Private Lives Review

Private Lives by Noel Coward
Vaudeville Theatre WC2
http://tinyurl.com/PrivateLives

Flippin' Fun

TLT’s little buggy almost  felt bereft of an  ivory cigarette holder taped to the exhaust after watching an early preview of Noel Coward’s elegantly brittle 1930 comedy.  Elyot and Amanda, flip cut-glass socialites, are on their honeymoon in France – only with their spouses, simpering Sybil and uptight Victor,  rather than each other.  After meeting accidentally, they realize, although divorced, they must rekindle their relationship, however stormy and scandalous.  This is TLT’s first foray into Coward territory, a stylised yet tremendously funny treat in this finely-judged production, beautifully lit with atmospheric set design by Rob Howell.  Kim Cattrell’s porcelain Amanda builds charmingly in pathos and comedy as the play progresses sparking with Matthew Macfadyen who gives an inspired endearing vulnerability to his barbed teddy bear of an Elyot. Meanwhile Lisa Dillon and Simon Paisley Day create a sympathetic romance and more than hold their own as Sybil and Victor, allowing the audience to root for them as a couple alongside the warring and almost fatally attracted protagonists.  And with overall spot-on timing (including a suitably French French maid played by Caroline Lena Olsson) and a modern “how will it all end?” feel to tear away any gauzy rose-coloured expections, TLT gives this production a green light as sparkly as an emerald.

Cheeky Chekhov

Just a quick note about the Chekhov week at the Hampstead Theatre. TLT went along to see Chekhov’s Vaudevilles, the first of a week’s performances/readings celebrating the Russian playwright. Superb performances of some of Chekhov’s very funny (yes, you read right, Chekhov was a very funny writer!) farces by all involved: David Horovitch, Miriam Margolyes, Steve McNeil and Michael Pennington (and playwright Michael Frayn as “the narrator” ;) ). This performance was a one-off but, by the look of the starry line-up for the rest of the week, there will be equally wonderful performances in store and, by the look of the auditorium, tickets eagerly sought. Fascinating also to hear Rosamund Bartlett, one of Chekhov’s major translators, talk about the playwright's life and the quest to renovate the writer’s home in Yalta (now the Ukraine) which has been overlooked in the “to do” list by the new Eastern European wealthy http://www.yaltachekhov.org/ 

CAMDEN NEW JOURNAL UPDATE February 2 2010

Twist in tale as oligarch Alexander Lebedev boosts Hampstead Theatre's Chekhov home fund

Six Degrees of Separation Review

Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare
The Old Vic, London SE1
http://www.oldvictheatre.com/

Black and White and Red All Over

Before the net revolutionized relationships, the idea of six degrees of separation was popularized by this fascinating 1990 play inspired by a real-life story of a trickster who posed as film star Sidney Poitier’s (non-existent) son.  A New York art dealer and his wife take in a wounded stranger offering him a spare room, only to discover they are among several dupes in their social circle of a conman who has filleted information out of a male lover, a former classmate of their children.  The charge of racism, cited at one point by the couple’s self-righteous Harvard-educated daughter, is a red herring compared to more intricate veins connecting conned and conman.  On one side, the trickster (Obi Abili)  living on the edge whose credentials could have been easily checked in a published biography.  On the other, the art dealer (Anthony Head) with wife (the excellent Lesley Manville) in tow gambling on using borrowed cash from an ambiguous source to broker a deal.  In fact, the six degrees theory is a glib rationalization of a far more confused kaleidoscope where modern life’s contradictions,  evasions and literary self-consciousness allow the strained sophisticates to want to believe in the purported idealism of a  fake.  Acting in a preview performance of this classy revival held attention but TLT  found the production curiously unaffecting, more red faces all round than viciousness and sordidness, not helped by some bland but showy male nudity.  So, while the production’s emotional investment should have remained high for a Facebook and Twitter generation, just about an amber light.

