“Moon on a Rainbow Shawl” at the National Theatre

The National Theatre’s revival of Errol John’s 1957 play, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, is only the fourth time the work has been seen in London. Michael Buffong’s production is, therefore, an opportunity not to be missed: this is a good old-fashioned play with a cracking plot and an authentic voice that ensures it still sounds fresh.

A group of Trinidadian neighbours, each with their own dreams and dramas, struggle to make the most of their lives. Their humble stories have a universal resonance and the characters are wonderfully drawn. Moon on a Rainbow Shawl has its brutal moments, but is always deeply humane, and finds the humour in its protagonists’ harsh conditions.

None of the characters is a saint but each has some heroic spark. Ephraim, a trolley bus driver desperate to better himself, and Sophia, a struggling matriarch devoted to her bright young daughter, are remarkable roles and Danny Sapani and Martina Laird give fantastic performances. Ephraim’s rage when confronted is magnificent as is Sophia’s collapse when events escalate and she succumbs to exhausted despair.

It’s impossible not to note the magnificent Jenny Jules who plays Sophia’s arch-foe Mavis – their battles are legendary, their squabbling, as Ephraim points out, comes from living like “hogs”. Beneath its exotic location, this is a kitchen sink drama but the politics never detract from the emotions on stage.

The action is plentiful and Buffong’s production admirably physical. Unfortunately, Soutra Gilmour’s set feels restrictive, wasting rather than exploiting The Cottesloe auditorium’s wonderful intimacy. And the set causes problems with sight lines too – don’t try to scrimp on restricted view tickets for this one. Initially impressive, the production would have worked better in a larger space. Staging Moon on a Rainbow Shawl elsewhere would have given more people the chance to see the work – make sure you don’t miss out.

Until 9 June 2012

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photo by Jonathan Kennan

Written 19 March 2012 for The London Magazine

“The Glorious Ones” at the Landor Theatre

The Landor Theatre in Clapham has the coup of presenting the European première of the off-Broadway musical The Glorious Ones. Set in 17th-century Italy, in the world of Commedia dell’Arte, it celebrates theatrical collaborations. Such affirmation seems appropriate: written and composed by award-winning team Ahrens and Flaherty, of Ragtime fame, the show reunites Landor dream team director Robert McWhir and designers Martin Thomas and Howard Hudson.

The conceit underlying The Glorious Ones is the satisfying fantasy that the actors are as interesting offstage as they are on it. In a stirring opening number we are told that their “lives are like a play within a play”. Flaminio Scala is the man in charge – a pied piper of performers, gathering an ensemble together as much for their personality as their ability. A famous pioneer in the history of Commedia dell’Arte, Scala’s passion is improvisation, and this is the key to his comedy.

Naturally improvisation in a musical is tricky but the cast is admirably fresh and McWhir has succeeded in creating a sense of camaraderie appropriate to a travelling company, aided by the Landor’s intimacy and Martin Thomas’ cleverly designed set. Mike Christie gives a sterling performance as Scala, joined by Peter Straker as Pantalone in fine comic form, and there are excellent turns from Jodie Beth Meyer and Kate Brennan.

The miniature performances of Commedia dell’Arte performed by the group are never quite as thrilling as the musical moments. And a challenge to change the art form from one of improvisation to scripted works – embodied in the conflict between Scala and his protégés – struggles to ignite the imagination. But there are more than enough songs and strong performances to allow The Glorious Ones to live up to its title – praise for the show should be plentiful in every sense.

Until 7 April 2012

www.landortheatre.co.uk

Photo by Mitzide Margary

Written 13 March 2012 for The London Magazine

“Farewell to the Theatre” at Hampstead Theatre

Farewell to the Theatre, a new play at Hampstead, takes as its subject the life and work of Harley Granville-Barker. A pivotal figure in British theatre, the multi-talented Granville-Barker is today known primarily as a playwright. Boldly taking on another writer as his subject, the play’s author, Richard Nelson, shows off his own experience with an impeccably crafted, intelligently layered script.

Granville-Barker was also an actor and it is easy to imagine he would have been proud of these performances at Hampstead. Ben Chaplin takes on the lead with a commanding intelligence and complexity: Granville-Barker was a severe critic with a cruel tongue but also a wish to be kind. Jemma Redgrave is superb as the Chekhovian sister to a persecuted lecturer Granville-Barker is staying with. Tara Fitzgerald is wonderful as a retired actress mooning over a young boy performing in the college play, a role that allows William French to make an impressive debut.

