All posts by Edward Lukes

2020

"The Deep Blue Sea" from NTLive

This week the National Theatre’s fund-raising offering is sheer class. Carrie Cracknell’s 2016 production of Terence Rattigan’s play is a traditional affair that oozes quality, with a solid script, stunning set and stellar performances.

The Deep Blue Sea is far from easy sailing. It starts with its heroine, Hester, having just attempted suicide, as the affair that broke her marriage is coming to an end. Concern over mental health has progressed since Rattigan was writing in 1952 but the playwright’s insight into depression offers much to learn from.

Rattigan’s preoccupation, however, is Hester’s passion. Her love for her husband, eclipsed by that for RAF pilot Freddie Paige, is fascinating. The romance is dangerous – this sea is stormy. Hester sees no chance of escaping a love that will not work: she and Freddie are “death to each other”. The production’s first triumph is to make sure Rattigan’s piece doesn’t descend into melodrama.

Tom Burke in The Deep Blue Sea. Image by Richard Hubert Smith
Tom Burke

The love triangle provides strong roles for Peter Sullivan and Tom Burke, who are excellent. Their chemistry with their leading lady is astonishing. Burke is especially strong in making the occasionally odious Freddie convincingly alluring as an “homme fatale”. But the show belongs to Helen McCrory whose performance as Hester is flawless. Sharp and wry, the mix of “anger, hatred, shame” is conveyed in every move.

There’s a sense of British reserve behind all the action, darkly adding to the potency, but McCrory and Cracknell keep this as under control as Hester’s emotions. Moments when Hester is alone and can let go – holding her face to the light or crawling on the floor in desperation – are awe-inspiring in their emotional power.

The Deep Blue Sea image by Richard Hubert Smith
Tom Schutt’s impressive set

Focusing on a sense of community within the boarding house setting, aided by Tom Schutt’s impressive set full of solicitous neighbours, means Cracknell adds to the play. A brilliant scene where Hester is joined by the women in the piece (played by Marion Bailey and Yolanda Kettle) alters our focus. It’s a move all the more remarkable given that the play, through Rattigan’s biography, is often discussed for its gay subtext.

If interested, try to track down a copy of Mike Poulton’s play Kenny Morgan, about the suicide of Rattigan’s lover (and a fascinating work in its own right). There is a danger that The Deep Blue Sea can be overpowered by this biographical note. But Cracknell has provided a space for the play to exist independently; an achievement for any revival that makes Rattigan’s script and his legacy stronger.

Until 16 July 2020

To support, visit nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photos by Richard Hubert Smith

2020

“The Beast Will Rise” from Tramp Productions

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While the cancellation of Philip Ridley’s The Beast of Blue Yonder is regrettable, this series of monologues – released weekly – features the cast due to perform his play and is admirable compensation.

Directed by Wiebke Green, the online project shows the breadth of Ridley’s imagination and his inimitable style. Full of vivid images and memorable phrases, the stories and sense of humour are unmistakable. 

Fantastic beasts and

Animals, and the animalistic in us, are joined with apocalyptic scenarios and touches of fairy tales in this collection.  There’s a sense of nature, including human nature, as dangerous but also magical.

Take Telescope (with beasts are in the stars and wildlife on the local common), a piece that Unique Spencer does so well with performing. Alongside a gruesome murder, Ridley gives us a brilliant take on agoraphobia.

There’s a telescope too in Night, a short piece with Tyler Conti playing a young man who is dying, that proves haunting without any touch of the supernatural. 

Dismemberment and exploitation, horror and fantasy are all combined. And there are laughs too, including a twisted childhood prank in Chihuahua that is downright bizarre. Another strong example (with Grace Hogg-Robinson’s excellent performance) is Zarabooshka; a “shrivel-free” character’s imagination consoles and disturbs by turns. 

Finding great storytelling

From poetic snippets like Snow and River to longer pieces with “terrible things” in a world gone mad, the stories destabilise expectations as well as entertain. 

Flights into fantasy can switch off an audience. Credit to Green and many of her cast for holding fast to the writing and making the pieces so engaging: Rachel Bright in Gators, Mirren Mack in Wound and Steve Furst in Performance with the same aim – gripping an audience and not letting go.

