The Tempest

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Barbican Theatre on 19 July 2017

Gregory Doran directs Simon Russell Beale as Prospero, Jenny Rainsford as Miranda, Mark Quartley as Ariel and Joe Dixon as Caliban in this RSC production designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis and created with the collaboration of Intel and the Imaginarium Studios.

Two talking points were at the heart of this production: the return of Simon Russell Beale to the Royal Shakespeare Company to play Prospero after a long period of distinguished engagements elsewhere, and the use of cutting edge performance capture technology and other digital effects to enhance the presentation of Ariel and to replicate in the modern age the impact of the resplendent masques that were all the rage in the Jacobean court of the early seventeenth century. 

Romeo and Juliet

by William Shakespeare

seen at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on 7 July  2017

Daniel Kramer directs Edward Hogg as Romeo and Kirsty Bushell as Juliet in this controversial production designed by Soutra Gilmour, set in an indeterminately modern environment - guns and loud music, but not much sign of other technology - with everyone in extreme white clown make-up except for Paris and Friar Lawrence who have gold faces.

The critics panned the production as incoherent and unnecessarily loud and vulgar. It is certainly surprising to discover Lord Capulet dressed as a (black) alligator and leading a raucous rendition of the Village People's YMCA as he hosts his party. It is more than a bit weird that the major deaths occur by means of pistol shots, but that the wielder of the pistol continues to talk about swords, rapiers, vials of poison, or whatever, and then merely utters the word 'Bang' to indicate that the weapon has been fired. Towards the end of the play, Paris is not dispatched, but Romeo shoots Juliet's parents and his own parents.

On occasion, some scenes are played simultaneously. Most notably the scene in which the Nurse (Blythe Duff, very Scottish) informs the distraught Juliet of Romeo's banishment is superimposed on the scene in which Friar Lawrence (Harish Patel, behaving more like a Hindu mystic than a Catholic friar) advises the distraught Romeo to depart for Mantua. Romeo and Juliet are thus kneeling on the same bed although they are oblivious of one another, being in entirely different spaces.

Ink

by James Graham

seen at the Almeida Theatre on 5 July 2017

Rupert Goold directs Bertie Carvel as Rupert Murdoch and Richard Coyle as Larry Lamb with support from eleven others in this new play concerning Murdoch's acquisition of the Sun newspaper and his editor's efforts to surpass the sales figures of the rival Daily Mirror within a year.

Once again James Graham has looked to a significant episode in British life from four or five decades ago and converted it into a fascinating play which turns out to have unexpected contemporary relevance. This House dealt with the minority Labour government of the mid-1970s and exposed in dramatic form the extraordinary stresses under which such a government operates from day to day. Now, after the recent election, the Tories find themselves in a similar and unenviable situation, and barely a month since the election it is already clear that strength and stability may well be in short supply.

Ink deals with the emergence of Rupert Murdoch as an unignorable figure in the field of British print media, at just the time in which his Fox company is proposing to become the major shareholder (i.e. owner) of Sky. But the play presents a surprisingly nuanced picture of the younger Murdoch, physically awkward and often ill at ease, determined to smash what he sees as outdated and outmoded Fleet Street traditions, but occasionally nervous about the methods adopted by his editor. 

Anatomy of a Suicide

by Alice Birch

seen at the Royal Court Theatre on 29 June 2017

Katie Mitchell directs Hattie Morahan (Carol), Kate O'Flynn (Anna) and Adelle Leonce (Bonnie) with support from seven other actors in multiple roles in this intense study of three generations of women, two of whom commit suicide.

Carol's story starts in 1972 when she is met by her husband just after a failed suicide bid, while Anna's story begins in 1998 when, almost crippled by drug use, she is confronted by a young intern whose hospitality and kindness she has abused. Bonnie, in 2033, is binding up the wounds (self-inflicted?) of Jo, a fisherwoman who is obviously attracted to her.

An Octoroon

by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

seen at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond on 24 June 2017

Ned Bennett directs a cast of eight in this new play freely adapted and commenting on Dion Boucicault's 1859 play The Octoroon, a melodramatic shocker purporting to address the slave question by following the fortunes of an octoroon (one-eighth negro) who nobly forswears her love for the newly arrived inheritor of the plantation on which she has been brought up.

In this version the African-American playwright BJJ (Ken Nwosu) opens proceedings with a monologue about his position on the New York drama scene and his attempt to stage his adaptation with limited resources. This entails him 'whiting up' to play the new master George and the villain M'Closkey, while a white actor (Alistair Toovey) has to 'black up' to play various negro males. The playwright Boucicault (Kevin Trainor) in turn 'reds up' to play a native American, and later as an auctioneer insouciantly announces that he has been sunburnt while carrying out his duties. The female characters (Vivian Oparah, Emmanuella Cole, Cassie Clare, Celeste Dodwell and Iola Evans) are not required to disguise their skin colour.

Tristan & Yseult

by Carl Grose and Anna Maria Murphy

seen at Shakespeare's Globe on 22 June 2017

Emma Rice has adapted and directed the original Kneehigh touring production of Tristan & Yseult for this revival at Shakespeare's Globe, where Dominic Marsh plays Tristan and Hannah Vassallo plays Yseult with support from Mike Shepherd (King Mark), Niall Ashdown (Brangian and Morholt), Kyle Lima (Frocin) and Kirsty Woodward (Whitehands), and various musicians.

It's an eclectic piece, with various songs and ballads of loneliness and difficult love, an occasional use of the opening of Wagner's prelude to establish serious intent, imposing verse speaking from King Mark and a more conversational tone from almost everyone else, modern dress which somehow looks timeless, but sailing ships for transport and only knives and fists for weapons.

Life of Galileo

by Bertolt Brecht translated by John Willett

seen at the Young Vic on 7 June 2017

Joe Wright directs Brendan Cowell as Galileo with a supporting cast of ten in this didactic play concerning the struggle between the scientific mind and the entrenched dogmas of the post-Reformation Catholic church.

Galileo's personality is overwhelming in this play as he exults in his astronomical discoveries and relies on the strength of physical observation of phenomena to underpin the realignment of scientific knowledge. Around him the rich and powerful see only the commercial or entertainment advantages of inventions such as the telescope, rather than its usefulness in discovering shadows on the Moon or moons around Jupiter. His disciples are impressed, his family exasperated, his patrons largely boorish, and the church prelates who happen to be intellectual only dabble in his enthusiasms. Even the Barberini pope, taken to be an ally when he is a cardinal, succumbs to prudential arguments and allows Galileo to be intimidated into silence.