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“From Here To Eternity” at the Shaftesbury Theatre

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From Here To Eternity – The Musical opened this week at the Shaftesbury Theatre. The story of military lives and loves, based on James Jones’ novel, is set on the eve of Pearl Harbour. Famous because of the multiple Oscar winning film from 1953, this version is grittier than anything Hollywood could have produced that year. It’s a grown up affair, reminding us that musicals can deal with adult themes and complicated passions and crediting its audience with intelligence – and all the better for that.

The book by Bill Oakes and lyrics by the old maestro Tim Rice catch the attention. There’s no shying away from sex here, as First Sergeant Milt Warden starts a sea-soaked affair with his Captain’s wife Karen, while Private Robert E Lee Prewitt falls in love with a prostitute while battling with pressure from his comrades to return to the boxing ring, where he once blinded a man. There’s a lot going on. The language and violence of the soldiers, bored while waiting for war, has an authentic brutality.

A bold approach to the story is backed up by music from Stuart Brayson, who makes a startling West End debut. Drawing on a variety of styles, that nearly all hit home, this is an accomplished score and highly entertaining. Combined with Rice’s lyrics, there are several fine examples of characterisation. Choreographer Javier De Frutos works marvels with some adventurous dancing that shows off the strength of the male ensemble.

Tamara Harvey directs, dealing effectively with the exciting plot and providing time for the cast’s acting skills. The female characters, a frustrated wife and tart with a heart, are less well served than their love interests. But Rebecca Thornhill and Siubhan Harrison match the leading, male, roles in skill. Robert Lonsdale takes charge, giving a stirring performance as the independent Private Prewitt, while Darius Campbell sounds fantastic as Warden.

There is no shortage of achievements here, not least a satisfying cynicism and a look at big themes that have you itching to go back to the source material. An impressively dark tale, trying hard to be unsentimental and ending with a twist I thought brave – it can’t just be the downbeat subject matter that makes you leave slightly uninspired. A shame since few opportunities to impress are lost – the show just lacks that final spark. It’s a brave critic that offers predictions: stranger musicals than this one have gone on to success and some with fewer merits. I doubt From Here to Eternity will run forever, but it has enough going for it to hold its head high.

Booking until 26 April 2014

Written 24 October 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Adult Supervision” at the Park Theatre

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Adult Supervision, a new play from first-time writer Sarah Rutherford, opened at the Park Theatre last night. When Natasha holds a gathering on the night of Obama’s election victory, planned to unite “mothers of children of colour” attending the same private school, the evening turns predictably sour. The tensions of motherhood and racism are quickly revealed and discomfit the middle-class protagonists and the audience at the same time.

An actress herself, Rutherford has written four fantastic roles for women. Natasha is a ridiculously uptight former lawyer who has renamed her adopted Ethiopian children to make them sound more exotic – a word she really hates. Happily, Susannah Doyle rises above cliché in the role. Her unlikely friend, the dizzy Izzy (the wonderful Olivia Poulet), attends for moral support, even though her children are Caucasian. Much of the tension is woven from the fact that the heavily pregnant Angela is black, married to a white man. Finally we have Mo, a dangerously down-to-earth woman who is far too frank for her surroundings. The latter parts, played with substance and wit by Jacqueline Boatswain and Amy Robbins, are, painfully, easily recognisable.

The play isn’t as funny as one billed as a comedy should be. There are laughs but, despite the women reminding us that “this is supposed to be fun”, pacing sometimes goes awry despite the efforts of talented director Jez Bond. You see this problem again with some enforced craziness – dressing up as a virgin bride and experimenting with lesbianism – that do not convince. Fuelled by improbable amounts of booze, many of the faux pas are a step beyond the credible. The Freudian slips are better, but the majority of humour comes from the performances rather than the script. Doyle and Paulet are particularly strong here.

Rutherford is best when she approaches darker ground: questioning assumptions about racism, including that directed towards the white community, joking about a “multi-racial mafia”, or showing convincing anger at a complacent “bubble” that denies the problems altogether. These are brave moves, with Robbins and Boatswain injecting wholly credible passion. Combined with the compassion the women show each other, despite screaming at one another plenty, there’s a maturity in the writing that makes up for a somewhat pat ending and bodes well for the future.

Until 3 November 2013

www.parktheatre.co.uk

Photo by Mark Douet

Written 11 October 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Roots” at the Donmar Warehouse

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As you might expect, there is a kitchen sink in Arnold Wesker’s 1958 work Roots. But, for all the washing up, the play really revolves around cooking. It starts with some liver, followed by ice cream, as Beatie comes home to her Norfolk village for a holiday. Jessica Raine instantly establishes Beatie – and her own acting skills – as something exceptional. Inspired by the socialist ideals she has been exposed to from her activist fiance Ronnie, she’s a “whirlwind” to her family. Insisting that they start to think and talk like her, she is a harsh, albeit endearing judge.