Standing out, not just because of its longer duration, Eclipse serves as a brilliant showcase for Mike Evans. A self-conscious exercise in storytelling, it’s a macabre tale with wonderful characters. Society has broken down – again – and “old world problems” come alongside cups of tea and creepy cravats. The twisted parallel with the Coronavirus (it’s the young who are infected here) shows Ridley’s wicked streak and creates tension.

The fecundity of Ridley’s creativity is remarkable but it is a matter of quality as well as quantity. Alongside post offices and jacket potatoes, Ridley combines strong observation, a powerful sense of community (albeit frequently a mob) and recognisable geography to ground his brand of incredible. 

It’s a pet theory of mine that Ridley is the playwright of his generation who will be looked at in the future. That this collection, made under far from ideal conditions, is so consistently strong makes The Beast Will Rise a major achievement.

Posted online from 2 April 2020

www.wearetramp.com

2020

“Nine Lives” from the Arcola Theatre

Zodwa Nyoni’s excellent monologue, currently available on YouTube, is easy to recommend. Impeccably directed by Alex Chisholm, with a fantastic performance from Lladel Bryant, the recording is rough and ready. But Nyoni’s encompassing vision, full of humanity and poetry, make this one of those shows you feel everyone should see.

The story of a young man, Ishmael, seeking refuge from Zimbabwe because he is gay proves compelling. Bryant’s performance makes the character always approachable; even as Nyoni reveals traumatic “nightmares of the past” and during the painful wait for his fate to be decided in the UK (“limbo comes with every morning”).

Aided by effective lighting and sound design (credit to Jonathan Girling and Ed Clarke) Bryant, with just a suitcase, shows complex emotions revolving around the wish for a simple life. A range of extra characters, including his flatmate and his friend Becs, give Bryant the chance to further impress and add texture to his story. That Ishmael still faces homophobia – being “excluded by the excluded” – leads to a different kind of fund-raising appeal for this show: viewers are directed to the UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group.

Nyoni sees a bigger picture behind the main story – which is why her play seems so vital. A strong sense of community within Nine Lives comes with the repeated refrain: “some of us”. Recalling Zimbabwe, and the lives of those persecuted there, then drawing out the problems faced by refugees, expands the story with skill. This modest show becomes powerful and important by being perfectly formed and beautifully nurtured.

2020

“Les Blancs” from NTLive

Although unfinished at her death in 1965, and in a production that’s four years old, Lorraine Hansberry’s play feels more urgent than ever. Questioning the perceived price of African lives, the legacy of imperialism and featuring the death of a black man in police custody, it is depressingly topical in this summer of Black Lives Matter protests.

Yaël Farber’s strong production doesn’t suit filming – that happens sometimes. The slower pace, which can work in a theatre, makes watching online tedious. Several scene changes, which use the theatre’s revolve well, dampen the script’s considerable tension on screen. That Hansberry wrote a thrilling play with plenty of action is a little lost.

Thankfully, even on film the strong characters and performances still shine. The ‘Whites’ of the title, running a missionary hospital in an unspecified African country, are well developed by James Fleet and Anna Madeley. And a visiting journalist – a little too close to a device to provide an American perspective – is played with passion by Elliot Cowan. A magnificent role for Siân Phillips, the wife of the Mission’s pastor who everyone is waiting to show up, illustrates the complexities of colonialism in a moving fashion.

LES BLANCS The National Theatre, 2016 photo Johan Persson
Siân Phillips and Danny Sapani

Three brothers, torn by the conflict for independence, provide drama of an epic nature that results in fantastic acting. Gary Beadle’s Abioseh is about to become a priest, while “mixed up” Eric, a powerful role for Tunji Kasim, wants to go to war. The focus is Tshembe, now established in Europe but “ravaged” by his responsibilities. Which path will he take?

Danny Sapani takes the part of this intellectual and reluctant revolutionary with a clear understanding that this is a unique kind of hero. Sapani shows Tshembe’s intelligence and humanity, making him interesting and appealing. But he is also aloof and dangerous. The tragic outcome is one of the most shocking you can imagine.

The brutal ending of Les Blancs shows its real strength lies in Hansberry’s unflinching bravery. Many scenes featuring Clive Francis’ bigoted Major Rice are difficult to watch, no matter how well they work dramatically. But, with Hansberry’s forensic arguments, the play is also bold. The exploitation of colonialism is easy to see, but what about the idea of the missionary sense of fulfilment also being at the expense of Africans? The play’s obsession with “reason”, easily contrasted with tradition, and a flirtation with violence (let alone nods to Marxism) are startling and powerful. 