Inherit The Wind Review

Inherit The Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee
The Old Vic, London SE1
http://www.oldvictheatre.com/

Heresy and Headlines

The trusty jalopy had to tractor along to Waterloo,  if only to see Kevin Spacey act on stage.  Such a celebrity reason was bound to be ambushed – luckily in the best possible way. TLT’s fuzzy historical perception was of a white-haired, short-waisted Spencer Tracey (in this case KS) verbally assailing a court, waving Darwin's Evolution of the Species. But the play turns out to be much more than that,  a gripping  ensemble tragedy, even if apparently noone's life, only a school curriculum, is at stake.  Hard to judge KS’s performance, through no fault of his own. Simply he's known as a brown-haired public personality and much younger than his white locks in this production. Still TLT thought, whether it’s celebrity pre-destination or not, he was fine. But that, to paraphrase a line in the play, is not the point. This communal drama puts everything on the scales and pays the dividends.  Honest voices rising above the mob are the schoolboy who declares he has to think things [pause] over before anyone tries to steamroller him into accusing his schoolteacher of heresy. And  the local merchant who says opinions are bad for business (though later breaks his own rule). Yet who are the lost souls of the play? Not the townsfolk, enveloped in charismatic religion,  nor the beleagured schoolteacher and his daughter-of-the-local-preacher girlfriend, nor the chequebook journalist. Rather it's the two lawyers (KS the defence and the prosecution cum politician played magnificently by David Troughton) left to duel in a fee-driven political limbo like two warring heads on the same body, fulfillling the biblical injunction of inheriting the wind. Definitely a green light.

Molière or The League of Hypocrites Review

Molière or The League of Hypocrites by Mikhail Bulgakov
Finborough Theatre, London SW10
http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/

Periwig and Sickle

Back to the Finborough to see an interesting take on the machinations of artistic life under Soviet rule through the prism of seventeenth century playwright Molière and the machinations of Louis XIV's French court. Lively direction and performances by all concerned, a mix of young and upcoming and more seasoned actors. An appreciative full house added to a play well-suited to the Finborough bijou stage with clever design making the most of the atmospheric fringe theatre. This is a play relying on the audience understanding cathartic codes to escape Stalinist censorship eg For Catholic Church descending on beleaguered playwright, read Communist Party while the farcical features lightly mask a deeply tragic reality. A stand out performance by Gyuri Sarossy as King Louis but all the cast did well in an engrossing piece of theatre. TLT felt it was well worth the price of a ticket and gives it a green/amber light.

Our Class Review

Our Class by Tadeusz Słobodzianek

National Theatre, SE1
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/

Double History

Another National Theatre trip - this time to see a Polish play having its premiere run at the Cottesloe, yet to appear in Poland. The story revolves around Polish Jewish and Catholic classmates together before the Second World War only to be ripped apart in every direction as Poland is overrun first by Soviet troops, then by National Socialists and then as contested truths begin to emerge post war. In TLT's opinion, there's a lot that's very fine in this drama (mainly the second act) but also much that is weak (mainly the self-conscious first act). The first half introduces an unnamed town's Jewish and Catholic children starting 1920s infant class and takes us up to the wartime massacre of the Jewish population by fellow townsmen - and classmates. It felt like a lot of telling. The historical timeline is presented but with no sense of subtext and no link to a newly independent and economically struggling infant democracy emerging from colonial rule.  At least one myth, of how surnames were changed on immigration, seemed to be accepted as an unimpeachable truth and there was a certain amount of stereotyping (even down to wedding day Fiddler On The Roof choreography). One line  put into the mouth of a woman jarred on TLT as if gender roles had been reversed for impact rather than truth. The atrocities,  though undeniably needing to be brutal and powerfully portrayed,  sometimes crossed the line for TLT into sensationalism. The second half  deals with the aftermath of the war up to modern times and, for TLT, was far the stronger,  containing a powerful subtext not only reflecting a certain situation within Poland but also, just as intractably, the world outside. Integrating seamlessly and poignantly political and emotional understanding, it felt much more fluid with fully rounded personalities, a sense of place, and a feel for gender divides  conjured up on the bare stage. Excellent acting throughout. If only the first act had shown more of the insight of the wholly absorbing second act it would have been a green light. As it is, an amber light award from TLT.