Next Beatie makes a cake. It’s Ronnie’s recipe. Her formidable mother is busy cooking something else while being lectured to and made to listen to classical music. The preparations are for Ronnie’s visit, an encounter that Beatie is justifiably anxious about. Linda Bassett shines in the role of Mrs Bryant, bringing much humour to the play and almost threatening to make the focus two women rather one (probably not Wesker’s intention), so fine is her performance.

By the final scene, there has been more food (and a bath in between), including a family feast with a trifle to take seriously, and all are assembled for Ronnie’s arrival. There’s a sense we have over indulged. Director James Macdonald’s production is meticulous and, with the help of designer Hildegard Bechtler, the detail approaches fetishism. The observation of rural working-class life is slow but captivating, and concentrated performances from the large ensemble that make up Beatie’s family are similarly precise and of the highest quality.

As well as being slightly bloated, Wesker’s examination of socialist ideas is a little past its sell-by date. Thankfully, there is also Beatie’s journey of self-discovery, and this is all together more satisfying. Raine’s depiction of Beatie’s development is thorough and gratifying, giving her the passion for life that Wesker writes so well about. As she gets down from Ronnie’s soapbox, admittedly on to one of her own, you start to really listen to her, and one leaves feeling that the end is her delicious new beginning.

Until 30 November 2013

www.donmarwarehouse.com

Photo by Stephen Cummiskey

Written 10 October 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Ghosts” at the Almeida Theatre

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Richard Eyre’s production of Ibsen’s Ghosts has been a long time in the making – he first worked on the script in 2006. It must be gratifying that now it has reached the stage, opening this week at the Almeida Theatre, everything has come together so eloquently. Eyre’s adaptation is superb, his direction impeccable and his cast faultless.

In this 1881 play we encounter one of Ibsen’s many heroines, Helene Alving, a magnificent character whose long-endured marriage has ended and who hopes she is now “learning to be free”. But, while ironically planning an orphanage as a memorial to her syphilitic, drunken husband, she is haunted by her decision to shield his philandering from her son and the community. As Helene, it is difficult to praise Lesley Manville sufficiently.

Helene’s unrequited love for her Pastor, a ridiculously religious figure made credible by the clever casting of the excellent Will Keen, and her desperate love for her sick son Oswald, played with skill by Jack Lowden, makes things grim and grimmer for her. A radical thinker, Helene has us on her side, but the past and society are against her. The Pastor’s restraint and Oswald’s bohemianism, including his incestuous attraction to his half-sister, trap Helene like a pincer. Manville copes with the intensity terrifically, agonisingly building up the pressure.

The play is set in a single room, Helene’s “university of suffering”, created out of ghostly transparent walls by designer Tim Hatley. Sometimes opaque, at others revealing the comings and goings of the servants the Alvings are intimately connected with, it acts as a claustrophobic canvas for some fine work by lighting director Peter Mumford.

Ghosts caused controversy when it was written and Eyre’s adaptation reminds us why. Swift and brutal, you sense Ibsen’s hunger for life and the truth with a ferocious intensity. The heart-rending finale, where Helene faces a moral dilemma about the euthanasia of her son, could easily find you in tears.

Until 23 November 2013

www.almeida.co.uk

Photo by Hugo Glendinning

Written 4 October 2013 for The London Magazine

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“The Last Yankee” at The Print Room

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The Print Room has produced another quality show with a revival of Arthur Miller’s The Last Yankee. Casting the spotlight on a pair of husbands visiting their wives in a mental hospital, this short play combines the stories of two very different marriages with a social commentary on the American dream. The production, combining the young talent of director Cathal Cleary and an experienced cast, delivers a great deal in just over an hour.

LastYankee Matilda Zielger (Patricia Hamilton) and Kika Markham (Karen Frick) credit Ellie Kurttz133
Matilda Zielger and Kika Markham

The performances are ones to relish. Paul Hickey has the strongest part as the carpenter descendant of a founding father, generating sympathy for a proud working man whose efforts to make ends meet frustrate his wife Patricia (captivatingly played by Matilda Ziegler). Their fellow New Englanders are self-made Frick and reclusive Karen, who seem to have it all. Andy De La Tour and Kika Markham make a fantastic team in these roles, forming the play’s emotional backbone as an elderly couple facing frightening problems.

Miller’s idea that money and status have become too damagingly connected is forcefully written and respectfully presented. Arguably, too much has happened in America in the 20 years since the play was penned for these concerns to overly interest an audience in Notting Hill in 2013. But even when Miller’s allegory pushes against credibility (in particular the suggestion that Patricia is punishing her husband by having a break down), human drama is to the fore. The performances focus attention on the pain of mental illness and there are heart-rending moments that make it easy to recommend this show.

