All posts by Edward Lukes

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“Facts” at the Finborough Theatre

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Renowned Canadian playwright Arthur Milner’s Facts has its European premiere at the wonderful Finborough Theatre. Tackling the thorny issue of Israel and Palestine in only 80 minutes, while toying with the detective genre, the play almost inevitably over-reaches itself, but this engaging piece is finely written and superbly produced.

Investigating the death of an archaeologist whose theories threaten the history the Jewish state is based upon, an Israeli and a Palestinian detective work together. When their prime suspect turns out to be a fundamentalist settler, the motivations and intense emotions experienced by all three men make the piece fly.

Director Caitlin McLeod handles both the developing debate and the growing tension clearly, with only a couple of marked pauses driven by the desire to show us something of the characters as individuals. These are difficult roles, with the players called on to voice well-rehearsed opinions, while maintaining a believable three-dimensionality. Georgia Lowe’s set is of the highest standard and the fantastic intimacy of the venue means that the focus is very much on the performers.

Paul Rattray gives a sterling performance as the settler suspect. Obnoxious from the start and potentially alienating, he manages to convince without descending into caricature. His compatriot, from a family of Zionists, describes himself as a modern man who despises religious bigots. In this fascinating role, Michael Feast has a nice take on the absurdities of the situation and conveys an underlying instability that results in a dangerous anger (it’s a shame that Feast doesn’t seem entirely comfortable in his character’s skin). Philip Arditti is enthralling as the Arab counterpart, putting up with the indignities of Israeli checkpoints in order to pursue the case and with an eye on the facts that belie his own firmly held beliefs.

Whether the facts really matter to any of Milner’s characters remains something of a mystery to us: the police play with the case as if it were a game – a valid enough point. But in its rush to be even-handedly condemning of all parties, despite all its qualities Facts is ultimately a little too ambitious for its own good.

Until 23 March 2013

www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk

Photo by Mike Shelford

Written 4 March 2013 for The London Magazine

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“A Chorus Line” at the London Palladium

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Revivals don’t come much bigger than this. Marvin Hamlisch’s classic musical, A Chorus Line, has been reverentially recreated by director Bob Avian for the first time in London since it was a smash hit in 1976. With Michael Bennett and Avian’s choreography re-staged by Baayork Lee, another member of the original team, the dancing is some of the best I’ve seen in the West End. This important piece of theatrical history is alive and kicking – if you’ve ever liked a musical, you’ll love A Chorus Line.

The clever thing about A Chorus Line, starting with its book, by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, is how simple it is. The story of an audition for a Broadway show, a group of dancers assemble on a bare stage to bare their souls. Beyond the frankly silly idea that it’s difficult to get performers to talk about themselves (these guys are the original ‘over-sharers’) it’s a scenario that engenders sympathy, with the twist that the winners will then have to subsume themselves, dancing in strict unison in the background.

As we learn about the auditionees’ lives, from early memories, through puberty to adulthood, their desire for success and love for their work is inspiring. For these show people there really is no business like it – performing puts them in “the world of the living”, despite the professional and physical pitfalls of being dancers. In a series of great songs, each cast member tries to stand out and impress the deity-like director, played with suitable imperiousness by John Partridge; for all the skill of the set-up it’s the cast’s acting skills that really need to come to the fore.

Remarkably, given the size of the ensemble, the performances are consistently satisfying. Yes, they can all move fantastically, but establishing character on a crowded stage is no small feat either; the demanding monologues prove how important acting is in musical theatre – Gary Wood’s performance as Paul is exemplary. Avian has a team that works as well as his fictional counterpart on stage hopes for. Step forward, please, Victoria Hamilton-Barrit whose singing is fantastic and, making a West End debut,  Rebecca Herzsenhorn who revels in the role of Val. As with the casting process itself, it seems cruel to highlight only a few members when in truth they all perform with a chutzpah and skill that make the evening a delight. A Chorus Line is like a distilled form of the musical genre – pure, refined and intoxicating. And you’ll carry that singular sensation with you long after the curtain goes down.

Until 31 August 2013

Photo by Manuel Harlan

Written 27 February 2013 for The London Magazine

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“The Tailor-Made Man” at the Arts Theatre

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Claudio Macor’s musical, just opened at the Arts Theatre in Covent Garden, is inspired by William ‘Billy’ Haines, a 1920s film star you’ve probably never heard of. Brazen about his homosexuality, Haines’ career was ruined by the man who created him – Louis B Mayer – who banished his successful films to the vaults and even destroyed his publicity photographs when Billy refused to enter a fake marriage and give up his “tailor-made” partner Jimmy. It’s a fantastic love story full of romance and glamour that will touch most hearts.

