All posts by Edward Lukes

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“These Shining Lives” at the Park Theatre

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London’s newest venue, the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, opened its first show last night. Overseen by artistic director Jez Bond, this former disused office space (converted by David Hughes Architects and partly funded by the sale of residential apartments above the theatre) is an exciting addition to London’s burgeoning theatre scene. Two intimate spaces with pleasant foyers are just a stone’s throw from the Tube station – itself only 20 minutes from Knightsbridge. Bond’s inaugural season, combining new writing and classics produced in-house, and providing a venue for other talented companies, should guarantee it many visits.

The first production doesn’t quite match the ambition of the theatre itself, but These Shining Lives by American playwright Melanie Marnich is a competent piece. The story of women workers who apply the illuminating radium on to watch faces, slowly poisoned by what they thought was their dream job, is finely directed by Loveday Ingram and well acted. On the downside, the writing is a little laboured, speculation about the passage of time heavy handed and the politics a touch naive. Based on a true story, the focus on the friendship between the workers doesn’t have enough emotional force, despite a fine performance from Honeysuckle Weeks as a mouthy Mae-West character who embraces the emancipation provided by her wage packet.

The real power in the play comes from main role, performed by Charity Wakefield, whose character Catherine becomes the test case in court against the company. Wakefield has an appealing stage presence and convinces as an ordinary women whose bravery becomes inspirational. Marnich rejects the current Gatsby-fixated view of the 20s in favour of representing the decade for regular people. Her sweet Charity’s relationship with her husband, played brilliantly by Alec Newman, is a moving romance with clever modern touches that show further deftness on Marnich’s part. In the couple’s scenes, These Shining Lives becomes a beautiful love story that illuminates and moves. A promising start for the new Park Theatre.

Until 9 June 2013

www.parktheatre.co.uk

Photo by Anabel Vere

Written 16 May 2013 for The London Magazine

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“The Hothouse” at the Trafalgar Studios

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Director Jamie Lloyd’s residence at the Trafalgar Studios continues with a new production of The Hothouse. After the success of his first show, James McAvoy’s Macbeth, it’s a bold choice in the West End to present this early satire by Harold Pinter – a difficult piece that, if successful, makes the audience distinctly uncomfortable.

Set in a sinister state-run ‘sanatorium’, managed by a group of malingering civil servants whose behaviour descends into something close to farce, the play has an air of general paranoia that Pinter refined in later work. Lloyd embraces the comedy so that the evening becomes entertaining, albeit if it lacks a little in bite.

The cast has a ball. As head of the hospital, Simon Russell Beale plays a blustering buffoon, turning red in the face with superhuman facility, his hands revealing a nervous energy that mesmerises. John Simm’s reserved performance as his facetious factotum is skilled, but pales in comparison. John Heffernan’s intelligently camp depiction of a third staff member takes best advantage of the play’s overblown irreverence. The only one to point out the criminal corruption of the institution and flirt with whistleblowing, Heffernan makes his character complex and frightening.

The play isn’t without problems: the only female member of the cast, a thankless role that Indira Varma does her very best with, is written as sex object that dates the piece and does little credit to its author. For all Lloyd’s skill at farce – and the cast’s ability to do justice to Pinter’s demanding, brilliant dialogue – with little weight given to the horror of the abuse of power, The Hothouse fails to get you heated about the issues of freedom and authority that should arise.

Until 3 August 2013

Photo by Johan Persson

Written 10 May 2013 for The London Magazine

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“The Tempest” at Shakespeare’s Globe

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Even if there’s still a chill in the air, for theatre-lovers the summer starts with a trip to Shakespeare’s Globe. The Theatre’s ‘Season of Plenty’ begins with The Tempest, a difficult play that director Jeremy Herrin, confident in the venue’s unusual power and his excellent cast, tackles with a light touch. It has been the fashion to subject the story of Prospero and his elaborate revenge on those who exiled him to a great deal of analysis. Herrin’s focus is on the theme of reconciliation and the magic in the play comes to the fore.

