Rev Stan's theatre blog

Dame Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw talk Peter and Alice at Q&A

You never know which of the cast is going to turn up for a post performance Q&A so it was such a treat to get Dame Judi Dench, Ben Whishaw and Peter & Alice director Michael Grandage at the What's on Stage event. MG kicked off proceedings while the cast were getting out of costume:

How did Peter and Alice come about?

Met John Logan (who wrote Peter and Alice) while working at the Donmar. JL had wanted to write something for that space and Red arrived perfectly formed. MG said he and the writer had a common bond, had a good collaborative working relationship and good friendship. Logan had suggested Peter and Alice while Grandage was winding down as artistic director at the Donmar. He went to Dame Judi with whom he had worked before and she was enchanted by it. Then went to Ben and he liked it "So I got my first choices".

Will he throw his hat into the arena for Nicholas Hytner's job at the National Theatre?

"Flattered to think my name has been mentioned in relation to National Theatre" but doesn't want to run a building again as he's done it before and said there are plenty of talented people out there.

Cast arrive, Dame Judi is drinking champagne and Ben Whishaw red wine both seem relaxed laughing and joking throughout.

Why did you take the part?

BW said he was very moved  by the story. He'd had no idea about the real story behind the famous children's story and was shocked by the tragedy of it. He had an emotional reaction to it.
DJ "Michael Grandage read it to me and read it far too well and I said yes straight away." In 1960 she had been living in Eton Terrace and Sloane Square was her local tube so she remembered the death of Peter Llewelyn Davies [he jumped in front of a train at the station].

Interview: What it's like being an understudy for a West End play (Peter and Alice)

I was flicking through the Peter and Alice programme and noticed a familiar face among the understudies. The face belongs to Henry Everett with whom I'd worked some 10 years ago; he left journalism to train to be an actor.

It got me thinking about what it's actually like being an understudy, always wondering if you'll get to go on in front of an audience, what it's like if you do go on and how the understudies work with the cast? Fortunately Henry was happy to answer to my barrage of questions over a pot of chamomile tea between today's matinee and evening performance.

Henry is understudy for two parts: Lewis Carroll and James Barrie. He'd been reluctant to audition having understudied a couple of times before but was persuaded to by his agent. A week or so ago he got to put all his preparation into practice when Derek Riddell who plays Barrie was ill. This is what he had to say about being an understudy and that call.

On rehearsals:
"The understudies watch the rehearsals picking up the blocking and any advice the director (Michael Grandage) gives the actors. Then after the actors have left we spend two hours with the assistant director rehearsing.

A proper trailer for Peter and Alice

 

And my first and second thoughts when I saw it back in March (second trip coming up in just a few weeks)

Critics review round up for Ben Whishaw and Judi Dench's Peter and Alice

Ever since seeing the first performance of Peter and Alice I've been curious about what the critics would make of it. Chat on Twitter has been mixed - official channels naturally retweeting the effusive praise. I've also had three reasoned criticisms on my own review, which itself happened to be favourable. That the professionals reviews might be mixed was pretty much written on the cards and that does indeed seem to be the case, ranging from three to five stars.

Michael Billington, The Guardian ****

Billington felt the script was a little too studded with opposite views, describing it, quite cleverly I think, as 'not so much Q and M as Q and A'. However he adds: 'Where Logan succeeds is in portraying the pleasure and pain of becoming an iconically inspirational figure, and in providing two gift roles for actors.'

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail ***

Also had mixed views ultimately feeling that considering the plays subject matter about life and death lacked 'religious consideration' not something I can agree with as I don't think one necessarily leads to the other. Perhap he was just in the mood for something a bit more cheerful: 'But the play, while admirably high-minded and interesting, is inevitably a bit doom-laden. How can a story which looks back so much, not least on the losses of the First World War, be anything but sorrowful?'.

Second thoughts: Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw in Peter and Alice

When Ben Whishaw's Peter Llewelyn Davies arrives on the Noel Coward Theatre stage, his is a slightly dishevelled appearance. He is half way to growing a moustache and beard and his hair looks like it has hastily and not quite successfully been dampened down to tame it. He nervously attempts flatten it throughout.

His clothes look well-worn and either he has lost weight or they didn't quite fit to start with. This is a man who cares little about his appearance or has cares enough to distract himself from it most of the time.

Judi Dench's Alice Liddell Hargreaves, by contrast, is well turned out in a nice dress and a fur stole although she leans heavily on a stick. She has a slightly snooty, guarded air.