Granville-Barker moved from acting to direction. His lessons about ensemble work haven’t been lost on director Roger Michell, whose control and sensitivity bring out the best in Farewell to the Theatre’s cast as well as its script. Michell’s pacing is superb. Avoiding all traces of indulgence, he takes the production at “a good clip”, just as Granville-Barker advised we should deal with Shakespeare: at 100 minutes straight through we are left satisfied but wanting more – not an easy trick to pull off.

Ultimately, the influence Granville-Barker has on the stage stems from his work as a theoretician: born of a passion for the theatre that, during the course of the play, we see under threat. Farewell to the Theatre is a play Granville-Barker is writing – about a thespian tired of the business that surrounds putting on a play. It is an exhaustion I guarantee you will not feel if you see this one. Concluding with an impromptu performance of a mummers’ play, here we have the magical power of theatre confirmed, in a simple, effective, efficient fashion.

Until 7 April 2012

www.hampsteadtheatre.com

Photo by Stephen Cummiskey

Written 9 March 2012 for The London Magazine

“The Summer House” at the Gate Theatre

The Summer House is a comedy thriller about a British stag party in Iceland, where three hapless, very modern males, have to face up to a harsh environment and their personal issues. With the lads going slightly mad and getting steadily drunker, the comedy is anarchic. Throw in plenty of Norse mythology and this becomes one crazy evening.

It is the kind of madcap fun that fringe audiences love. Devised by John Wright, who also directs, along with its three energetic performers, Will Adamsdale, Neil Haigh and Matthew Steer, the play is full of invention and laughs, with a tight structure that shows off the performers’ comedic skills. The characterisations are admirable and there’s a nice balance of one-liners and slapstick.

The Summer House contains observations on contemporary masculinity sure to strike a chord. The groom and his best man, Will and Matthew, are successful doctors: as keen on tea as beer, with a grating faux laddishness and a penchant for impersonating WWF wrestlers. Their more laconic companion Neil shares their anxiety but at least he has real problems and these come to provide the play’s suspenseful moments. There isn’t quite enough tension for my liking, which is a shame since the scene in which Will and Matthew work out neither of them really knows Neil is one of the best in the show.

The stag weekend becomes wild but not in the manner expected and certainly not according to the laminated cards created by Will. Contrasting with the trio are Norse Gods, whose story is also told with a nice twist – especially when we see Odin and Thor have problems of their own. The subplot allows all three performers to excel in their numerous roles, providing the funniest Viking warriors and best panic attack you are likely to see on stage.

Until 24 March 2012

www.gatetheatre.co.uk

Photo by Edmund Collier

Written 2 March 2012 for The London Magazine

“Hay Fever” at the Noël Coward Theatre

The winter is over and what better way to clear the head than a trip to see Noël Coward’s Hay Fever? Howard Davies’ fabulous new production is spring-like in its appeal; fresh and life affirming, it positively bounces along and is a sure hit.

Coward’s comedy about a bohemian family and their unfortunate weekend guests is one of his finest and liveliest works. The Bliss family are wonderful characters, dripping with 1920s glamour. In keeping with their ecstatic nomenclature, the Blisses are out of this world – inhabiting an altogether more theatrical sphere.

Lindsay Duncan is perfect as the matriarch Judith. Not that one would dare use that term in front of her. Sexily voiced and revelling in her “celebrated actress glamour,” she casts everyone in a play of her own making – whether they like it or not. Drama follows her like an expensive scent, with hilarious results. And not good drama either – it takes talent to act this badly. Duncan delights as she hams it up creating ‘scenes’ that include her baffled visitors.

L-R Olivia Colman (Myra Arundel) and Freddie Fox (Simon Bliss) in Hay Fever at the Noel Coward Theatre. Photo credit Catheri
Olivia Colman and Freddie Fox

Hay Fever has a strong supporting cast, including rising star Freddie Fox, whose cheek bones alone make him perfect for period drama, and Jeremy Northam, who gives a charmingly understated performance. Two more members of this talented ensemble must be highlighted. Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Judith’s daughter, getting a laugh out of every line, and Olivia Coleman is Myra – the only guest to challenge the Bliss phenomenon. Far more at home in London, Myra cattily accuses Judith of “rusticating” in the country. It’s a glorious put-down, delivered sublimely in a play full of clever insults, which is sort of ironic, since nothing but praise should be written about this play or this production.

Until 2 June 2012

Photo by Catherine Ashmore

Written 27 February 2012 for The London Magazine

“Patience” at the Union Theatre

Sasha Regan’s all-male productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas have become much-anticipated events. And rightly so. Regan’s direction breaths life into G&S in a manner that retains respect for the classics she is dealing with. Patience follows the successful formula: presenting a silly story of love amongst poets, with a milk maid and dragoons thrown in, that does justice to Gilbert’s contemporary satire while providing a knowing eye to what a modern audience might make of it all.

