Rev Stan's theatre blog

Tis Pity She's a Whore - channelling Tracey Emin's My Bed

Tracey Emin’s My Bed must surely be the inspiration for the setting of Cheek By Jowl’s Tis Pity She's a Whore?

The company, which I’m rapidly growing quite fond of, sets John Ford’s Jacobean drama in the contemporary bedroom of tragic teenage heroine Annabella (Lydia Wilson). Her red-sheeted bed takes centre stage in front of wall bedecked with posters many with Vampire or gothic themes including those for TV series True Blood and The Vampire Diaries. 

It seems a perfect canvas against which to tell a tale of incest, seduction and passion which results in - this being Jacobean drama after all - poisoning, tongue-ripping and heart-gouging.

Annabella has many suitors but, on his return to the family home her brother Giovanni (the gorgeous Jack Gordon) forgoing the advice of his priest, declares his love for his sister.  The declaration is reciprocated and their relationship quickly consummated.

Giovanni urges Annabella to marry in order to better disguise their relationship and when they discover she is pregnant the matter becomes more pressing. Soranzo her chief suitor is chosen.

Meanwhile recently widowed Hippolita (Suzanne Burden) plots with Vasques (Laurence Spellman) to have Soranzo (Jack Hawkins) poisoned in revenge for the part she believed he play in her husband’s death. 

The aforementioned bed becomes the location not only for acts of passion and seduction but also horrific violence as well as a stage for dances, a refuge and gathering spot to watch a fight. The room's en suite doubles as sinister punishment and torture chamber sometimes what goes on unseen is all the more horrific as it is left to the imagination. 

In Basildon - great play, stupidly staged

The first thing to say about the Royal Court's latest offering on its main stage is 'why have they put the stage in the middle of the theatre?' They did something similar for Sucker Punch, a year or so ago, a play set in a boxing club and it worked really well. The ring was in the middle with the audience on two sides so it felt like you were at a boxing match.

A play set in someone's front room doesn't need to be staged in the same way. What it means is that for key speeches, such as the reading of a will, half the audience are watching the back of the character delivering said reading. 

It adds nothing to what is a really good play, a really good play that would also be even better with a bit of script pruning.

The story starts in the living room of the Basildon home of Len (Phil Cornwell) where friends and family have gathered around his deathbed. It brings together Len's best friend Ken (Peter Wight) and warring sisters Maureen (Ruth Sheen) and Doreen (Linda Bassett) as well as nephews, nieces and neighbours.

As Len passes bitter feuds escalate and with the approaching will reading it seems everyone wants something and motives aren't all they seem to be.

This is a play about 'fahm-ily' and looking out for each other, the central irony being that everyone is really looking out for themselves.  David Eldridge's crackling script deftly weaves the sadness of loss with belly laughs. The problems lie in the pacing. It takes a a little while to get into its stride but soon had the audience on tenterhooks with the interval curtain falling on a bombshell.

Wigs and onesie's - it's The Way of the World

If for nothing else but the costumes and wigs, playing the character of Witwoud in The Way of the World, for Samuel Barnett, must be heaps of fun. As well as modern spins on frock coats, ruffled cuffs and a rather fetching striped onesie complete with night cap he also gets to wear a towering restoration-era wig (see trailer below).

Barnett's costumes are just some of a delightful array worn by the cast in what is a hybrid modern/traditional take on the William Congreve's play of bright young things on the make through the institution of marriage.

Don't ask me to give a summary of the plot because I'm not sure I could recount the intricacies (director Lyndsey Turner confesses to getting a lawyer friend to help unravel the family tree and deeds), needless to say there is a lot of plotting and duping but it all ends satisfactorily with the 'not quite goodies' outwitting the 'not quite baddies' and then there is a jolly good dance.

The journey to get to the dance is a fun and clever. Set against a white back drop the characters explode on stage in colours only matched by their sharp wit and charm.

The opening sequence is imaginatively set in a TV studio where Mirabell's (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) daily life is unveiled in the style of a pop video. The resulting video then makes an appearance in the second half as two characters sing along to it, karaoke style. It is a nice touch serving to illustrate the ridiculous nature and an element of disrespect  felt by all the central characters.

