Tag Archives: Michelle Terry

"A Midsummer Night’s Dream" from Shakespeare’s Globe

The three groups of characters within Shakespeare’s much-loved comedy provide possibly too easy a scheme to judge a production. But given director Dominic Dromgoole’s expertise with the work of Oscar Wilde, here’s hoping he forgives me for not resisting temptation and following it for a rough assessment of his superb 2013 production.

First, the doubled-up roles of those who rule – Athens and the fairy world – deliver two excellent performances. John Light makes a forceful Theseus and downright virile Oberon: there’s a perfect diffidence about his marriage to a not-so-willing bride and a gorgeous Irish brogue as he plays tricks on his fairy queen. Taking to the stage she is now in charge of as artistic director, Michelle Terry is wonderful as a still fiery Amazon and a Titania who engenders a good deal of emotion.

Our “hempen homespuns”, the workmen who put on a play within the play, are also superb. Led by Pearce Quigley as Bottom, a role he was surely born to play, the clog-wearing workers get laughs before they open their mouths. Quigley has some excellent ad-libbing and a deadpan tone that makes a nice change for the role; his ironic delivery of a “monstrous little voice” and an actor’s temper tantrum are two of many highlights. Moonshine’s dead dog is another!

With the final group of the four Athenian lovers, things aren’t so good. Demetrius and Lysander are too cartoonish and Hermia a touch bland. It’s left to Sarah MacRae’s Helena to get the laughs, try as hard as the others do, creating unbalanced scenes that drag a little. Two out of three doesn’t sound that great. But Dromgoole has a vision for the play as a whole that sets his work apart. Steeped in rural mysticism (aided by the work of designer Jonathan Fensom) that Shakespeare’s audience would have recognised and is appropriate for the venue, there’s a powerful cohesion to the production. With a surprising amount of violence, danger and some pretty scary spirits, Dromgoole brings a tension that the play can sometimes lack. You probably can’t have a perfect production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream but, with a nod to an unsettling nightmare, this one comes respectably close.

Available until 28 June 2020

To support, visit www.shakespearesglobe.com

Photo by John Wildgoose

“Hamlet” from Shakespeare’s Globe

Six free plays to help theatre-goers on lockdown, along with lots of interesting content and even the show’s programmes, have been made available by Shakespeare’s Globe. My first choice, the one I most regretted not seeing when I had the chance, was Michelle Terry’s performance as The Dane. Marking Terry’s appointment as the venue’s artistic director in 2018, while a female Hamlet is nothing new, it was a bold risk. It’s pleasing to say the confidence paid off – Terry is fantastic and the production very good.

Directed by Federay Holmes and Elle While, aside from having a woman in the title role (which surely shouldn’t shock… but still) this is a sensible, even traditional, show. There are even, mostly, period costumes in Ellan Parry’s design – all a part of rendering the play accessible and the delivery natural. As a part of these admirable qualities, this is also a snappy show, just over two-and-half hours, with sensitive cuts and an unerring eye on keeping the action moving.

The production is a model of clear-thinking. Benefitting most is James Garnon’s Claudius, whose delivery is remarkably fresh. A poor schemer (after all, most of his plots fail), he often seems confused and struggling with the situation – an interpretation that adds interest and tension. Garnon’s is an understated performance, a quality shared by Helen Schlesinger’s Gertrude – at first frosty, “when sorrows come”, she reacts magnificently.

It might be better if the admirable restraint was universal. Shubham Saraf’s Ophelia and Bettrys Jones’ Laertes both come across as hysterical in contrast; their roles are used as a foil to the royal family a little clumsily. And I suspect it will surprise no one that Pearce Quigley’s Rosencrantz is played for laughs: in this instance his comic talents are something of a shame. The accompanying Guildenstern (Nadia Nadarajah) uses sign language, which proves fascinating, and Quigley comes across as a distraction.

These are quibbles in what is a very fine production. Holmes, While and Terry carry clarity into the production’s argument. Of Hamlet’s actions and emotions, they would claim, “it is not madness” – a position adhered to with consistency and made convincing. Terry delivers the “wild and whirling words” with credible mania. And she can be scary – not just when she looks like a demented clown. But what happens if you don’t think Hamlet is mad? Taking him as “sweet and commendable”, Terry invests incredible emotion into his plight. The soliloquies are always intense, but Terry makes them more emotional than ever. Like the “sweet Prince”, I often had a tear in my eye, making this a Hamlet to remember.

Photo by John Wildgoose

Available until 19 April 2020 on globeplayer.tv

To support visit www.shakespearesglobe.com

“Cleansed” at the National Theatre

Playwright Sarah Kane’s notoriety and early death make an assessment of any revival problematic. It may still be too soon to appraise Kane’s work objectively but it is disappointing that her first play to be staged at the National Theatre, under the aegis of director Katie Mitchell, embraces oddity and opacity to a degree that the piece unravels as a sensation-seeking mess.

