Utility

by Emily Schwend

seen at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, on 28 June 2018

Caitlin McLeod directs Robyn Addison as Amber, Robert Lonsdale as her husband Chris, Matt Sutton as her brother-in-law Jim and Jackie Clune as her mother Laura, with the set, a detailed recreation of an unpretentious kitchen in an East Texas house, designed by Max Johns.

The play shows us mother-of-three Amber agreeing warily to the return of Chris to her life, and the stress she is under managing two jobs and three children with a man who means well but who lives somewhat chaotically. The bulk of the action covers a couple of days in which she is preparing for a party to celebrate her daughter's eighth birthday (the girl is evidently not Chris's, but he is devoted to her) and managing the party itself in a heatwave during which their electricity is cut off due to the non-payment of the bill. Chris had forgotten to pay the previous month's minimum tariff (he had spent the money on an indulgent present for his stepdaughter), and they now face having to pay the entire bill before they can revert to paying the minimum.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

adapted by David Harrower

seen at the Donmar Warehouse on 14 June 2018

Polly Findlay directs Lia Williams as Jean Brodie with Angus Wright as Gordon Lowther (the Music Master), Sylvestra le Touzel as Miss Mackay (the Headmistress), Edward MacLiam as Teddy Lloyd (the Art Master), Kit Young as the journalist and Rona Morison, Grace Saif, Emma Hindle, Nicola Coughlan and Helena Wilson as the girls Sandy, Monica, Mary, Joyce Emily and Jenny respectively in this new adaptation of Muriel Spark's novel about the charismatic but unorthodox teacher at a prestigious girls' junior school in Edinburgh in the 1930s.

A hint from the novel, which itself recounts events in the school lives of the girls while also looking forward to their adult careers, provides a framing device for this adaptation, whereby Sandy, the observant prospective writer, is being interviewed by a journalist on the day before she takes final vows in a convent. The ostensible reason for the interview is the publication of Sandy's book on psychology, but the journalist is keen to explore Sandy's memories of her schooldays, and it is his probing which generates the flashbacks telling the story of Miss Brodie's extraordinary influence on 'her' girls, an influence which begins with her dazzling teaching methods when they are eleven, but which continues to affect the favoured set (the only pupils that we actually see in the play) throughout their later years. 

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.

Journey's End

by R. C. Sherriff

seen at RADA's GBS Theatre on 2 June 2018

Prasanna Puwanarajah directs Doug Colling as Stanhope, Sabi Perez as Osborne, Kwaku Mills as Raleigh, Joe Mottas Trotter, Saffron Coomber as Mason, Josh Zaré as Hibbert, Ryan Hunter as Hardy and the RSM, Kate Griffin as the Colonel and Saul Barrett as the German soldier in this 1928 play, famously one of the first attempts to dramatise the reality of World War One trench warfare on the stage.

One would have thought that the only way to produce this play was in traditional terms, evoking the period in which it is set - it is after all a classic examination, not to say indictment, of the horror of life and death in the trenches rendered all the more intense by the close scrutiny it brings to bear on a small group of officers (the men are only referred to). However, the director wished to point up the universality of the battle experience, and to disabuse the audience of the now too comfortable option of regarding the play with a sort of distancing nostalgia; interestingly the program notes refer to the co-operation of the Sherriff estate in the enterprise. This was presumably needed because of some significant textual changes (references to PTSD rather than shell-shock, and some much more coarse language than the original could have been permitted), to say nothing of recasting some of the soldiers as women.

The Two Noble Kinsmen

by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher

seen at Shakespeare's Globe on 31 May 2018

This collaborative play, not included n the First Folio of Shakespeare's collected works, has gained inclusion in modern 'complete' editions, but it is still rarely performed. Barrie Rutter directs Bryan Dick as Arcite, Paul Stocker as Palamon, Ellora Torchia as Emilia, Francesca Mills as the Jailer's daughter, Moyo Akandé as Hippolyta and Jude Akewudike as Theseus in a production that makes a strong case for the play's revival.

The story, used also by Chaucer in his Knight's Tale, concerns the cousins Arcite and Palamon, both tken prisoner by Theseus when he defeats their uncle, and both recognised as valorous men even in captivity. Their intense friendship is broken when both fall in love with Emilia (Hippolyta's sister, Theseus's sister-in-law). In a trice their earnest protestations of eternal loyalty and blissful satisfaction in the joys of amity are forgotten and they are (or want to be) at each other's throats. Theseus releases Arcite to banishment, but he determines to remain close to Emilia despite his peril. The jailer's daughter, in love with Palamon, arranges for his escape but falls into a madness when he ignores her. The two cousins meet again in the forest and decide to fight for Emilia's love; they are interrupted by Theseus and his followers who are out hunting, and the king decrees a formal combat and compels Emilia to accept that the winner will be her husband and the loser will lose his life.

As You Like It

by William Shakespeare

seen at Shakespeare's Globe on 30 May 2018

Federay Holmes and Elle While direct Jack Laskey as Rosalind, Bettrys Jones as Orlando, Nadia Nadarajah as Celia, Pearce Quigley as Jacques and Helen Schlesinger as both Duke Senior and Duke Frederick, with support from others in the company, in this new production paired with Hamlet (reviewed earlier this month). As in Hamlet the casting is 'gender-blind' with some very interesting and amusing results. In particular, though a number of male Rosalinds have been seen since Adrian Lester's beguiling performance in the 1990s, it is unusual to have a female Orlando. In fact, Jack Laskey himself took the part in the Globe's 2009 production opposite Naomi Frederick's Rosalind.

The Grönholm Effect

by Jordi Galceran

seen at the Menier Chocolate Factory on 26 May 2018

B T McNicholl directs Jonathan Cke, Greg McHugh, Laura Pitt-Fulford and John Gordon Sinclair in this Spanish play (translated by Anne Garcia-Romero and Mark St. Germain) which recounts an interview process for an executive job in a high-flying but unspecified business. In this version the interview is taking place in New York, but the American setting is not crucial.

The four characters discover that this, their fourth round interview, is to be conducted jointly, which strikes them as odd. It soon becomes clear that the interview process itself is unconventional, as instead of meeting a panel, or even a single person, the four are presented with a series of tasks and challenges, the instructions arriving impersonally in envelopes addressed to one or more of them which appear in a mysteriously opening drawer at appropriate times.