There is little threat on this island – the machinations that landed Prospero there aren’t given much attention. Instead, there’s a lot of laughs, led by the drunkards Stephano and Trunculo (played by exuberant double act Sam Cox and Trevor Fox) – and even Caliban gets to join in the singing. Indeed, the island seems too homely, almost drab – its attraction is the detailed depiction of the relationship between Prospero and his daughter Miranda. Jessie Buckley is a revelation in the role, captivating and able enough to bring on her suitor Ferdinand (Joshua James) to some charming scenes of romance.

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Colin Morgan as Ariel

The pace of the production is skilfully developed, with Colin Morgan’s Ariel pivotal, injecting a spellbinding touch (in scenes of startlingly confident theatricality) and bringing home the play’s concerns with freedom. Morgan is athletic and otherworldly, mellow rather than mischievous and played with an intelligent depth that builds up the fascinating relationship with his master Prospero: it is here that the understated quality of Herrin’s production finds its power.

Only an actor as fine as Roger Allam, who takes on the central role, could make such a domesticated Prospero work. A model of clarity, Allam was born to play the Globe – he’s worth the price of the ticket and then some. His nuanced performance as a former Duke can be commanding and his dour touches delight, but it is as a father, the man behind the magic, that he becomes magnificent. He enjoys his power to enchant with such glee that abandoning it has added pathos, but renounce it he does – in order to become more human and experience the freedom that entails.

Until 18 August 2013

www.shakespearesglobe.com

Photos by Marc Brenner

Written 3 May 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Merrily We Roll Along” at the Harold Pinter Theatre

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Another transfer, another success for the Menier Chocolate Factory – Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along has just opened at the Harold Pinter Theatre. It is the show’s first presentation in the West End, which seems remarkable since it is one of the master-composer’s greatest musicals – a complex work with the potential to appeal to a wide audience. The Menier’s production deserves its new location, showcasing the piece to perfection.

Making her directorial debut, renowned singer and Sondheim soulmate Maria Friedman excels. Under her supervision, Merrily We Roll Along serves as a tremendous vehicle for its leading trio: Damian Humbley, Jenna Russell and Mark Umbers, who star as Charley, Mary and Frank. Just as excellent are Clare Foster and Josefina Gabrielle as the women in Frank’s life. The latter benefits from an additional number, requested from Sondheim by Friedman, that makes a rollicking opener to the second act. With the chorus the production’s modest origins reveal themselves – positively – this is a mature team that sounds fantastic.

The musical is played backwards: we meet our heroes at the height of their careers, but bitter and weary. And in the finale we see the college chums ready to take on the world. It’s a device used to great effect and adds layers of meaning to music that emblazons itself on the memory. The score becomes simpler as the evening progresses, but feels richer with each number – a magical trick to pull off.

Nothing is lost in this production. The performances make the most of the narrative device of hindsight, but keep it sincere and never gimmicky. Merrily We Roll Along is clever stuff but it’s intelligent not pompous. All in all, it’s a brilliant piece that mustn’t be missed.

Until 25 July 2013

Photo by Tristram Kenton

Written 2 May 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Rooms – A Rock Romance” at the Finborough Theatre

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Receiving its European premier at the Finborough Theatre Rooms – A Rock Romance is written by husband and wife team Paul Scott Goodman and Miriam Gordon. A straightforward love story, set against the backdrop of the music business, it sees two Scottish singer-songwriters battling to find a balance between their careers and their relationship. Starting in 1977, it’s a pretty mad affair, which takes its inspiration from anarchic times. If energy is what you’re looking for you’ll find it here, with spirited performances from the dynamic duo of Cassidy Janson and Alexis Gerred.

After falling in love at first sight, Monica and Ian travel from Glasgow to London and then New York. From the pairs’ early gigs at Bat Mitzvahs to brief success on the punk and New Wave Scenes and a spell trying out cabaret, Rooms is more than a ‘Rock’ musical – there are so many styles it’s a little confusing, and the music fails to take hold. Similarly, the lyrics are quirky to say the least: a bizarre mix of the high falutin’ and the mundane. But the cast give their best in every scene and the pacey direction from Andrew Keates is a triumphant use of speed – at about 80 minutes long its difficult to spot exactly what’s awry. The whole thing keeps you on your feet and entertained.