Until 5 October 2013

www.the-print-room.org

Photos by Ellie Kurttz

Written 16 September 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Hysteria” at Hampstead Theatre

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Hampstead Theatre’s new production of Terry Johnson’s Hysteria is a significant revival, not least because the writer himself directs it. One of the most successful plays to mine the rich seam of psychoanalysis, it imagines Freud on the couch. Like the man himself, it explores trauma and humour in inspired fashion. This is a work of big ideas that boggles the mind and attempts to explain deep truths.

The action is set down the road from the theatre in Maresfield Gardens, during Freud’s exile in London just before the Second World War. The father of the unconscious approaches his death with plenty of humour. Antony Sher is magnificent in the lead; Freud joins Stanley Spencer and Primo Levi as famous figures Sher has embodied so well. Elements of farce abound as he hides a naked woman in his closet from his Doctor (David Horovitch – excellent) and a visitor paying homage, none other than Salvador Dali.

The scenes of farce are a delight. Adrian Schiller’s “doolally” Dali is superb and his accent a triumph. But the play soon develops into a tense exploration of Freud’s methods and the foundation of his movement. In an emotional performance as the unwanted guest in his bathroom, Lydia Wilson highlights one of Freud’s failures, a case study he presumptuously reported as a success, and a change in his theories that she questions. Her interrogation of him reveals his doubts and the trauma in his own life.

Johnson’s play is full of clever touches and is a close study of his subject. It can’t have hurt the farce that Freud’s study was full of erotic sculptures but picking out the Surrealist painter’s visit is inspired. The final tableau, depicting Freud’s dream, realised by Lez Brotherson’s superbly ambitious set, rises to the challenge of a problem Johnson highlights – that depicting the unconscious diminishes it – but can still create fine theatre.

Until 12 October 2013

www.hampsteadtheatre.com

Photo by Alaistair Muir

Written 13 September 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Afraid of the Dark” at the Charing Cross Theatre

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The latest attempt to scare London theatregoers out of their seats is Afraid of the Dark, which opened last night at the Charing Cross Theatre. I chickened out of Ghost Stories but always recommend The Woman in Black, so consider myself open-minded about scary shows. Afraid of the Dark didn’t make me jump much – you wouldn’t bother daring someone to see it – but it’s perfectly diverting.

Intriguingly penned by Anonymous, the play’s various scenes of suspense circle around an old Vaudevillian magician who delights in scaring the wits out of a B-movie producer and his minions. Julian Forsyth takes on the role of ‘Master of Terror’, Dr Henry Charlier, with nice prestidigitation. And those he terrorises at the film studios (by giving them an envelope predicting their darkest fears) ham it up in appropriate fashion. Rebecca Blackstone’s screams are great and Mark Rice-Oxley tries hard to shed some light on his character’s motivation. None of the actors has that much to work with – characterisation isn’t the point after all – and nor is the plot trying to thread them together up to much. But there’s a good sense of humour here and some neat touches.

What impresses is the show’s production team. Effective light and sound, along with illusions from Darren Lang, reveal this to be a magic show that is entertaining rather than eerie. The stories are made the most of with technical expertise as well as some lo-fi touches that receive eager applause. Just like the movie producer looking for the next gimmick, Afraid of the Dark shows that cheap touches can work well. The real thrill comes from experienced director Ian Talbot who has more than earned his fee here. Consistently tense and swiftly paced, this play is more fun-filled than fear inducing.

Until 26 October 2013

Photo by Eric Richmond

Written 12 September 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Oxbow Lakes” at The Old Print Works, Parr Street

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Theatre happens in all kinds of places nowadays, so a disused Print Works as a venue is voguish rather than outlandish. But walking through a massive council estate on the wrong side of Hoxton at night made your theatre critic feel distinctly intrepid. Thankfully, the Dirty Market theatre company has transformed an old factory into a playground to host its new show, Oxbow Lakes, in association with the Camden People’s Theatre. A work devised by the company, using the perspective of a child, it’s a charming, dreamlike jaunt through some wild scenarios.

A young child’s fears, reflecting the anxieties of his parents, Jack and Jill (Georgina Sowerby and Jon Lee), with plenty of transformations set in a deep, dark wood create a rich backdrop for imaginations to wander through. Puppetry, fabric sets, jumble sale costumes and fairy-tale characters, ably performed by Francesca Dale, Arti Natharni and Benedict Hopper (who has the evening’s funniest scene when he takes on the roles of both Queen Bittersweet and Prince Lemonzest) combine to create a simple, storytelling world that it’s a pleasure to dip into.