Available until Wednesday 8 July2020

To support, visit nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photos by Johann Persson

2020

“Toast” from the Lawrence Batley Theatre

Another fund-raising attempt to bring a successful stage show online, this adaptation of Nigel Slater’s autobiography is a radio play spiced up with some lovely animation from a company called Dusthouse.

Should you wish, a ticket can include a recipe you can cook and a Walnut Whip to enjoy while watching. But the show’s success, as director Henry Filloux-Bennett appreciates, comes from Slater’s writing.

An appealing author, whose work is full of honesty, observation and heart. Slater manages – for the most part – to avoid making his nostalgia cloying. The depiction of his family, carefully portrayed from a child’s perspective, make strong characters for Lizzie Muncey and Stephen Ventura as his mum and dad, while a cooking cold war with his stepmother proves a highlight.

There’s a good deal of sweet humour about middle-class life in the 1960s. And heartbreak, with his mother’s early death. Notably, the homophobia Slater experienced is tackled with a light touch – the idea of “girl’s sweets” surely raises smiles of recognition. Ending with an optimism that makes Toast a comforting and safe affair, it is clear that the parallel with food of the title is not lost on its author.

Until 31July

  www.thelbt.org

2020

“Birdsong” from The Original Theatre Company

While wanting to get out of my living room and into a real auditorium as soon as possible, this online show is a fantastic effort at producing theatre during lockdown.

Adapting her previous stage production for the internet, Rachel Wagstaff has an intelligent eye on what works on screen, using letters and prayers for effective solo scenes to camera. The film’s editor Tristan Sheppard benefits from the effective sound design (Dom Bilkey) and subtle backgrounds by David Woodhead, carefully focusing attention on fantastic performances.

If the final result is uneven, its problems are shared with the source material – Sebastian Faulks’ hit novel – exacerbated by Wagstaff’s slightly reverential approach to the text.

Faulks is closely involved with the project, serving as a narrator. That’s quite a coup… but not a successful one. As good his writing is, Faulks is not a performer and it might have been better to get a cast member to read his work. But the story is great and this World War I drama, focusing on soldiers who tunnelled under enemy trenches, is gripping stuff.

Max Bowden as Tipper
Max Bowden

The production makes the most of the show’s two leads – sapper Jack Firebrace and lieutenant Stephen Wraysford – leading to magnificent performances from Tim Treloar (pictured top) and Tom Kay, respectively. Credit to directors Alastair Whatley and Charlotte Peters, who have done fantastic work with both leads and supporting cast, especially Max Bowden and Samuel Martin. Jack is the hero, and Treloar makes him a valiant figure. Meanwhile, Kay’s exploration of Stephen’s quirky edge adds intrigue, even danger, to the character.

Tom Kay and Madeleine Knight
Tom Kay and Madeleine Knight

The love story told alongside the battle of the Somme isn’t such a success, in truth it drags a little. While Madeleine Knight’s final scene is wonderful, Stephen’s adulterous romance with her character, Isabelle, has little chemistry. It’s hard when the performers can’t be in the same room. Isabelle’s cuckolded husband proves more interesting, as Stephen Boxer proves expert with the character’s threatening and dismissing remarks.

Maybe because the love affair feels hollow, having both the war and the romance described as a “crime against nature” doesn’t have the impact intended. Instead, it’s the characters journey into darkness that interests – more credit in particular for Kay – and provides the emotional power the show undoubtedly boasts. For all the technical accomplishment, that this comes from performances makes it cheering to note how much better Birdsong would be live.

Until 4 July 2020

www.birdsongonline.co.uk

2020

"A Midsummer Night’s Dream" from NTLive

Filming theatre shows for broadcast in cinemas started during Nicholas Hytner’s time as artistic director at the National Theatre. So it’s appropriate that this resource, a defining feature of lockdown for theatregoers, visits and raises funds for Hytner’s new home, The Bridge Theatre.

As for the choice of show, this production of Shakespeare’s comedy, which won acclaim last summer, shows off Hytner’s directorial skills and his venue’s flexibility. It’s one of the best versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream I’ve seen. And I even like the way its magnificent theatricality stubbornly refuses to be filmed.