Indeed it is a play about how ridiculous those of privilege and wealth have become, so ridiculous in fact that they rely entirely on subterfuge and deceit to get by.

Not a single cast member puts a foot wrong be it gold winkle-picker or platformed stiletto. Special mention should go to Mr Barnett's flamboyant Witwoud, Leo Bill's scarily angry Fainall and the wonderful Deborah Findlay as the vain and gullible Lady Wishfort.

It's getting four stars from me and runs at the Sheffield Crucible until Feb 25 so catch it while you can.

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There are a couple of direct connections the obvious one being Mr Barnett who was in Bright Star but Ben Lloyd-Hughes also lists The Hour among his credits

 

 

Absent Friends and absent lines

It's a little bit of shame that the abiding memory of watching Absent Friends this week is going to be Reece Shearsmith forgetting his lines and being prompted. I've only seen it happen once before (Paul Jesson in Cock at the Royal Court Upstairs) and it is uncomfortable to experience not only for the actor concerned and the rest of the cast but also the audience.

Shearsmith recovered brilliantly and the rest of the cast barely batted an eyelid but for the next 10 minutes my eyes kept wandering over to where he was on stage to check for signs that he was rattled, put off his flow or whatever. It wasn't out of a wish of wanting to see it happen again it was more a fear for him, a will that it would go smoothly from then on. Standing up in front of hundreds of people and going blank is a popular nightmare and I'm sure not just in the Stanley household.

Aside from that little mishap I really enjoyed Absent Friends. I know Alan Ayckbourn can be a little too much middle class moaning for some people but I like the melancholy, awkward humour in it and Ayckbourn has knack for well-observed dialogue even if it is, at times, a little dated.

At its core it is about life and death and how we deal with it. A group of old school friends gather for an afternoon tea party to support Colin who's newly returned to the area having lost his fiance Carole in a swimming accident.

It takes a little while to get into its stride, set up the scenario and feed in lines for the humour but once it gets going, it not only gives a humourous look at how we deal with death but also how we deal with our life choices.

Colin's perfect view of his relationship with the dead Carole is unaware of the marital tension between schoolyard sweethearts Diana (Katherine Parkinson) and Paul (Steffan Rhodri) and new parents Evelyn (Kara Tointon) and John (David Armand) but the cracks soon begin to appear.

Joe Hill-Gibbins' The Changeling - upstaged by jelly and trifle

I like modern takes on old plays or innovative and different staging. It can throw a new perspective on familiar texts or access to historic pieces you don't always get in traditional staging. What I don't like is when a production feels like it is different for the sake of it or that someone has come up with good idea and then milked it to the point of ridiculousness.

The Changeling is a play I studied at Uni or at least the underlined quotes and notes in the margin of my dog-eared copy of five Middleton plays imply I studied it but none of the story or quotes came flooding back as I watched last night so I was essentially seeing it as new.

It's good Jacobean fare in that there is love, lust, violence and murder. Joanna (Jessica Raine) is lusted after by De Flores (Daniel Cerqueira) her father's ugly servant whom she abhors. Joanna is set to marry Alonzo (Duncan Wisbey) but she's not keen on him either and would rather marry Alsemero (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith).

In desperation, as her wedding day approaches, she asks De Flores to help her get Alonzo out of the way and of course once the deed is done he isn't going to accept cold hard cash for his troubles.

Performed in the Young Vic's smaller Maria theatre director Joe Hill-Gibbon's action takes place with the audience sat around four sides. Those seated downstairs are mainly in little boxed off galleries although there are three wheelchairs, almost in the thick of the action, for those feeling brave*. Pretty much all of the props and bits of furniture are in the space already and either quickly wheeled into place or with the action moving to the furniture.

There are some nicely clever staging techniques mainly involving people in cabinets and large boxes but I won't spoil it too much. The wedding sequence was a nice little touch providing a neat musical interlude with all the guest and bride and groom dancing in sequence to Beyonce's Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).

Noises Off - it's a farce

Anyone who read my review of One Man Two Guvnors will know I am not a massive fan of farce but I liked that play despite myself. 

Noises Off at the Old Vic came highly recommended (otherwise I wouldn't have gone) and I did laugh like a drain at times.

