Tag Archives: Old Red Lion Theatre

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“Playground” at the Old Red Lion

A children’s picnic bench and climbing frames are an apt setting for Peter Hamilton’s new work. This is a playwright at play, with an outrageous scenario of book clubs and butchery. Playground is murder mystery, peopled by oddballs, with a wicked sense of humour.

Two peculiar policemen are searching for a child killer. Meanwhile, our prime suspect (Richard Fish) recruits the mentally ill to discuss Enid Blyton books. It’s part of a plan to join the middle classes… somehow. Laura Garnier and Simon Every make the most of their roles as psychiatric patients: Tamsin’s a communist and Stuart a genuine member of the proletariat (always a tricky combination). And Josie Ayers has a great turn as a suicidal, middle-aged misfit with a morbid sex drive. Oh, and there’s a café owner (Sarah Quist) singing nursery rhymes, called Lizzy… or is she? It’s all a bit of a puzzle, but the jokes stop you from taking it too seriously.

There are a lot of ideas here (mostly about mental health), and a stubborn resistance to shape them. Themes are lost in these comic creations – the evening really works as a series of sketches. Director and designer Ken McClymont handles the cast well, but if anyone has a clear idea of what’s going on it doesn’t come through.

By the time the policemen reappear, one of them in drag, I’d relaxed into this tastless, off-beat comedy. Dan MacLane brings a lovely deadpan touch to Detective Mitchell. His lust for colleague copper Birch, Christopher James Barley, making the most of those climbing frames, is deftly done. As a kind of conclusion, Stuart expresses a hope that one day man will live on Mars. Hamilton is already off in space if you ask me, but he can make you laugh whatever planet he’s on.

Until 7 November 2015

www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk

Photo by Cameron Sharle

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“Asking Rembrandt” at the Old Red Lion Theatre

Bringing a painter’s life to stage or film isn’t easy. Choosing the best-known master of self-portraiture seems especially brave. Rembrandt – or more accurately, the artist’s impending bankruptcy – is the subject of Steve Gooch’s new play. I don’t buy the idea. There’s too much hindsight and, even worse, it’s a poor source of dramatic tension.

Attempts to add appeal to the, to my taste, dry topic of the business of art, are numerous – unfortunately none is pursued long enough to save the play from feeling monochrome and modern vocabulary becomes clunky. And while scenes of domestic intimacy between the artist, his son Titus and live-in-lover Henni benefit from a sense of the claustrophobic community of the time, it’s that old struggle of the misunderstood artist that’s hammered away at. Scenes with Jan Six, Rembrandt’s informal fixer, increase in animosity as they wrangle over art and money in arguments that are over earnest and over rehearsed.

Jonathan Kemp’s direction has secured a capable cast and it’s frustrating to imagine what they might have done with more nuanced material. Esme Patey-Ford and Loz KeyStone make appealing members of Rembrandt’s household and John Gorick is credible as the suave Jan Six.

Liam McKenna’s bullish Rembrandt keeps you on your toes and performs valiantly, although it’s a shame the central character comes too close to the stereotype of the irascible artist. Ironically, Rembrandt’s achievements as a painter, unaided by the reproductions unveiled onstage, don’t impress. Jan Six says he doesn’t want his portrait on the wall in his “front room”. I can’t say I blame him.

Until 18 July 2015

www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk

Photo by Chris Gardner

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“The Picture of John Gray” at the Old Red Lion Theatre

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Oscar Wilde’s lover, John Gray was reportedly the inspiration for The Picture of Dorian Gray. In CJ Wilmann’s new play, the remarkable history of this poet and priest makes for a thought-provoking tale. The repercussions of Wilde’s life and crimes upon Gray and his wider circle are powerfully evoked, with the focus on Gray’s own story.

Wisely, Wilde himself never appears. The characters around him are interesting enough. The artists Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon, living together in Chelsea, entertain Oscar’s new fling, Bosie, while consoling the discarded epigone Gray and introducing him to the real love of his life, Andre Raffalovich. Wilde’s doomed affair with Bosie provides a third compelling love story.

It’s no easy task to recreate how these 19th-century aesthetes spoke. But Wilmann clearly immersed himself in the period and manages to produce convincing dialogue, while adding a wry humour and necessary modern touches that aid clarity. There’s a 21st-century sensibility that’s occasionally clunky, in particular the Charles’ relationship feels too contemporary, but Wilmann juggles our own perspective on these fin de siècle characters with what life might really have been like for them.

Gus Miller’s skillful direction produces a gallery of strong performances. Tom Cox probably has the hardest job as Bosie, but he tackles the role forcefully and does well. The two Charles are played by Oliver Allan and Jordan McCurrach, who make a convincing, sympathetic couple.