For the next hour and a half Alice and Peter spar, debate and peel back the layers to reveal two very different, yet similar lives. Both inspired famous childrens literary characters: Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. They are the equivalent of JK Rowling having based Harry Potter and Hermione Granger on people she knew and telling the world who they were.

Peter and Alice is a multi-layered piece that on one level examines how fame affected the two 'muses' but on other it looks at childhood, innocence, memories and what it means to grow up.

First thoughts: Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw in #PeterandAlice

Expectations were as high as could be for Peter and Alice, and probably unfairly for what was the first preview. It did take a little while to get into its stride. The device writer John Logan has chosen, of mixing fantasy and reality, probably doesn't help because it is a skill getting the two to easily gel but there are plenty of promising signs.

Those who enjoyed the lightness and frivolity of Privates on Parade may find this, by contrast, a more difficult piece. Yes it has its laughs - some wonderful cutting remarks given by Dame Judi as the adult Alice, for example, but it is a far more brooding, conversational piece that muses and hints at darker issues.

If you know of Peter Llewellyn Davies' and Alice Liddel's history you will have an inkling and as such its power is in the way it slowly builds to an emotional conclusion - Mr W, despite his energetic bow and big smile for Dame Judi at the curtain was really teary-eyed. And so was I, and a little bit breathless.

My one bit of advice is that Michael Grandage get him a dresser. I've seen him with shirts buttoned up wrongly or even buttons missing when he's been in his own clothes and all I'll say is you are asking for trouble putting him in a costume with button up flies.

It was a joy to see him on stage after so very long (three years!) and his is a performance that is only going to develop and grow with the run - something I will relish seeing when I revisit in May. Dame Judi was also a joy to watch beautifully marrying the adult Alice with glimpses of the child Alice's demeanour.

Have much more to say but will save it for tomorrow.

Could 2013 get any better for theatre castings?

Admittedly this is all about me and the people I like to see on the stage but I'm wracking my brain to think of any other actors that feature at the top of my favourites list that haven't been cast in a play this year, yet.

This is what I've got so far:

James McAvoy, Macbeth - Trafalgar Studios

Ben Whishaw, Peter and Alice - Noel Coward Theatre

Harry Melling, Smack Family Robinson - Rose Theatre, Kingston

Colin Morgan, The Tempest - Shakespeare's Globe (bit of a double-edged sword that one what with the Globe being top of my least favourite theatre venues list)

John Heffernan, Edward II - National Theatre

Rory Kinnear, Othello - National Theatre

And

David Tennant, Richard II - Stratford and London.

Not content with that I've already had my dose of Antony Sher for the year having seen him in Captain of Kopenick last week.

Simon Russell Beale is sort of missing but not really, he's still appearing in Privates on Parade and I saw it on New Year's Eve which kind of feels like this year. His next confirmed appearance is King Lear in January but I don't see him 'resting' until then.

 

Only just seen this snazzy Grandage season promo video

 

Ben Whishaw West End return confirmed

I love @polyg. While I was busy getting my beauty sleep Michael Grandage was announcing (and confirming what was rumoured earlier this year) that Mr Whishaw is going to be back on stage at last, and she was busily buying up tickets.

It is the new John Logan play Peter and Alice which also stars Dame Judi Dench (lovely pic of them together comes from the plays official page). The play is about the real life meeting of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan or at least children that inspired the characters when they are grown up. Guess who is playing Peter? 

It runs from the 9 March until June 1 at the Noel Coward Theatre (if you are going on either of those dates let me know as that's when we have tickets).

But it isn't the only exciting announcement by the newly formed Michael Grandage Company. He has also lured Daniel Radcliffe back to the stage in his home town. My London theatre obsession started with seeing Mr Radcliffe in Equus and I've wanted to see him do something else on stage ever since. 

He will star in Michael McDonagh's The Cripple of Innishmaan which runs from June 8 - 31 August. And yes @polyg bought tickets for that too.

I can barely even bring myself to mention that Grandage has also got Sheridan Smith and David Walliams in a Midsummers Night's Dream and Simon Russell Beale in Privates on Parade. Too much excitement for this time of the morning and now I need to go and get ready for work. 

Not quite theatre but here's a clip of the BBC's Richard II with Ben Whishaw and Patrick Stewart

Series includes Richard II, Henry IV parts one and two and Henry V and is due to start airing on BBC at the end of June. (Richard is brilliant, I've seen the whole thing). This is the Hollow Crown speech. (And this is it on YouTube if the video below won't play)