My best guess is that the institution we’re taken inside of is a lunatic asylum – and that we are seeing it through the eyes of an inmate. The doctor is a torturer, the staff faceless figures, mutilating any patient professing love for another. To say the action is gruesome is an understatement: it includes rape, cutting off fingers and toes and an enforced sex change. Kane’s twisted imagination is haunting. But here, the imagery is delivered in so exaggerated a fashion that it’s more schlocky than shocking.

Kane’s Orwellian motifs are matched by Mitchell injecting touches of Pasolini. With a penchant for slow motion that makes the staging feel dated, and people walking backwards (Mitchell likes that), the whole thing is far too close to parody for comfort: we know it’s art since nobody is wearing shoes. Kane’s imagination is not matched by designer Alex Eales’ derelict-looking clinic – the play deserves more than distressed wall and few broken tiles.

The performances have a stilted quality that results from Mitchell’s heavy hand. There’s a lot of hard work, especially from Michelle Terry, whose character is grieving for a lost brother, and Peter Hobday, a sad soul whose love for his partner is tested via horrific torture. The performers feel like puppets and no character is elaborated enough to generate much interest. A frantic energy fills the show but is counter-productive, all the alarms and running around prove tiresome, while repetition makes things duller still.

Yet the biggest problems for the production are more basic. A lot of dialogue is difficult to hear. There isn’t much plot in Cleansed but distinguishing the characters is made trickier than it needs to be. And, if you are sitting at the sides of the auditorium, far too much action is out of sight. The music and sound design, by Paul Clark and Melanie Wilson, are interesting but strangely muted. All these frustrations added together make it tempting to just give up. Reports of people fainting at the show seem questionable – it’s more likely that they fell off their chairs when they fell asleep.

Until 5 May 2016

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photo by Stephen Cummiskey

“Before The Party” at the Almeida Theatre

Preparation is often the key to both a good party and a good play. Director Matthew Dunster’s impeccable staging of Before The Party at the Almeida Theatre is clearly well provisioned: a strong text, finely executed, with the highest production values.

The action occurs before two events, a teatime affair and a dinner, with the Skinner family facing increasing turmoil and scandal as they prepare for each. The fare on offer is various – this is a sharp comedy with plenty of deliciously dark-edged plot twists.

Saving the family face makes the snobby Skinners a great target for writer Rodney Ackland’s satire, but emotions break through with a genuine touch that’s truly affecting.

Heroine Laura (Katherine Parkinson) fights for her right to party despite being only recently widowed, and that’s just the start of her shocking behaviour. Laura mortifies her mother and sister (Stella Gonet and Michelle Terry in fine comic style), and infuriates her father, portrayed with suitable bluster by Alex Price.

Special mention has to go to the costumes from a team headed by designer Anna Fleischle. Spot on for a time when post-war celebrations and a touch of provincial conservatism had to deal with continued rationing, they should win an award.

In many ways, Ackland’s play (a big hit in 1949) is pretty dated: the snobbery seems ridiculous, but current financial straits find a parallel with wartime rationing and the black market exploited by the wealthy Skinners shows that we were never really all in it together. Even if you’re not one for nostalgia, Before The Party has enough hits against hypocrisy to make you glad you attended.

Until 11 May 2013

www.almeida.co.uk

Photo by Keith Pattison

Written 8 April 2013 for The London Magazine

“The Comedy of Errors” at the National Theatre

The National Theatre’s winter show is one of those twins-separated-at-birth affairs so adored by Elizabethan audiences. Staged by director Dominic Cooke as a light farce, this is a fast, funny and accessible production of The Comedy of Errors. It is Cooke’s first show at the National, and he may have taken tips from the previous comedy smash One Man, Two Guvnors: his staging is full of invention and wit, and packed with laughs, from the troubadour-style Chorus to Ayckbourn-like entrances and exits.

The big star is Lenny Henry. After his Olivier award-winning Shakespearean debut last year in Othello, this performance has been much anticipated and it’s a pleasure to praise it. Henry has great charm and, even more impressively, a stubborn will not to upstage the rest of the cast. One suspects he might do so easily, but the production benefits from his restraint. His Antipholus of Syracuse, played with an African lilt, has a touch of the naive as he encounters those living in the big city of Ephesus, his superstitions and bewilderment causing ever-increasing amusement.

Henry is joined by some strong comic talent that gets behind Cooke’s sense of fun for the show. The second set of twins, the servants Dromios, are marvellously played by Lucian Msamati and Daniel Poyser in matching Arsenal FC shirts. As well as a fine cameo from Amit Shah, the standout performances come from Claudie Blakely and Michelle Terry as TOWIE-inspired wife and sister, working quite ridiculous shoes, stupidly large hand bags and estuary accents to great effect.

The Comedy of Errors is a modern multi-cultural melange and I suspect we will see more like it throughout 2012. By the end of next year’s World Shakespeare Festival it will probably become rather tiring. But Cooke is way ahead of the game. This show also seems blissfully unaware of any recession, with Bunny Christie’s impressive set surely busting the budget – but isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

Until 1 April 2012

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photo by Johan Persson

Written 2 December 2011 for The London Magazine