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Christopher Tester

In the lead roles, there are two great performances. Christopher Tester tackles of the part of Raffalovich, the sophisticated French critic, with great assurance, providing the play’s most moving moments. In the title role, Patrick Walshe McBride adds some stunning touches, doing justice to Wilmann’s clever text – a scene in which he nervously reads one of his poems to a high-powered audience is superb. He does justice to Wimann’s work and makes this a portrait worth going to see.

Until 30 August 2014

www.redliontheatres.co.uk

Photos by Miriam Mahony

Written 20 August 2014 for The London Magazine

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“Decline and Fall” at the Old Red Lion Theatre

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Decline and Fall is Evelyn Waugh’s first published novel. A riotous farce, heavy with satire, it follows the misfortunes of Paul Pennyfeather, whose relationship with the “much maligned” Lady Fortune is decidedly tangential. In Henry Filloux-Bennett’s adaptation, Waugh’s humour is given a surreal spin that adds to the comedy and creates an entertaining evening’s theatre.

Richard Kent’s design unites the worlds the hapless Paul suffers in: the college he is sent down from and the schoolroom he teaches in. The desks also stand in for his fiancée’s modernist house and, finally, the jail he is sent to on erroneous charges. Tom King’s direction controls the fun and the cast injects some inspired improvisation. From the beginning, the audience is asked to join in – this is a classroom you don’t want to be late for!

Waugh himself said that he had no technical psychological interest but that drama, speech and events obsessed him. This approach makes staging his work entertaining, but actors face the tricky task of dealing with characters that seem one-dimensional. King and Filloux-Bennett’s solution is courageous – they emphasise the slapstick and their cast embraces the strategy.

Sylvester McCoy is the star of the show, bringing his captivating eccentricity to the role of the drunken Captain Grimes and then the prison’s misguided warden. But it is the women who truly excel. Fay Downie plays Mrs Beste-Chetwynde as a wide-eyed flapper who might burst into song at any moment. Emily Murphy brings her considerable comic skill to the role of Florence Fagan, the headmaster’s autistic daughter. Combining this role with that of Lady Circumference (one of the those women who regard all athletics as an inferior form of fox hunting) is inspired.

The hardest role is the lead. Pennyfeather is a man who merely witnesses events; he doesn’t act but is acted upon. Michael Lindall performs this unrewarding role with appropriate modesty and spot-on comic timing that serves the production well. He masters a perplexed look that means you can’t help warming to him.

Pennyfeather’s eager dash to France to please Beste-Chetwynde is a lovely touch. Reappearing with beret and onions after a brief soundtrack of running feet and airplane propeller, it encapsulates this production’s anarchic streak. Any adaptation is a brave endeavour; you have to trust to the Lady Fortune that Waugh’s characters refer to – but she has done well by those at the Old Red Lion Theatre.  If you see Decline and Fall, chances are you will end up joining in with the cast and raising a glass to toast her.

www.redliontheatres.co.uk

Until 29 January 2011

Photo by Henry Filloux-Bennett

Written 6 December 2010 for The London Magazine

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“The Maddening Rain” at the Old Red Lion, Islington

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When readers of The London Magazine go to the theatre in Islington, they go to The Almeida. I am just the same and quite devoted to the place. But a new play, The Maddening Rain, makes me recommend travelling down Upper Street to the Old Red Lion pub theatre for a very special fringe production.

Nicholas Pierpan’s tale of a working-class boy who becomes a City trader is so firmly rooted in the streets of London that it is instantly believable. We are swept along on a journey of success, then failure, in an exhilarating manner. Pierpan doesn’t just know his geography – he knows how to write, with imagery that is instant yet lingering and poetry of the everyday that is accessible and effective.

In this well-constructed, hour-long monologue, London is presented as alienating but full of exciting opportunities. The mix of sociology and psychology is heady, but in safe hands with director Matthew Dunster who paces the show expertly. Light and sound add atmosphere without detracting attention and Dunster maintains an intimacy that, along with Alison McDowall’s clever set, takes us behind the scenes of the City.

It’s an adventure that gets quite a telling – Felix Scott’s performance is riveting. Underneath a look as bland as any other commuter, out comes a sharp eye with a comic glint. Insights into the ‘dead time’ of work and the ‘herd’ he has to put up with endear, but Scott is accomplished enough to hold us back. His ability as a mimic becomes chilling as he transforms into the role of his boss, then frightening as the play reaches its tragic conclusion.

Scott’s character fixates on the privilege he sees all around him. It’s true that Londoners are spoilt. We never have to go a long way for anything, take seeing a great play for example – just go down the road from the Almeida.

Until 18 September 2010

www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk

Photo by Jenny Grand

Written 1 September 2010 for The London Magazine