Sullivan’s take on satire was to mock everyone indiscriminately – being uniformly sarcastic somehow makes it seem fairer. The primary target in Patience was the Aesthetic movement, and there are plenty of reference to lilies and the like, but Regan effortlessly broadens the focus to pretentiousness and fashion in general. In so doing, she preserves and expands the show’s humour, ensuring that this is a night full of laughter.

The main character, Bunthorne, a sham aesthete who confesses “my medievalism’s affectation, born of a morbid love of admiration”, is played marvellously by Dominic Brewer, who takes lyrics such as these into his appropriately elongated stride. Followed around by a troupe of smitten maidens, played by an ensemble of uniformly admirable young performers, Bunthorne’s heart belongs to Patience, a young girl confused by the fuss everyone makes about love.

Following topsy-turvy logic, Patience decides the best way to make her love a sacrifice, a key element to its being Aesthetic, is to marry someone she dislikes, so she ignores her true love for the narcissistic Adonis Grosvenor. Edward Charles Bernstone gives an immaculate, intelligent performance in the title role, while the startling Stiofàn O’Doherty is perfectly cast as Grosvenor.

As well as followers of fashion, Sullivan has an eye on the establishment with a troop of dragoons, the residuum of all that is noble in British manhood. There are sterling performances here from both Edward Simpson and Matthew James Willis, who bring out the wit in Drew McOnie’s choreography and whose strong voices highlight another reason why Patience is so good.

This is a musical, after all, and the splendidly subtle musical direction from Richard Bates, with additional input from Michael England, is just as much a star of the show. Accompanying the performance on only a piano and allowing plenty of a capella makes the most of the remarkable voices on offer, ensuring the show is something to be heard as well as seen.

Until 10 March 2012

www.uniontheatre.biz

Written 22 February 2012 for The London Magazine

“Mathematics of the Heart” at Theatre 503

There’s a lot of common sense in Kefi Chadwick’s play The Mathematics of the Heart, now running at Theatre 503 in Battersea. Paul, a middle-aged maths professor, loves order and seeks to predict what will happen. Chadwick reminds us that the world isn’t like that.

Disrupted by his father’s death and the arrival of an odd bequest – a pre-packed sailing boat – Paul’s relationships with his new student, his errant brother and his long suffering fiancée come adrift. Fortunately, Chadwick and the cast are thoroughly in control.

Bella Heesom is arresting as the young student and Isabel Pollen gives a stunning performance as the fiancée constantly in waiting. Pollen’s character is a cold fish, which makes her well-observed and emotional performance all the more remarkable.

But the heart of the play is a fascinating sibling relationship. Mark Healy is terrific in the lead and Mark Cameron is given a superb role as his brother Chancer. The ego-driven, self-appointed moniker is indicative of this obnoxious but funny, free spirit (there’s a touch of Gloria Swanson about him – the many rock groups he has joined haven’t sacked him, “I always leave first!”). Chancer and Paul are diametrically opposed, artfully described as double pendulums: starting out together but now swinging at different velocities and, frighteningly for Paul, at unpredictable speeds.

Chadwick doesn’t plumb the depths of a connection between maths and art – for academic simply read emotionally dysfunctional. Director Donnacadh O’Briain provides a nice take on the mechanics of theatre, though, with the cast making open demands on the sound and lighting and some very sweet audience participation. It is a shame that O’Briain allows Theatre 503’s intimacy to become a problem, with far too much action occurring in the aisle. Take care to sit at the back and away from the steps as it would be a pity to miss anything about this well crafted, accessible and appealingly modest play.

www.theatre503.com

Until 3 March 2012

Photo by Simon Kane

Written 10 February 2012 for The London Magazine

The Paper Cinema&’s “Odyssey” at the Battersea Arts Centre

Performance has always played a role in the story of Odysseus. The tale of Homer’s wandering hero was recited long before it was recorded on paper and the telling has never stopped. The Paper Cinema introduces its own special brand of theatricality by producing a live animation in the form of a film, with pen and ink wash drawings and cut-out paper puppets projected on to a screen.

Apart from an onomatopoeic ‘splash’, words are stubbornly excluded from this retelling, and this focuses our attention all the more on the artistry of both Nic Beard’s wonderful drawings and Ed Dowie’s fantastic accompanying music.

Images and sounds play on a sense of wit and invention that delights, particularly as the puppeteers and musicians sit in front of the screen so that we can watch them making it all happen. It’s fascinating and inculcates a growing sense of respect for their controlled teamwork.