The piece, written by Macor as a play in 1995 and adapted with the help of Amy Rosenthal, has been embellished with lyrics by Adam Meggido, who also wrote the score with Duncan Walsh Atkins. It’s a sterling effort: the music is a highly competent tribute to the 1920s, the words sharp and funny, yet the story seems to overwhelm the musical potential so that the carefully constructed numbers never quite take off.

The cast’s acting is more credible than its singing (perhaps attributable to first-night nerves). In the lead roles of the lovers, Dylan Turner and Bradley Clarkson give strong performances and Mike McShane’s depiction of Mayer is highly satisfying. As the couple’s best friend, William Randolph Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies, Faye Tozer (of former Steps fame) reveals top-notch comic skills. There are also excellent turns from the supporting company, especially Matt Wilman as the studio’s long-suffering publicist, and Kay Murphy, who plays Pola Negri, lined up to marry Haines for the newspapers, who has the show’s best number, a hilarious lament for her tragic life.

A Tailor-Made Man offers some interesting observations about celebrity but is strongest in its honest depiction of the male couple’s relationship. Unafraid of being stereotypes, they went on to becomes Hollywood’s most successful interior decorators, designing the stars’ lives in a symmetry you’d hardly credit if it weren’t all true. The toll that prejudice and violence take on their lives is dealt with admirably and makes up for an occasionally overbearing sentimentality that both actors manage superbly. But the sometimes blunt approach, brave as it is, isn’t the happiest combination for a musical. You don’t leave with a spring in your step but rather a wish to see a revival of the original play itself.

Until 6 April 2013

Photo by Alastair Muir

Written 22 February 2013 for The London Magazine

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“In The Beginning Was The End” at Somerset House

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dreamthinkspeak is an internationally renowned theatre company that specialises in site-specific promenade works. Conceived and directed by Tristan Sharps, its latest piece, In The Beginning Was The End, takes over the basement of Somerset House and parts of King’s College London, ambitiously and occasionally wittily transforming them to present a dystopian vision of science and materialism. The show’s scale may be impressive, but it struggles to live up to the ideas it tries to present.

Although the Bible is name checked, In The Beginning Was The End takes its inspiration primarily from the work of a visual artist – Leonardo da Vinci no less. I confess I’m not confident I’d have worked this out without some prior knowledge and that can’t be good thing. It’s great fun to wander around the building admiring what they have done with it, and there’s a thrill about attending some parts of the performance on your own (if you get lucky), but the level of engagement theatre of this kind should generate isn’t reached, and that’s a woefully missed opportunity.

The dangers of technology and big business are all too clear: the initial scene forces small groups of audience members to evacuate a meeting room via a laboratory. You then join an ‘open day’ for the company Fusion International keen to present its new technology. These products, presented by a polyglot cast, are witty and the numerous actors deal with close audience contact well. But as the machines go wrong, and the company culture (and its staff) are driven by muzak and customer complaints to insanity and stripping, it all becomes a little obvious.

There’s a great deal of video work in the piece: clever silent films full of conversations you aren’t privy to that add to the paranoia with their reflexivity. But neither they, nor the increasingly derelict displays of Fusion International’s Tension Negation Technology, really add much menace or atmosphere. The ideas behind the piece are predictable, with a lazy left-wing sensibility and generic sci-fi approach. The TNT on offer doesn’t make much of an explosion.

Until 30 March 2013

www.dreamthinkspeak.com

Photo by Jim Stephenson

Written 7 February 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Our Country’s Good” at the St James Theatre

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Since its première at the Royal Court in 1988 Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play, Our Country’s Good, has been widely recognised as a modern classic. This production, coming from the show’s original director, Max Stafford-Clark, has a fine pedigree that makes it a revival not to miss.

The story of Australian convicts and their keepers who put on a play is a rich text that works on many levels. It’s easy to see why it has been adopted on to many a school syllabus. To the fore for Stafford-Clark is the theme that theatre has transcendent qualities that can transform its participants.

The hard-labouring cast take on a variety of roles playing prisoners, soldiers and the actors they become when putting on the play. As the lines they perform and different roles they take on become multi-layered, the cast maintains clarity and, under Stafford-Clark’s skilful hand, builds humour and tension.