Having small, movable stages and the audience standing in the stalls means the show is “immersive” – Hytner knows the term is a bit naff – with Bunny Christie’s brilliant design featuring beds that come up and down from the ceiling. And there are acrobats! David Moorst’s Puck is amazing to watch. Sometimes the film’s focus on performers’ faces is welcome, the crowd less distracting, and the joyousness Hytner instilled in the show is still present. But being in that crowd can’t be conveyed on a screen.

Fresh ideas and twists fill the play. There are small touches; a suggestion Hippolyta has a magical “power” over Hermia and making the ‘lion’ genuinely frightening (a great turn for Jamie-Rose Monk). Most noticeably is the change of gender over which fairy monarch is tricked – here Puck serves Titania (a wonderfully imperious Gwendoline Christie) to fool Oberon.

Oliver Chris’s Fairy King – who falls for the brilliantly funny Bottom of Hammed Animashaun – is magnificent. Their affair is sexy and funny and – evidence of how skilled both actors are – also moving. It leads to the best dad dancing I’ve seen and a promenade around the audience that is a real highlight. That Chris can get a laugh with the word ‘mulberries’ tells you all you need to know.

A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bridge Theatre
The “crew of patches” led by Hammed Animashaun

The joke at the heart of the play can go wrong. But Hytner targets a toxic masculinity it feels good to laugh at. Oberon and Theseus, who Chris also plays and doesn’t slack at, are poked fun of for their (fragile) sense of power. Likewise, the Athenian lovers Demetrius and Lysander are also a source of humour with their young machismo. Magically, it makes all these sometimes boorish men more appealing. Similarly, the “crew of patches” performers are a joke but in a gentle fashion. With a finale where Animashaun commands the stage, there’s just a glimmer that their show within a show is serious! The joke is that Bottom is trying – he even bears in mind that his performance is in the round. Bless. Yes, it makes it funnier that he’s so bad – such delusion could only come in dream. But it gives the production a charm and energy that, by the end, make it feel like a party.

Available until Wednesday 1 July2020

To support, visit nationaltheatre.org.uk, https://bridgetheatre.co.uk

Production poster image by Perou, production photo by Manuel Harlan

2020

“The Last Five Years”: a lockdown performance

A bittersweet highlight of the Covid-19 lockdown, this specially filmed version of a show via The Other Palace theatre is wonderful – even if it made me rue the chance of seeing Jason Robert Brown’s masterpiece live more than ever.

Taking the roles of lovers Cathy and Jamie, Lauren Samuels and Danny Becker have singing voices to die for. They can both belt out a number with fantastic power – and make a song intriguing, dramatic, funny and moving all at the same time. Yet, of course, the sound quality doesn’t touch a live performance. At the back of your mind is how much you’d love to hear Samuels and Becker on a stage.

Brown’s influential musical, with a justly deserved following, is full of fantastic songs and lyrics that blend the joy and poignancy of romance magnificently. The brilliant narrative structure – Jamie starts by falling in love, while Cathy tells her story backwards, beginning with a lament to their failed marriage – is superficially suited to a show produced in isolation as only one scene calls for both performers to be together.

Samuels also directs and, without doubt, has plenty of problem-solving ideas. If I wasn’t too keen on some of the touches (text messages on screen or scenes inserted in boxes), the variety of rooms and costumes impresses. Best of all, Samuels makes sure neither she nor Becker are always looking straight to camera, so the show doesn’t feel like a long monologue.

Lauren Samuels in 'The Last Five Years'
Lauren Samuels

Samuels’ more important skills, as director, are understanding both characters to get the audience emotionally involved and appreciating the impact of the piece’s structure. Because we see her pain first, we have more sympathy for Cathy. And Jamie is less appealing (I’m thinking A Miracle Would Happen). This is balanced by Samuels showing us a fragile and demanding Cathy. Meanwhile, Becker’s appealing performance balances his character’s self-obsession; The Schmuel Song (which I’ve never bothered about before) is a revelation that brought tears to my eyes.

Danny Becker in 'The Last Five Years'
Danny Becker sings The Schmuel Song

Though impeccably executed with sublime singing, the piece has unavoidable restrictions. While the physical separation of the performers reflects the many ways that distance is referenced in the piece, the charge that comes from having them share a stage can’t help but be a loss. And what do I miss most of all? Applause… without doubt. In a theatre, I would be on my feet for Samuels and Becker as soon as the show ended.