It is also a technically superb production from all sides. Extra credit must go to all round amazing cast whose timing, co-ordination and, well, memory for all of that on top of the lines was breathtaking.

I am, however, leading up to a but which is that for all its skill and the clever structure - a play about a play that is performed under three different circumstances - it is still a farce with all the elements of that genre that start to grate on me after a while. For instance there are only so many times a plate of sardines is funny before it just gets annoying.

I can certainly recommend Noises Off if you like farce and even if you don't there is plenty to admire and enjoy - I particularly liked the opening rehearsal act which I'm sure has more than a heaped teaspoon of truth in it. It is going to get a star knocked off though for the moments of irritation - it's a personal thing but there we go - so it scores four out of five.

Noises Off runs at the Old Vic until March 10.

PS Noises Off does get one extra accolade for possibly having the best value programme the Old Vic has ever produced but only because you get two for the price of one as the play within the play gets it's own programme too.

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Not a direct link but Robert Glenister who plays the director Lloyd Dallas was in the TV series An Appropriate Adult which starred Dominic West who, of course, has worked with Mr W in The Hour.

Constellation considerations @RoyalCourt

The journey through to the seats in the Jerwood Upstairs Theatre involves manoeuvring through a jungle of silver ribbons hanging from helium filled balloons* and those above the simple, black rectangular stage are back lit which creates an interesting other-world/molecular effect. Which is of course appropriate in more than one way (you'll have to see the play for a full understanding)

Nick Payne's new piece is about free-will and whether your life is pre-destined, written in the stars I suppose. It is cleverly told as a two-hander, sort of linear story about Marianne (Sally Hawkins) and Roland (Rafe Spall) and how their lives interact. 

However, as this is about free-will vs pre-destination each scene is played out several times with subtle differences to the characters behaviour and outcomes. The result is a series of story threads which interweave with only Marianne, Roland and the location of each scene as the constants.

The enjoyment, aside from its cleverness, is watching the actors work through different shades of their character's personality in quick succession. It almost feels like you are stealing a peak through a crack in the rehearsal room door. A flash of light creates a beat between each version of the scene and the transformations are instant.

I'm not sure what conclusions you can draw from Constellations. It does demonstrate the infinite possibilities and sometimes seismic shift in outcome that can emerge from the subtlest difference in behaviour or decision-making. It is also funny and moving and a treat to watch actors of Hawkins and Spall's ability, flexing their acting muscles in such an unusual way.

I'm going to give it four and a half stars.

Constellations runs at the Jerwood Upstairs at the Royal Court until Feb 11. It's sold out but extra tickets are released for Monday evening performances on the day at 9am. Grab one, well worth it especially as they are only £10.

* I really wanted to 'borrow' one for the 'Favourite theatre things' collection but thought better of it.

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As there are only two actors I feel compelled to find a connection each. So here goes, Sally Hawkins was in Layer Cake which Mr W was also in, not sure if they had any scenes together but there are several third and fourth degree connections which @polyg always poo poo's but they are there and involve the likes of Keira Knightly and Romola Garai.

Rafe Spall is a second degree connection as he was in Desperate Romantics which also feature the lovely Samuel Barnett who was in Bright Star with Mr W.

Well executed Execution of Justice @swkplay

Southwark Playhouse is my adopted theatre for 2012, my first adopted theatre in fact. What it means is that I will see everything, non-musical, they put on in the main house. 

I've always liked the Playhouse's quirky, atmospheric space under the railway arches at London Bridge - a space they put to very good and imaginative use. Not everything I've seen there has been brilliant but enough has been really enjoyable so that I don't have any fears my regular visits will be an endurance.

Aside from the fact that it is also very easy for me to get to Southwark and they have a great cut price ticketing sytem, this will be the last year the theatre is in its current space as London Bridge is due to be redeveloped. So those are the reasons for my choice (and I'm sticking to them).

And the year of adoption has started off in cracking form with the verbatim play Execution of Justice by Emily Mann. With a cast of 20, the play recounts the San Francisco trial of Dan White who shot dead Harvey Milk the first openly gay elected politician and his colleague George Moscone in 1978.

The script comes straight from court transcripts, interviews, reportage and the man on the street, flicking between the trial, events leading up to it and the reaction from the people of San Francisco.