Special note must go to Ian Redford who seems barely off the stage and makes each of his roles shine. If the play has a lead, it’s Matthew Needham playing Captain Collins, who becomes the director of a company of convicts, learning lessons about himself along the way. Needham brings a directness to the role that ensures its appeal.
Much of the humour in the play comes from theatrical in-jokes, but the play is strongest when it deals with bigger themes such as the plight of the female convicts, scarred by their transportation and forced into prostitution to survive. Wertenbaker’s writing has real bite here, and the performances, especially from Kathryn O’Reilly who plays the formidable Liz Morden, and Lisa Kerr as Duckling Smith, are superb.

At a time when his own excellent company, Out of Joint, is victim to savage cuts in funding, Stafford-Clark has drawn parallels with the current government and the philistinism of the Thatcher-era. Indeed, the transformative power of theatre seems especially important at a time when arts funding is under such pressure, despite the industry’s undoubted success. Our Country’s Good itself could easily serve as an example of how great British theatre can be: a superbly written play with brilliant performances and masterful direction.

Until 23 March 2012

www.stjamestheatre.co.uk

Photo by Robert Workman

Written 5 February 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Old Times” at the Harold Pinter Theatre

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The scenario is straightforward: a woman visits her old, now married, friend after many years. The exposition less so. As the three reminisce, memories become distorted and history manipulated, as they battle for supremacy in their accounts of the past. Old Times is a fascinating exploration of relationships and has a mysterious edge, it keeps the truth about this trio hidden, and as a result this play is as gripping as it is intelligent.

Director Ian Rickson is experienced with Harold Pinter’s work, and it shows. The writer loved triangular relationships, he was a master with them, and this skill is matched in a careful, rich, production. The acting is intense, intentionally affected, with every word and gesture full of potential: the possibility of a laugh or a slap. The dialogue is a constant competition, and the heavyweight cast – Kristin Scott Thomas, Lia Williams and Rufus Sewell – all excel at it. Each manages to traverse the fine line between humour and suspense that is peculiar to Pinter. It’s a surprise to see how much fun they seem to have. Sewell brings an impishness to his role, at times camp, as well as the requisite menace as his character tries to dominate the group. His development into what Pinter described as “a man defeated by women” is a huge achievement. Scott Thomas and Williams bring real charge and their every physical interaction bristles with sexual tension.

A common theory about Old Times is that the two actresses play different sides of the same person, a concept given weight here by Scott Thomas and Williams alternating their roles. But some (or all?) of the characters might be dead, in some kind of Satre-esque Hell, or they might just be plain silly with some peculiar kinks going on. Whatever your idea Old Times is always captivating.

For my money this is a problem play that you aren’t supposed to solve. The wonder of it is in its construction, like the dynamics of the relationships that it explores – it’s enough to see these picked apart and rebuilt over and over. Pinter toys with the audience. The joy of Rickson’s production is to see that game played so well.

Until 6 April 2013

Photo by Simon Annand

Written 4 February 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Port” at the National Theatre

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Following the success of their production of The Curious Incident (which transfers to the Apollo Theatre in March) it feels as if the National Theatre is rewarding writer Simon Stephens and director Marianne Elliott with a revival of the 1992 play, Port, which they first worked on in Manchester. Set in Stockport, where they both grew up, it’s a piece close to their hearts – indeed the whole play is sincere to a fault.

Fulfilling plenty of prejudices Londoners might have about the north, Port is a grim affair that traces the life of Racheal from 11 to 23. The poor girl’s trauma starts early when her mother abandons her. And things don’t get much better as she moves into dismal jobs and abusive relationships. Everyday Stockport is dysfunctional and depressing, its inhabitants desperate and cruel as they stumble through life.

You can see why the play has its advocates. Stephens’ expletive-filled language has its own kind of beauty – full of skilled observations and rich imagery. And he has written wonderful roles: from Rachael’s mum, who only appears in the first scene and is performed skilfully by Liz White, to the lead, played from child to woman by Kate O’Flynn in a remarkable performance that can’t be praised enough. But the play is so bleak that it becomes monochrome and, under Elliott’s static direction, monotonous.

Giving away whether or not Rachael sets sail for brighter shores would be to ruin what little tension Port has and unfortunately the ending feels tacked on and unconvincing. Sadly, despite the commitment of the cast, it is unlikely that Port will win many hearts.