Until 27 June 2020

www.theotherpalace.co.uk

2020

“Bare E-ssentials” from Encompass Productions

That most charming of creative producers, Liam Fleming was back last night presenting another evening of new writing. Created remotely (and without the hint of a technical hitch), the standard was consistently strong and I’m already looking forward to another date – 29 July.

The first piece is the only one with any sign of faltering. Every Seven Minutes by Ken Preuss has a good dystopian idea but a shaky hand on how many questions to tackle. Performers Ryan Brannon and Cate Olivia do well, and director Jonathan Woodhouse really helps, with great props and a clever eye on the fact we are watching on screen.

Another comedy short, Spud by Robert Wallis, is briefer but more confident. Anyone who imagines talking potatoes being baked gets a round of applause from me. Keeping up that level of surreal, even for five minutes, is impressive: bringing in some Shakespeare to provide the line, “band of Maris pipers” is the biggest laugh I’ve had all lockdown.

The two more substantial pieces are particularly impressive. Like a House on Fire, by Keith Gow is a real gem. Performed by Rachel Nott and directed by Fleming, it is a model monologue full of drama and wicked humour that plays expertly with its audience. Its appealing character, depicted so skilfully by Nott (pictured), challenges us – “go on judge me” – about her dangerous addiction, and introduces a startling sensuality. Intrigued? You should be.

Yet the highlight for me was Spread, by Robbie Knox, where Gabrielle Macpherson and Robert Gallagher play siblings to perfection in a neat short about planning for a funeral. Their memories of an aunt who it first seems they cared little for are developed in a moving fashion. The debate over what to put on her tombstone made the piece one that is memorable.

Performed live, it seems nights like these are as close as we’ll get to the theatre for a long time. That makes Encompass Productions’ commitment increasingly welcome. And important. As the lockdown continues, the crisis for theatre grows. E-ssentials is a light at the end of an increasingly long and frightening tunnel.

www.encompassproductions.co.uk

2020

“Small Island” from NTLive

Andrea Levy’s 2004 novel, written long before the national disgrace of the Windrush scandal, feels regrettably pertinent during these times of Black Lives Matter protests. The piece is a painful example of how systemic racism can be – even the most sympathetic character is prone to insulting comments – and it’s depressing to note that the treatment of those coming to our country has never been something we can be proud of.

There’s more to Levy’s work than important lessons about multiculturalism. It’s a long time before the major characters – Hortense and the men in her life, Michael and Gilbert – actually get to the UK. Completing a romantic pentagon, full of coincidence and longing, are Queenie and her husband Bernard. Questions of gender and class are brought the fore with a well-realised sense of a period drama that’s blissfully free of nostalgia.

Aisling Loftus and Leah Harvey in Small Island
Aisling Loftus and Leah Harvey

Such rounded characters are a dream for performers. Leah Harvey takes the lead as the snobby, slightly spiteful, Hortense, who we still come to love. Joining her as Queenie, Aisling Loftus is just as good, and both women bring out the humour in the script that the characters are more the butt of then instigators (bit of shame).

CJ Beckford in Small Island
CJ Beckford

CJ Beckford makes a suitably dashing Michael (praise, too, for Trevor Laird’s performance as his father, who carries the show’s religious undercurrent), while Gershwyn Eustache Jnr’s charm matches that of his character, Gilbert. Andrew Rothney is also excellent at allowing us to see the complexity of his unsympathetic Bernard.

Andrew Rothney, Leah Harvey and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr in Small Island
Andrew Rothney, Leah Harvey and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr

Small Island’s considerable success starts with the fact that it’s a great story. Both Helen Edmundson’s adaptation and the direction from Rufus Norris use the narrative to the fullest to create a gripping show that feels far shorter than its three-hour running time. Katrina Lindsay’s design is impressively minimal, relying on excellent costumes. I’m not even sure Jon Driscoll’s impressive projections are really needed (although the colour in these great production photos is making me think again). The power of the story comes out on the stage, its message hopefully lingering long after viewing.

Available until Wednesday 24 June 2020

To support, visit nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photos by Brinkhoff Moegenburg