Sweet Charity

by Neil Simon (book) Cy Coleman (music) and Dorthy Fields (music)

seen at the Donmar Warehouse on 1 May 2019

This 1960s musical is revived by Josie Rourke as her last production as Artistic Director of the Donmar, with Anne-Marie Duff as Charity Hope Valentine and Arthur Darvill as Oscar, a doazen supporting actors in multiple parts, and a special appearance (in this performance) by Le Gateau Chocolat as Daddy Brubeck - different guest artists take this part during the run. Robert Jones designed the set, and Wayne McGregor the choreography.

Sweet Charity is based on a Fellini film in which the protagonist is constantly let down by the men in her life, dashing her hopes to gain some stability and domestic respectability. In this americanised version, Charity is a 'taxi dancer' in a nightclub where men can pay for a dance partner (with doubtless less respectable possibilities in mind); the girls put up with the job but it's not a good place to be. We first see Charity, a boundless optimist, being robbed by a cad of a boyfriend and dumped in a lake in Central Park - a clever piece of stagecraft involving a huge drum full of plastic balls - and returning to the nightclub almost unabashed by the downturn in her fortunes. An evening with a film star goes nowhere, then she meets Oscar, a shy young man who could be the answer to her dreams. If only.

The Madness of George III

by Alan Bennett

seen by live streaming from Nottingham Playhouse on 5 February 2019

Alan Bennett's 1991 play was revived last year at the Nottingham Playhouse (this screening last night was not, technically, live as it was a repeat, but it was first streamed live late last year). Adam Penford directed Mark Gatiss as George III, Debra Gillett as Queen Charlotte, Adrian Scarborough as Dr Willis, Nicholas Bishop as William Pitt and Wilf Scolding as the Prince of Wales, with a dozen supporting cast. The production was designed by Robert Jones.

The play deals with the personal and political crisis of the king's first bout of madness in 1788/9 (there is a casual reference to the fall of the Bastille towards the end of the play). The imagined personal life of the King and Queen is the main focus, but of course in the eighteenth century the mental incapacity of the monarch had grave political repercussions, especially considering the discord between the King and the Prince of Wales (dismayingly referred to by the Queen only as 'the Son'). Generally the opposition party tended to support the current Prince of Wales throughout the eighteenth century as some sort of Royal patronage was essential to political success; the modern idea of the 'loyal opposition' was in its infancy.

Saint Joan

by Bernard Shaw

seen at the Donmar Warehouse on 15 February 2017

Josie Rourke directs Gemma Arterton as Joan, Fisayo Akinade as the Dauphin, Richard Cant as Poulegny and de Stogumber, Hadley Fraser as Dunois, Jo Stone-Fewings as Warwick, Niall Buggy as the Archbishop, Rory Keenan as the Inquisitor and Elliot Levey as Cauchon in a production designed by Robert Jones.

Shaw's play, written in 1923, not long after Joan was canonised in 1920, uses material gleaned from historical sources close to the events of Joan's life and trials to present a strong-willed and forceful woman undone by the political realities of her time - a picture also of his general vision of the individual struggling to assert the best of humanity against often overwhelming odds.

One Night in Miami ...

by Kemp Powers

seen at the Donmar Warehouse on 17 November 2016

The play, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah and designed by Robert Jones, features Sopé Dìrisù as Cassius Clay, David Ajala as Jim Brown, Arinzé Kene as Sam Cooke, Francois Battiste as Malcom X, Dwane Walcott as Kareem and Josh Williams as Jamaal. It takes place in a hotel in Miami on the evening after Cassius Clay won the world heavyweight title from Sonny Liston and on the eve of his announcement that he would henceforth be known as Muhammed Ali.

The hotel room is bland and anonymous, and rendered more austere though needing to accommodate the teetotal and rather prim Malcolm X; it is clearly far from the celebrations associated with the fight and Clay's victory - but as Malcolm points out Clay would not be welcome as a guest in the more upmarket Miami hotels no matter what he had just achieved. 

The Motherfucker with the Hat

by Stephen Adly Guirgis

seen at the National Theatre (Lyttleton) on 30 June 2015

The production is directed by Indhu Rubasingham and designed by Robert Jones, and features Ricardo Chavira as Jackie (a prisoner on parole), Flor De Liz Perez as his girlfriend Veronica, Alec Newman as his sponsor (apparently in AA) Ralph, Nathalie Armin as Ralph's wife Victoria, and Yul Vázquez as Jackie's cousin Julio. It consists of nine scenes set variously in the flats of Veronica, Ralph and Julio.

The title is indicative of the language used within the play - street smart New York profanity. But Guirgis is a master when it comes to idiomatic dialogue; the rhythms are perfect and the title phrase acts as a leitmotiv throughout, indicating Jackie's frustration with his world as he tries to go straight but still maintain his sense of control. He has unfortunately found a stranger's hat in Veronica's flat, and her denial that anything untoward has happened does not reassure him. A series of incidents and revelations follow, which could easily have become vicious and nasty, but somehow we are in a comedic world where the worst does not happen - though there is still plenty of hurt (physical and mental) and heartache.

The cast are excellent (three are from the US, and Yul Vázquez was in the original production), and the staging is brilliant, with the three flats on separate truckle stages appearing and disappearing in the blackness of the Lyttleton stage, and a series of red-painted New York fire escapes floating into different configurations for each venue.

An essay in the programme refers to Guirgis's interest in the problem of leaving childish things behind and learning to behave in a grown up manner. Jackie in particular has a lot to learn about this process, but Ralph is correct in pointing out that Veronica too is hiding from adulthood by her reliance on coke. Yet Ralph himself is hardly a shining example. It is Julio, the disregarded 'faggot cousin', who has the wisest outlook, and perhaps the play's most moving reminiscence.

Despite the sense that any progress in these people's lives is fragile and small, the overall impression is of enormous vitality and energy, which is curiously refreshing.