Present pretty much throughout is Dan White (Peter Duguid-McQuillan) who sits impassive to what is going on around him until it is time to recount his story. And in one relatively brief scene, when he hands himself over to his former police colleagues after the murders in a state of extreme emotional agitation Duguid-McQuillan gives the stand out performance.

That scene and Aidan Downing’s Sister Boom Boom, although this might be more to do with the rather revealing drag Queen outfit which includes red PVC hot pants.

Trials can be quite dull but this isn’t because the pace is varied throughout. Formal court scenes are interwoven with re-enactments of pieces of evidence, character witnesses and commentary from people who knew the victims and those that just lived in San Francisco at the time.

However, what really gives Execution of Justice its edge is that in today's society it just seems inconceivable and therefore utterly intriguing how such a brutal and homophobic crime could result in such a light punishment. 

My only slight quibble is there are a couple of scenes where different voices are heard virtually simultaneously and from different parts of the stage which makes it difficult to follow either thread. But it is only a slight quibble in what is an engaging, imaginative and well acted piece.

I'm going to give Execution of Justice four and a half stars. It runs at the Southwark Playhouse until Feb 4, catch it while you can.

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Despite the cast of many this was quite tricky but I've found a connection. Kate Harper, who plays three different roles, was in the Children's Hour which starred Keira Knightly was in Atonement with Romola Garai who has, of course, worked with Mr W in the first and second series of The Hour (the latter is currently filming). 

 

The perfect Pitman Painters

Every now and again comes along an unassuming play that completely blows me away and Pitmen Painters is one them. 

OK so I'm a little late to the party, it is been garnering five star reviews all over the place since its debut in Newcastle in 2007, subsequent transfer to the National, UK tour and Broadway run but better late than never. 

Written by Lee Hall and inspired by the William Feaver book, it is about a group of North East pit workers in 1930/40s whom the Workers Education Association organises art appreciation classes.

Posh art prof Robert Lyon (Ian Kelly) travels up from Durham to take the class once a week but it quickly turns into a painting class with the pitmen proving to have hidden talents that quickly get noticed by the art world glitterati.

If you take the warmth and fun of say The Full Monty or Billy Elliot, if that isn't too cliched, but add art appreciation, social commentary and history you get somewhere close to what Pitmen Painters is like as a play.

It is effectly and simply staged, as a painting is displayed on an easel a larger image is projected on screens over the actors heads for all to see. The only furniture is simple, wooden folded chairs that are moved into various configurations depending on the location of the scene. There is even a bit of art in action, although not done with quite as much drama and intensity as the painting scene in Red at the Donmar last year. The acting is also faultless.

Dominic Cooke's The Comedy of Errors

I have been spoilt when it comes to productions of The Comedy of Errors well, in truth, one production, Propeller's at the Hampstead Theatre. It was so good I'll be very surprised if it doesn't make my top ten theatre list for 2011.

The only problem is that every subsequent production of The Comedy of Errors (and Richard III for exactly the same reason) that comes along will always be judged against it.

Dominic Cooke's production of Comedy at the National Theatre is by all accounts very good. Superbly acted, fantastic set (when it wasn't breaking down) genius little musical interludes but it just wasn't as funny and eye-poppingly stand out as the Propeller version. I laughed but at Hampstead I laughed until it hurt and that has never happened with a Shakespeare comedy before.

Listening to a podcast of Cooke talking about Comedy of Errors he says he wanted to show that the play isn't just an opportunity for slapstick comedy, that it has its serious side exploring themes of alienation, prejudice and the harsh realities of commerce. It is all well and good but I just can't get out of my head the image of one of the Propeller actors walking across the stage naked, with a lit sparkler clenched between his buttocks.

In the podcast Cooke mentions that he's seen four other Comedy of Errors this year and I'd be surprised if Propeller's wasn't one of them in which case he'll have no doubt, and understandably, wanted to do something very different.

That isn't to say Cooke has ignored slapstick, there is a great Benny Hill-esque chase, for example, which is triggered by an ambulance driving on stage - this is the National after all. But in addition Cooke's production, by his design, does have a heightened sense of alienation and the irrationality of behaviour that that feeling can provoke.