Rooms has a sense of humour: an early concert for the Jewish community is called “let my people go go”, while the punk band is named ‘The Diabolicals’. But the laughs sit uneasily with serious issues touched upon, including abortion and alcoholism, dealt with so briefly that they have little emotional impact. The characters are appealing; Janson and Gerred’s commitment, if not their accents, is great, but they are an odd couple. Ian is an agoraphobic rock star and Monica a punk yet her idols are Barbra Streisand and Carly Simon. You can’t help but admire the ambition here, but even the show’s highlight, a hilariously inappropriate Bat Mitzvah song about bisexuals, is a little too crazy to succeed.

Until 18 May 2013

www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk

Photo by Scott Rylander

Written 26 April 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Glory Dazed” at the Soho Theatre

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A hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year, Cat Jones’ new play, Glory Dazed, opened last night at the Soho Theatre. Based on the author’s work with ex-serviceman prisoners in Doncaster, it tells the story of Ray, who returns from Afghanistan in plenty of trouble and finds that his ex-wife and best friend are now a couple. Drama ensues, the scene for which is a turbulent night at a pub lock-in.

The politics is light. Jones’ focus is the human cost of conflict – on the sufferer and his loved ones – rather than the war itself. The result is an intense, intimate, hour-long drama that works well. There are flaws: a young bar maid drawn into events and instantly attracted to the bloodstained, alcoholic Ray is unconvincing, despite being ably performed by Kristin Atherton. And the humour in the piece is problematic, with the drunken vitriol passing for wit, doing nothing to endear Ray to us.

But the dialogue in Glory Dazed really rings true and the actors do well to make the most of it. Both Adam Foster and Chloe Massey, the ex whom Ray used to beat and the friend he intimidates, reveal the depths of their complex, believable characters. Massey is especially bold in dealing with her character’s no-nonsense approach, never shying away from her character’s pain and anger.

Inevitably, Samuel Edward-Cook steals the show as Ray. This is a tremendous performance from a young actor we’re sure to hear more from. Edward-Cook doesn’t just manage to bristle with violence but also conveys the emotional turmoil of his character. His performance, combined with the well-crafted script, makes this an easy one to recommend.

Until 11 May 2013

www.sohotheatre.com

Photo by Carys Lavin

Written 25 April 2013 for The London Magazine

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“The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” at St Leonard’s Church

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Director and producer Antony Law has achieved the not inconsiderable coup of staging his latest production in St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch. It’s a superb location that’s sure to appeal to adventurous theatregoers. Also commendable is Law’s taste in plays. A remarkable work by Stephen Adly Guirgis, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a surreal imagining of a courtroom trial that aims to free Judas from hell.

Guirgis’ text rockets back and forth through history calling to the stand not just biblical figures but also Sigmund Freud and Mother Teresa. Sadly, Law’s direction doesn’t quite match the pace, so the production lacks the bravura appeal that the writing demands. More vitally, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot should be bitingly funny. Maybe the church atmosphere stifles the laughs, but the humour just doesn’t come through.

The production is ably guided by the prosecuting and defence councils, played with humour and skill by Michael Aguilo and Laurence Bouvard. Unfortunately, the rest of the casting is uneven. For all the strength of the play, it feels as if Guirgis has written devices rather than developed characters, and short scenes on the witness stand that should excite are played too long.

A notable exception is Shereen Russell who plays Saint Monica with a provocative streetwise style – her scene is one of the moments in the production that really works. And St Leonard’s fantastic acoustics are used to such great effect that, despite its flaws, the opportunity Law has provided for seeing this fantastic work is worth taking advantage of.

Until 19 May 2013

Photo by Sheila Burnett

Written 22 April 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Children of the Sun” at the National Theatre

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One of the many creative teams who have contributed to recent successes at the National Theatre, director Howard Davies and writer Andrew Upton – whose reputation rests on a series of adaptations of Russian classics – are back with Children of the Sun. Maxim Gorky’s play, adapted and directed with justified confidence, is fresh and vital. Also re-collaborating, designer Bunny Christie has created a stunning set that makes the most of the National’s Lyttelton stage.

A perceptive psychological drama about the “fools and idiots” in and around one family, there are love affairs galore in Children of the Sun. Intense Russians might be a cliché in hands less skilled then Upton’s, but here the morbid emotions and high-flown ideals engage. The diverse characters are so well drawn and developed that the actors can truly embrace their roles. From the “great nanniness” still living with this distinctly infantile family, played by Maggie McCarthy, to the man ostensibly in charge as head of the family, Protasov (Geoffrey Streatfeild), the cast is uniformly impressive.

