Month: February 2016

Catch-Up Post of Mediocrity (and Occasional Brilliance)

1 Comment

A Christmas Carol (WE)

Jim Broadbent is incapable of acting badly, but his Ebeneezer Scrooge was essentially phoned-in. And the prices they charged for a rickety set and play-sort-of-within-a-play that didn’t know whether it wanted to be funny or serious were utterly ridiculous. A blatant attempt to rip off the holiday market, and I was not in the mood to be fleeced. A serious disappointment.

Jane Eyre (NT)

This adaptation, brought from the Bristol Old Vic and directed by Sally Cookson, had its moments of pleasure. It was well-acted throughout, with Madeleine Worrall playing Jane from (literally) infancy to adulthood, and Felix Hayes a fiery Rochester. Melanie Marshall’s stunning voice saved the evening for me, as I was not enormously fond of the experimental nature of the production. It also featured the first (but not the last) instance of a person playing an animal (here a dog) that I would see at the NT in January.

As You Like It (NT)

The NT clearly spent a lot of money on this production, and the transition from the first act’s office to the “forest” was visually stunning, and even appeared slightly dangerous for the participants. But playing the first act in an office was unduly constrained and somewhat dull, and I could not see any creative justification for it. Generally well acted, but Rosalie Craig’s Rosalind did not, for me, have her usual luminous brilliance. More people playing animals in this one, sheep this time, which they did almost disconcertingly well. An odd production and, for me, unsuccessful.

Grey Gardens (Southwark)

Sheila Hancock was heartbreaking and hilarious, and Jenna Russell very strong indeed in this stripped-down version of a Broadway hit. Well staged and enjoyable, this rumination on the decay of an American family (cousins of Jackie Kennedy Onassis) provided a great deal of pleasure. A generally strong supporting cast sang beautifully and recreated an affluent inter-war American household with great attention to detail (good accents throughout!). I didn’t love it as it was very uneven, with the second half much better than the first, but I liked it very much.

Husbands and Sons (NT)

Oh my, is it ever grim up North. This combination of three of D.H. Lawrence’s plays about miners and their wives and mothers was beautifully staged, impeccably acted and utter misery from start to finish. I booked for Anne-Marie Duff and she did not disappoint, with her exquisite acting in the final scene just about making up for all the suffering that had gone before. One for the die-hards only.

Ellen Terry with Eileen Atkins (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe)

This was a rather wonderful exploration of Shakespeare’s female characters. Based on lectures that the actress Ellen Terry developed with Henry Irving, Eileen Atkins played excerpts from some of Shakespeare’s greatest plays and provided new insights into the motivations of Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Beatrice and other heroines. I was glad that it was only 70 minutes long, however, as the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is, while a bijou gem, deeply uncomfortable as a theatre. An acting master class.

Rabbit Hole (Hampstead)

This emotionally devastating exploration of a child’s death has a strong cast, led by Claire Skinner and Tom Goodman-Hill, and is well acted throughout. But I’m afraid the tragedy lost its effect on me because of the terrible American accents (with the honourable exception of Penny Downie’s Nat, whose accent is very good). The play is very strongly set in Westchester County, but many people who live there have generic east coast accents. It’s really not necessary to try for Yonkers when Manhattan will do.

The Homecoming (WE)

A 50th anniversary production of one of Pinter’s most shocking plays. It remains shocking, but possibly for reasons other than those intended. This sordid exploration of men’s lust and women’s power retains its dramatic force, but reveals rather more about the playwright than I suspect he intended. John Simm as Lenny, Ron Cook as Max, Keith Allen as Sam, Gary Kemp’s Teddy and John Macmillan’s Joey are all excellent, with Simm and Cook as particular highlights. But it is Gemma Chan’s Ruth who intrigues us most, as she shows us the woman behind the fantasy. Worth booking for her performance.

Red Velvet (Garrick)

Leave a comment

I have been seeing plays (quite a lot of them, in fact) but they have, by and large, been of such unremitting mediocrity that I have felt quite dispirited and not inclined to write a review. The catch-up post of mediocrity is on its way, for those who relish such things.

I was blown out of my January torpor, however, by the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company’s presentation of Red Velvet. This is the true story of Ira Aldridge, a black American who took over for the great Edmund Kean in the part of Othello on stage at Covent Garden in 1833. His performance was well received by the audience, but the racist critics of the time savaged him, and he was removed after only two performances. The story itself is astonishing enough, but the play was well constructed and very moving.  Lolita Chakrabarti’s play originated at the Tricycle, and focuses on imagined incidents from Aldridge’s life, which must have been an extraordinary one. It is an excellent play and extremely topical, given the ongoing conversation about diversity in the performing arts.

The play would not have been a success without Adrian Lester’s outstanding performance.  It begins and ends with time in Poland at the end of Aldridge’s life, and Lester is wonderful as an old man with a fierce sense of pride in his accomplishments and regret at his failings, understandable though they certainly are. But the highlight of the show is the central section, in which Aldridge takes over for the great Kean, facing the blatant racism of the time, prejudice against Americans and suspicion of his desire to use a more naturalistic style of acting.

It is a measure of Lester’s acting skill that he made even the mannered, gestured acting of the time work, and I wanted more than the brief glimpses of Othello provided (his Othello at the National was outstanding and is fondly remembered). Charlotte Lucas was sympathetic and skilled as Ellen Tree/Desdemona, Emun Elliott was nuanced as Aldridge’s French friend/promoter, and Ayesha Antoine’s serving girl well performed and with a heart and mind decidedly of her own.

There are several shocking moments in the play which I will not ruin for those who want to see it (unlike many newspaper critics, who blithely reveal the final coup de theatre). All I will say is that they show us both how far we have come as a society and how very, very far we have yet to go. Lester’s performance is unmissable and the rest of the production very good indeed. Enjoyable, and important.