With a seemingly lo-fi approach, one appreciates their care, attention and humour all the more: the overlapping images are perfect for conveying the memories of the characters, and there’s a playful sense of scale and a good few visual jokes (the Cyclops’ dad-and-trident tattoo is a lovely touch).

This journey is hypnotic and heart-warming. It is possible to see a drawback to its charms – it turns The Odyssey into something of a fairy tale. But you’d have to be a real purist to object. The Paper Cinema has such skill in tapping into the magical thrill behind all good puppetry that seeing the strings doesn’t break, but extends, the spell.

Until 25 February 2012

www.thepapercinema.com

Photo by Perrine Desproges

Written 7 February 2012 for The London Magazine

“The Pitchfork Disney” at the Arcola Theatre

The Arcola’s new production of Philip Ridley’s The Pitchfork Disney marks the play’s 21st anniversary. It’s a study in terror, which might lead us to speculate whether our collective fears have changed in texture over the last two decades. Ultimately Ridley deals with such basic, and base, themes that his work remains alarming and powerful.

Under Edward Dick’s faultless direction, Chris New and Mariah Gale are remarkable as Presley and Haley – pill-popping, chocolate gorging twins with a psychotic bent. Agoraphobics who wallow in their piteous existence, they tell stories to each other not just for escapism but to perpetuate their trauma.

And what stories, hypnotically poetic, ruthlessly insightful and grotesquely overblown as they are. The cast revel in the telling, with New especially adept in bringing out the morbid, humorous edge. His Presley peeps through the letterbox, looking at the real world but describing his imagined apocalypse.

When the door to this disgusting flat is opened, inviting in a “pretty boy and a foreigner”, we start to see connections between their fantasies and what really exists. Cosmo Disney has a thought-provoking story of his own, and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s performance in the role is captivating. He damns the twins as “ancient children” and mocks mankind’s desire for a “daily dose of disgust”, making his dissecting analysis more like a vivisection.

Disney is a performer and Stewart-Jarrett preens to perfection, with a cabaret trick of eating cockroaches. But The Pitchfork Disney doesn’t just curl toes – it surprises. When Disney’s fellow performer Pitchfork arrives, it is into a bizarre, spooky and fantastic scene that doesn’t deserve a plot spoiler. Presley’s nightmare starts to come to life and they play’s conclusion is truly desperate.

If people such as these exist, they surely don’t get this weird without something happening to them. Ridley never offers us a specific reason and his play is so full of themes that the mind boggles. In this way, he leaves us to examine our own fears of “freak accidents and freaks” – and that of course, is truly scary.

Until 17 March 2012

www.arcolatheatre.com

Written 2 February 2012 for The London Magazine

“She stoops to conquer’ at the National Theatre

Any production of a comedy at the National Theatre is likely to be compared to the venue’s most recent success, One Man, Two Guvnors. As Richard Bean’s updating of Goldoni’s play moves to Broadway, and opens with a new cast in the West End, the National’s newest attempt to make us merry is a traditional version of another 18th-century classic, Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer. Remarkably, the National has succeeded again – this is a delightful production with guaranteed belly laughs.

Our hero Marlow is sent to visit his prospective bride Kate, played commendably by Harry Hadden-Paton and Katherine Kelly. But while Marlow can banter with barmaids he is impotent when flirting with women of his own class. A practical joke by Kate’s half-brother Tony Lumpkin (a superb comic creation in the hands of David Fynn) leads Marlow to believe the home of his future father-in-law is the local inn. Exploiting the confusion, Kate joins in the deception, bawdily stooping in class to conquer her diffident suitor.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER by Goldsmith
Sophie Thompson as Mrs Hardscastle

Another pair of lovers, Constance (the appealing Cush Jumbo) and Hastings, joins the fun, planning to elope under the nose of the former’s guardian, the pretentious and avaricious Mrs Hardcastle. Sophie Thompson is superb in the role, her deliciously exaggerated performance making her one of the most endearing characters of the piece. But it’s John Heffernan as the foppish Hastings who takes the evening’s comic laurels delivering a master class in buffoonery and raillery.

It’s a relief that director Jamie Lloyd doesn’t try anything tricksy with the play. She stoops to conquer is “old-fashioned trumpery” that doesn’t need a modern take. Lloyd has the confidence to play it straight, knowing he just has to control the action, and the laughs will follow. Mark Thompson’s design provides the doors to slam – the text doesn’t really call for them but they add a reassuringly farcical touch. And the music – all pots and pans and trolololing, provided by Ben & Max Ringham, directed and arranged by David Shrubsole, adds immeasurably to the production. You have to see the ensemble perform it to believe how funny it is – that’s if you can hear it above the laughter.

Until 28 March 2012

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photo by Johan Persson

Written 1 February 2012 for The London Magazine