More than a moving family drama, Children of the Sun abounds with issues as well: it questions the role of art and science and the nature of society. Gorky the commentator, very much of his time, seems relevant with Upton on board. Hindsight is used but, thankfully for the drama, it feels as if anything might happen. The privileged Protasov is a scientist so obsessed with work that his family and the whole village suffer. The intelligentsia, to which he belongs, feel they are battling superstition – but you can’t blame the locals when it turns out they are being poisoned by his experiments. The play’s bloody, depressing conclusion shocks and stirs. The characters’ fates and the broader questions Gorky raises make for an explosive mix.

Until 14 July 2013

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photo by Rupert Hubert Smith

Written 20 April 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Doktor Glas” at Wyndham’s Theatre

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It’s a rare, welcome, event to have a foreign language production in the West End. Doktor Glas, based on the novel by the Swedish master Hjalmar Söderberg, owes its place in town to the presence of Krister Henriksson, famous for his role in the TV show Wallander and riding high on the trend for all detectives Nordic.

In Sweden, Henriksson is a well-known actor on stage as well as screen and he’s clearly passionately committed to this one-man show; he also directed along it with Peder Bjurman. It’s the story of a doctor’s obsessive love for a patient, hatred of her abusive husband and ambivalence towards her lover. And what should the depressed doctor do with the cyanide tablet he just happens to have made in his spare time?

Glas has an almost clichéd abundance of existential angst about him. In his profession he is “able to help others but never himself”, while in his personal life, he fears that time is passing him by. His view that sex should be something like a “ceremony”, seems a little too Fin de siècle. But Glas is still a compelling, if rarefied, character, whose plight does move you.

Henriksson makes the most out of the plays epistolary form. His impersonations of other characters are superb, injecting humour, and the touches of neurosis he brings to the character make his hypersensitivity believable. Glas’s sometimes-breathless anxiety is wonderfully executed. Indeed, Henriksson is so engaging it is hard to share your attention between him and the surtitles provided.

Doktor Glas is hard work, and not just for Henriksson. Though the lighting is superb, the staging is monotonous and the plot so clearly a device for raising philosophical issues it seems superfluous. While Glas’s anguish is portrayed with an intelligence it’s a pleasure to watch on a stage, I can’t help feeling that his predicament should be more interesting than the show allows.

Until 11 May 2013

Photo by Mats Bäcker

Written 19 April 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Beautiful Thing” at the Arts Theatre

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Jonathan Harvey’s iconic gay coming-of-age story, Beautiful Thing, celebrates its 20th anniversary with a new production at the Arts Theatre in Covent Garden. Despite some nostalgic nods, the play is as fresh as ever: a skilfully written comedy drama with fantastic roles and an admirably un-patronising focus on working-class life. Beautiful Thing touches on universal themes with a winning bravery.

The huge success of the play, and the subsequent 1996 film, create a special atmosphere with seemingly every audience member knowing every line. The jokes – of which there are plenty – are anticipated gleefully and the roars of laughter almost interrupt the action. Director Nikolai Foster gives the crowd what they want and his staging is a respectful affair. But it’s impressive to note his firm hand, with moments of quiet imposed as the relationship between the two young boys, Ste and Jamie, neighbours on a council estate in Thamesmead, blossoms into romance.

Beautiful Thing - Jake Davies & Suranne Jones - cMike Lidbetter for QNQ Ltd
Suranne Jones and Jake Davies

The superb Suranne Jones as Jamie’s mother shows the piece is as much about parental relationships as anything else. Playing the hard-nosed Sandra with skill, duelling with her neighbour Leah and dealing with her lover Tony (Zaraah Abrahams and Oliver Farnworth – both in fine form), Jones gives a tremendous emotional edge to the role. Through strong performances from Jake Davies and Danny-Boy Hatchard, Jamie and Ste’s shared fears about emotions and the future are presented as those of boys rather than men – an important point central to the play. Harvey’s writing and the skill of the young actors enhance the empathy and humour and ensure sure the play lives up to its title.

Until 25 May 2013

Photos by Mike Lidbetter

Written 18 April 2013 for The London Magazine