The Power of Yes Review

The Power of Yes by David Hare
National Theatre, SE1
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/

Foreclosed Minds

What a class-ridden declamatory curiosity The Power of Yes turns out to be. And what are we to make of unperturbed corporate creatures who step forward to rehearse legally safe phrases? No tackling even of basic questions such as what defines a “banker” nowadays when nobody seems to sport the founding name of the financial institution where they work. (Where are Mr Goldman and Mr Sachs or indeed Mrs Goldman and Mrs Sachs?). Instead a drippy fotherington-thomas author wants to have a chat with white middle class people who made a career choice after uni and are deemed to be VERY IMPORTANT. How nice. Let’s have dinner. Let’s commiserate about how things seem to have gone wrong. Except only the proles – oops – debt-laden fellow citizens have to trot along to the Citizens Advice Bureaux. For these on-stage ethereal creatures CAB still appears to mean that thing you hail on expenses. A red light opportunity missed. Or maybe the opportunity has already been grasped?  http://tinyurl.com/d8vej9

Breaking News (warning, this report contains flash beeping)

Beep! Beep! Beep! TLT was, to use a technical theatre motoring term, gobsmacked by an email from Jenni at Stagejobspro that we’re the Featured Theatre Blog of the day! Whoooay! Perfect three point turn, spotting hidden crossroads, passing the test and MOT all at once! My car  is scarlet with pride and my blog is read! Over-excited but conscientious as ever, TLT stopped at a handy layby to look through http://www.uk.stagejobspro.com/f/319 . Although a cute little burping stream of non-highway code beeps may have distracted passing motorists … Beee …eeep!

The Ones That Flutter Review

The Ones That Flutter by Sylvia Reed
Theatre503, SW11
http://www.theatre503.com/

Leasehold Lives

The fluttering ones being birds shot on a hunt who cling to their lease on life nevertheless … This intriguing yet ultimately frustrating play seems to defy its tag as a death row drama with its centre shifting from scene to scene. This could be one of its raisons d’etre, although TLT found as one scene followed another, moments of conflict felt a little schematic and forced. The play touches on big issues: death row, the svelte representative of a property developer wielding – presumably - pre-credit crunch cash, the relationship between taciturn white warder and his Texan jail tenant, a poetic black prisoner, a claustrophobic and violent childhood, a lost sibling. At the same time, having only hints of emotional connections and threat rather than making us feel them underpowers this one-act play. Yet, alongside atmospheric set design and sound, this drama's pace holds the audience, while there’s enough in the writing and acting to whet the appetite and catch fluttering glimpses of something more substantial. An amber light for a thought-provoking evening.

Review: Mother Courage and Her Children

Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht
National Theatre, SE1
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/

Ma Courage Struts Her Stuff

First time ever to see this Brecht classic. Mother Courage (Fiona Shaw) less a representation of maternal courage than a would-be profiteer, an obliviously harmful whirlwind, unevenly revealing and suppressing her motherly instinct for children who could just as well be three war orphans picked up on the way. Costumed from 18th century rock-chick bustle via other conflict fashion to a final clinical 21st century boilersuit, Mother Courage sashays behind the lines, accompanied by dreadlocked singer and band. In keeping with Brecht’s theory of distancing (I assume) there’s raucous noise, yelling, some over miked singing and narration and a lot of hammering home of messages.  TLT did wonder if the production would have been a more powerful frayed tapestry with a few less dischordant chords revealing more of the text and plot threads. So, as hit and miss as Mother Courage’s attempt to profit from war (bearing in mind TLT saw a work-in-progress preview). Just about an amber light acquired taste from TLT for a non clock-watching experience while the audience gave it a standing ovation green but several empty seats after the two-hour first act and interval indicated some might see red ... :o