Until 24 March 2013

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photo by Kevin Cummings

Written 1 February 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Quartermaine’s Terms” at Wyndham’s Theatre

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This revival of Simon Gray’s 1981 work, directed by Richard Eyre, marks a return to the stage by Rowan Atkinson. A story of schoolteachers, set in the early 1960s, it has plenty of laughs but is really quite a serious affair. A testing vehicle for its star attraction, it might leave some searching for more Mr Bean, but Atkinson rises well to the challenge.

As St John Quartermaine, long-standing staff member of the Cull-Loomis School of English for Foreigners, Atkinson plays a man blunted by life. The staff-room misfit and an appalling teacher, he’s a likeable nonentity (and, in Atkinson’s hands, sometimes a little too charming?). The problem for Atkinson is how to stop people laughing at him – the urge is almost impulsive – but Gray’s great creation is a strangely blank character that helps to put distance between the actor and his usual personas.


Most impressively, and appropriately, Atkinson appreciates that Quartermaine is a character around whom the action revolves rather than a star turn. His fellow cast members are, to use Quartermaine’s own catchphrase – “terrific”, and this is a strong ensemble piece. Malcolm Sinclair plays the school’s deputy head, a captain of education, with sardonic, steely beneficence. Felicity Montagu is superb as a study in repression and hysteria. And, as her old flame, Conleth Hill gives the real comic turn of the evening, with every gesture getting giggles, as the two flirt over the croquet sticks and lecture notes.

Increasingly “absent” as time goes on, Atkinson manages Quartermaine’s withdrawal with impressive control and intelligence; perfect for a play so concerned with the passage of time. Eyre’s direction has a thoughtful, elegiac quality, mostly arresting but sometimes robbing the play of zest. Yet as the family dramas that have occurred off-stage (they never involve the lonely Quartermaine) come to our attention, both Eyre and his star provide a melancholic sting that’s perfect for the piece.

Until 13 April 2013

Photo by Nobby Clark

Written 30 January 2013 for The London Magazine

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“The Turn of the Screw” at the Almeida Theatre

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You know that a ghost story works if it makes you jump. I can faithfully report that Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s new adaptation of Henry James’ classic story, The Turn of Screw, elicited from this reviewer a couple of good gasps, a genuine shudder and one squeal so pronounced that the Almeida Theatre should really think about planting me in the audience for subsequent performances.

James’ novella about a governess going to care for two children, who it seems are haunted by former staff members, is a subtle work. Any adaptation is going to blunt the original but here the payoff in terms of entertainment provides justification. Lenkiewicz opts to emphasise the psychosexual content, which won’t be to all tastes. But this decision adds to the drama, and the thrills, in a logical enough fashion.

The direction from Lindsay Posner is efficient and all the performances competent, with an admirable star turn from Anna Madeley as the governess. But it’s Peter McKintosh’s impressive design, with creepy sounds from John Leonard and moody lighting from Tim Mitchell, which really makes the night. The spooky atmosphere may not be subtle but, then again, nor is screaming during a show – it’s good fun though.


Until 16 March 2013

www.almeida.co.uk

Photo by Nobby Clark

Written 28 January 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Di and Viv and Rose” at the Hampstead Theatre

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Hampstead has a hit on its hands with Amelia Bullmore’s play, Di and Viv and Rose, which has graduated from the theatre’s downstairs studio space into the main auditorium. It’s a very funny and deeply moving story of friendship, which traces the relationship between three women from university days into adulthood.

Rose is annoyingly sweet, kooky and furiously promiscuous, Viv a militant, ambitious sociologist, and Di a straight-talking lesbian. The three seem to have little in common, but their experiences draw them together to create an intense, believable union that encompasses infectiously high times, as well as lows, and will have you hooked.

Thankfully, although the students’ lives are laugh-out-loud funny, there’s more than 1980s nostalgia on offer. The girls grow up and the dynamics alter. As with the last show at Hampstead, Old Money, these are fantastic roles for women and the talented trio here excels: Anna Maxwell Martin is brilliantly funny as Rose and Gina McKee deliciously deadpan as Viv, while Tamzin Outhwaite steals the show as the dependable, no-nonsense Di, delivering a career-defining performance in a remarkably written part.

With the general notion that friendship replaces family in our modern age, Bullmore has one foot in sitcom territory – but her jokes are a lot ruder and much funnier. Producing tears as well as laughter, Di and Viv and Rose is a mainstream treat, yet the strength of the writing provides deeper insights that are sure to stay with you. It richly deserves its re-run.

Until 23 February 2013

www.hampsteadtheatre.com

Photo by Johan Persson

Written 24 January 2013 for The London Magazine