The Royal Court theatre has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I saw a couple of plays upstairs in the late 1970's & 1980's, " Red Saturday" and " Salonika" but had never previously seen anything in the main house. But, thanks to the wonders of the Internet I managed to get hold of virtually the last seat ( amazingly in the front row) for Richard Bean's new play.
It always astonishes me that most theatre-goers avoid the front row like the plague. To me they are the best seats ( & rarely the dearest) as you have an unemcumbered view of the stage allowing you the perfect opportuntity to see (hopefully) great acting at close range.
The author's previous play " English People Very Nice" caused controversy at the National Theatre recently by tackling the thorny topic of racism. Tonight we saw him address another tricky modern topic, Climate change.
Juliet Stevenson plays Dr Diane Cassell a lecturer at York University, specialising in rising sea levels. Despite her line manager Professor Kevin Maloney running the Faculty of Earth sciences based on the principles of Climate change she is becoming increasingly sceptical and putting further valuable funding at risk.
This basic premise sounds very dry but the triumph of this writing is that I have rarely heard such genuine and regular belly laughs from any audience. It helps that they are joined by four beautifully crafted different characters, two youngsters both ( almost literally) driven to death by the concept of their planet collapsing around them, a zealous Security operative and a typically officious Human resources representative. They border on being stereo-types but Richard Bean manages to keep them real.
As the set changes in the second act from the confining domain of Diane's office to her home kitchen so the emphasis of the play alters. Following the consequences of her actions we are now in a domestic environment and watching a mother struggling to cope with her daughter growing up and moving out and her ex-lover trying to re-create a lost passion. They are all united by the climate change cause but it is now coming second behind the home drama unfolding about it.
The problem for any playwright is knowing how to end. For me the only draw-back to the whole evening was the rather old-fashioned, if crowd-pleasing ending. Following all the disturbing scenes that had proceeded it I found the finale belonged to a different era.
This was a pity as this had been a terrific state of the nation piece worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as another Royal Court theatre force of nature " Jerusalem". As ever a script is only as good as its cast and director Jeremy Herrin is fortunate to get Juliet Stevenson in tremendous form ( it must be written into her script that she must have at least one crying scene) and James Fleet proving an impressively strong foil to her in the dramatic scenes.
For me,though, the surprise of the evening were the blistering performances of the two youngest actors, Lydia Wilson and Johnny Flynn both passionately concerned about the planet, equally inept at dealing with other people but ultimately perfectly suited to living together in their unreal world.
Overall, this was an enjoyable play but not quite as hard-hitting as the subject deserves or possibly demands.
Monday 28 February 2011
Sunday 27 February 2011
A Bold Stroke For a Husband - 25th February 2011
Increasingly the West End is full of revivals and over-blown musicals based on (often) less than impressive films. So, how about this for a mind-blowing concept? A small ( intimate) theatre off Fleet Street specialising in forgotten classics or re-interpreting modern plays in a different way. And they are performed in less than an hour in a lunch-time to attract an office audience. Think it can't work, well head to The Bridewell Theatre to catch " A Bold Stroke To Attract A Husband" by Hannah Crowley.
Never heard of it? Well, no shame in that, I doubt if many of the packed, enthralled audience had either. The important thing is that we all thoroughly enjoyed our investment of a little time and a similar amount of money. So, for the amount you would probably spend on lunch at Pret-A-Manger you will instantly be transported to Spain.
We may not be in Shakespeare territory here but this Georgian play containing plenty of cross-dressing, plot, intrigue as well as the perennial " true love never did run smooth".
Little Bear's theatre concept is nothing less than genius in the modern era. For people with apparent short-attention spans and increasingly needing sound-bites this style is tailor-made for them. We have all endured classical plays with interminable sub-plots so complicated even Stephen Hawkings would struggle to follow them.
So, what do Little Bear do? Cut them straight out and purely concentrate upon the important parts of the plot eg a father desperate to marry off his only daughter who, naturally is headstrong, opinionated and enjoys infuriating all men. Eventually she falls for the only suitor who didn't come a wooing and had previously become involved with her maid, by mistake of course.
Ulimately, though the plot wasn't that important . The key factor was the quality of the performers. All eight of them took full advantage of their moments in the spotlight with clear well-annunciated dialogue and showing excellent comic timing. Condensing any play to less than an hour needs precise scene changes and clear direction, which Pip Minnithorpe oversaw brilliantly.
The pace naturally added an element of farce to the proceedings and never dropped although occcasionally one did get a little confused over all the Spanish names. The emphasis may have been on the comic elements ( take a bow Dan Smith for his scene-stealing role as Garcia/Vicentio in the Tommy Cooper tradition of playing two characters simultaneously) , all members of the cast also displayed impressive straight acting abilities.
Having becoming increasingly dissatisfied with what the West End has to offer this group completely re-vitalised this weary traveller. It was also pleasing to see such a well-attended a venue but it deserves a still wider audience. This format would perfectly fit the Edinburgh fringe festival so perhaps a trip to Scotland could be rewarding.
Never heard of it? Well, no shame in that, I doubt if many of the packed, enthralled audience had either. The important thing is that we all thoroughly enjoyed our investment of a little time and a similar amount of money. So, for the amount you would probably spend on lunch at Pret-A-Manger you will instantly be transported to Spain.
We may not be in Shakespeare territory here but this Georgian play containing plenty of cross-dressing, plot, intrigue as well as the perennial " true love never did run smooth".
Little Bear's theatre concept is nothing less than genius in the modern era. For people with apparent short-attention spans and increasingly needing sound-bites this style is tailor-made for them. We have all endured classical plays with interminable sub-plots so complicated even Stephen Hawkings would struggle to follow them.
So, what do Little Bear do? Cut them straight out and purely concentrate upon the important parts of the plot eg a father desperate to marry off his only daughter who, naturally is headstrong, opinionated and enjoys infuriating all men. Eventually she falls for the only suitor who didn't come a wooing and had previously become involved with her maid, by mistake of course.
Ulimately, though the plot wasn't that important . The key factor was the quality of the performers. All eight of them took full advantage of their moments in the spotlight with clear well-annunciated dialogue and showing excellent comic timing. Condensing any play to less than an hour needs precise scene changes and clear direction, which Pip Minnithorpe oversaw brilliantly.
The pace naturally added an element of farce to the proceedings and never dropped although occcasionally one did get a little confused over all the Spanish names. The emphasis may have been on the comic elements ( take a bow Dan Smith for his scene-stealing role as Garcia/Vicentio in the Tommy Cooper tradition of playing two characters simultaneously) , all members of the cast also displayed impressive straight acting abilities.
Having becoming increasingly dissatisfied with what the West End has to offer this group completely re-vitalised this weary traveller. It was also pleasing to see such a well-attended a venue but it deserves a still wider audience. This format would perfectly fit the Edinburgh fringe festival so perhaps a trip to Scotland could be rewarding.
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