A Man for All Seasons

by Robert Bolt

seen at the Chichester Festival Theatre on 1 February 2025

Jonathan Church directs Martin Shaw as Sir Thomas More in this revival of Robert Bolt's 1960 play, with Edward Bennett as Thomas Cromwell and Gary Wilmot as the Common Man.

The play concerns the last years of Thomas More's life, concentrating on his promotion to be Lord Chancellor after Cardinal Wolsey's downfall, and his subsequent crisis of conscience over the king's 'great matter' (his proposed divorce and remarriage), brought to a climax when king Henry VIII declares himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and requires his subjects to swear the Oath of Supremacy. More attempts to avoid the issue by maintaining a strict silence on the matter, relying on the king's assurances of protection given in earlier days, but he is ultimately condemned through the perjury of a witness, and inevitably executed.

The story is by now familiar after decades of exposure to Tudor politics in novels, films and TV series, and this version of it alone may possibly have encouraged the fashion, particularly when it was turned into a successful film starring Paul Scofield in 1966 (he had originated the role on stage). The exposition is important, however, and it is still salutary to hear the ringing words of conviction about religious faith, the importance of law, and the dangers of special pleading or of setting expediency above strict adherence to legal principle. Martin Shaw delivered the lines with power and conviction, ensuring that More's integrity remains utterly convincing, as it must for the play to work.

Gary Wilmot portrays the Common Man (not present in the film), a bridge between the high and mighty figures of Tudor politics and the modern audience; frequently he addresses the audience directly, providing both narrative details and some comic relief, while taking part in proceedings as servant, boatman, jailer, juryman, and finally executioner. It's a strange device, but a welcome contrast to the excessive high-mindedness of More's stand.

It is fascinating to see this play in the light of Hilary Mantel's trilogy of novels about Thomas Cromwell, and their stage and television adaptations, since in Wolf Hall Thomas More is by no means a sympathetic character; whereas here he is the hero of the piece, a man of utmost integrity brought down by the determination of others who are corruptible. The deviousness of Cromwell is perhaps tinged with knowledge of Mantel's portrait, rather than being simply villainous - but if anything this adds richness to the whole enterprise as it places More in a context of real people rather than cardboard figures. Interestingly also, More's own failings may now seem more obvious through our awareness that he could be characterised in a different way. His concern to protect his family by refusing to explain to them what he is doing is all very well in legal terms, but there is also a heartlessness there, and he is all too obviously the authoritarian patriarch in his household.

The revival was well worth seeing; the conflict of conscience and high politics has not gone away, even if it seems hardly possible in today's climate that such stands as More's would be so prominently taken.

Singin' in the Rain

 based on the MGM film

seen at Sadlers Wells on 28 August 2021

Jonathan Church directs Adam Cooper as Don Lockwood, Charlotte Gooch as Kathy Selden, Kevin Clifton as Cosmo Brown and Faye Tozer as Lina Lamont in the stage adaptation of the famous MGM film starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor and Jean Hagen.

The story, an affectionate look at the transformation of the movie industry from silent to sound, inevitably appears somewhat more thin on stage, where the flimsiness of the characters is more exposed, but the chief attractions are the musical numbers, and these receive exhilarating treatment by the principals and the supporting chorus. The slapstick energy of 'Make 'em Laugh', with its dizzying use of cinematic tricks, cannot quite be matched on stage, but the delirious title song gets the full treatment, with Adam Cooper gleefully kicking up as much spray as possible from a stage drenched in huge amounts of rainwater. It is clearly wise not to be sitting in the front few rows of the stalls. The staging as a whole made excellent use of an all-purpose set designed by Simon Higlett with lighting by Tim Mitchell, creating many different locatons both interior and exterior with the minimum of fuss.

The thankless role of Lina Lamont, the rather bitchy actress whose voice and elocution desperately need the attention of a Professor Henry Higgins, but whose impossible vowels remain unchanged to the end, is given a wistful song in an attempt to increase her prominence, but this has the unfortunate effect of emphasising that she is little more than the butt of a joke which looks increasingly insensitive. This only goes to show that musicals of this vintage are almost impossible to redeem if one tries to impose modern sensibilities on them. Far better just to go with the flow, get sprayed with rainwater if one is close enough, and enjoy the show as sheer entertainment. 

The Price

by Arthur Miller

seen at Wyndhams Theatre on 6 March 2019

Jonathan Church directs Brendan Coyle and Adrian Lukis as two brothers, Vincent and Walter, with Sarah Stewart as Vincent's wife Esther and David Suchet as Gregory Solomon, an elderly second-hand furniture dealer, in a fiftieth anniversary production of Arthur Miller's play about the costs and misunderstandings of filial loyalty played out as the brothers meet after sixteen years to dispose of their father's property.

In an astonishing set designed by Simon Higlett to represent a lifetime's clutter, with chairs, desks and other bric-a-brac climbing surrealistically angled walls almost to hang from the ceiling, Vincent, a policeman nearing his retirement,  has returned to his father's apartment many years after the latter's death to dispose of all the moveables since the building is about to be demolished. This being an Arthur Miller play, the event is fraught with complex memories and resentments, revealed partly through the tense discussion with his wife when she arrives, when it becomes clear that Walter, the successful doctor brother, has been estranged from Vincent for many years and has not answered calls to help deal with this current crisis.

An Ideal Husband

by Oscar Wilde

seen by live streaming from the Vaudeville THeatre on 5 June 2018

Dominic Dromgoole has created a theatre company to perform all of Oscar Wilde's social comedies and some associated works; this is the third major production. Jonathan Church directs Sally Britton as Lady Chiltern, Nathaniel Parker as Sir Robert Chiltern, Faith Omole as Miss Mabel Chiltern, Frances Barber as Mrs Cheveley, Susan Hampshire as Lady Markby, Edward Fox as the Earl of Caversham and Freddie Fox as his son Viscount Goring.

This play has more substance than Lady Windermere's Fan (reviewed in March this year); though perhaps this is a modern conclusion, since the potential scandal driving the plot is one of political corruption rather than the revelation of illegitimate birth. Mrs Cheveley wishes to blackmail Lord Chiltern (a member of the government) into supporting a shady foreign deal because she has irrefutable evidence of the fact that he based his fortune on selling a Cabinet secret many years before. Although she is eventually foiled, and we are on the whole glad that this is the case (since she is herself hardly a moral paragon), the situation nevertheless raises many pertinent questions about loyalty, honesty, public power and private integrity, and there is no doubt that she scores many points.