeply moving - a superb production of a difficult play.