There’s also a good deal of music, composed and performed by the show’s narrator Oscar Gibbs. It’s easy to see the appeal of the songs’ lo-fi approach and poetic lyrics. And there’s an element of mystery, as bodies pile up around the eponymous lake, with a nod to Twin Peaks, and a Sarah Lundish detective (pictured above) who raises a smile. It may not quite hold together, and the inspiration – that some people find their children to be little devils – doesn’t have much drive – but it’s all monstrously good fun.

www.dirtymarket.co.uk

Until 28 September 2013

Photo by Jemima Yong

Written 6 September 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Edward II” at the National Theatre

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Director Joe Hill-Gibbins made his debut at the National Theatre last night with a radical version of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II. He’s the King whose murder with a red hot poker makes him the medieval monarch schoolboys remember. This crazy collage of show revels in incongruous touches, using our current National anthem and the hokey cokey in its soundtrack, and wrenches the personal from an explicitly political text. Best of all, it boasts a lead performance from John Heffernan that must not be missed.

Hill-Gibbins’ inventive staging is bracing – a bag of tricks that updates Marlowe with a defiantly energetic touch. Projecting live films onto the walls, including scenes in an inside-out room (reminiscent of a Rachel Whiteread sculpture) that the audience cannot see into, gives a sense of intimacy and conspiracy. There are touches that will ruffle feathers – brash, bold and sexy – including the longest snog I’ve seen on a stage for a while. But the production is never obtuse; the court and its conflicts are consistently presented as a game played by debauched egoists.

The “base, leaden Earls” are deliberately overblown, outraged by the explicitness of Edward’s love for his minion Gaveston rather than questions of social status. Two roles, transformed into female parts, stand out, with Kirsty Bushell as Kent and Penny Layden as Pembroke, displaying sympathy toward the King that injects pathos. The biggest problem is for Edward’s wife Isabella. Vanessa Kirby proclaims her love for the King, between drags of her fag and swigs of bolly, well enough, but the production focuses so much on Edward’s homosexuality that it denies tension between the two of them.

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Kyle Soller

Gaveston, the “ruin of the realm”, is performed by Kyle Soller with magnificent dynamism – when he kneels to the King it’s as if he’s about to start a race. In Soller’s performance the morbid playfulness of the production genuinely unnerves. But the suffering is all Edward’s and the scenes of his torture, filmed and projected throughout the final act, makes this a gruelling role that establishes Heffernan as an important actor. Despite the manic action around him, Heffernan has the power to create a stillness and deliver Marlowe’s poetry magnificently.

Until 26 October 2013

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photo by Manuel Harlan

Written 5 September 2013 for The London Magazine

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“Blue Stockings” at Shakespeare’s Globe

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Education is, quite rightly, always a hot topic. While our own universities face many problems, even basic schooling is still denied to many around the world. With this in mind, Jessica Swale’s new play, Blue Stockings, which opened at the Globe Theatre last night, serves as a first-class tribute to those who fought for women to be able to graduate from Cambridge University.

On the brink of the 20th century, four young women and their tutors at Girton College are our heroines. Their determined pursuit of knowledge might have made them a little pious, but this is a jolly bunch, especially Tala Gouveia’s fur-clad, cosmopolitan Carolyn. What with that “modern miracle of engineering”, the bicycle, and that classic “French folk dance”, the Can-Can, there is plenty of fun to be had among all the inevitable (and occasionally portentous) discourses about the virtues of art versus science.

If £9,000 a year in fees puts some off university nowadays, the cost to these pioneers was different. Swale unfolds the price they paid gradually, and by the end we’re pretty hooked. The struggles of the college staff, played superbly by Gabrielle Lloyd and Sarah MacRae, and the sacrifice of ‘respectability’, is presented commendably. A disarmingly sweet love story for the lead role of Tess (wonderful Ellie Piercy) shows that a woman with an education was an isolated oddity, deemed a danger both to herself and to society. As the vote to allow women to graduate approaches, the tone darkens and events become disgracefully violent.

Appropriately enough, you’ll probably learn a lot from this play. These proto-feminists fight a tactical battle of ”patience and stealth”, forced to shun the suffrage cause in case it taints their demands. It’s only a shame that themes of class aren’t also developed, especially given a strong performance from Molly Logan as a poor scholar obliged to return home to look after her family. The play seems comfortable trapped in its period, using outrageous prejudices for comic effect; chaperoned silliness is performed well by Hilary Tones, but is overplayed.

Credit is given to the male tutors who taught at Girton (to the detriment of their own careers) but the many men in the piece otherwise come off poorly. And rightly so. Their two-dimensionality may be cartoonish but it serves a purpose — to enforce a connection with a contemporary audience. After all, Blue Stockings is also about the fight of an individual against the majority. The play graduates as a passionate plea for personal freedom, and its shocking conclusion shows just how long it has taken us to get where we are today.

Until 11 October 2013

www.shakespearesglobe.com

Photo by Manuel Harlan

Written 30 August 2013 for The London Magazine