Tag Archives: Roger Michell

“Consent” at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Nina Raine’s play, a hit transfer from the National Theatre, is exciting new writing. The crafted yet uncontrived piece illustrates how much a talented author can juggle, and Consent is a play full of seemingly contradictory qualities that combine into great theatre.

The plot is a too-simple story of infidelities – a pretty tried and tired topic – as a group of friends, mostly lawyers, make a mess of their marriages. But their motivations, and how their lives change, give the story complexity. It’s essentially a talking heads piece, set around drinks parties and a courtroom drama, but it bristles with an unnerving dynamism.

The theatricality of the law is a blunt point, frequently made, but Raine treats it with finesse. Are the characters’ careers a toxic pollutant of their private lives? Or are the successful barristers closer to their clients than they – or we – would like to think? Raine challenges her – let’s face it – middle-class audience in a sophisticated fashion, laying bare some pretty tawdry emotions with sophistication.

The play couldn’t be more topical. The discussions around consensual sex are only a part of it: the work-life balance of these high flyers is in the news, including their drug abuse, while the obsession with property – and sofas – is tiresomely recognisable. Opposed to this, the battles between the sexes and the classes that Raine highlights makes a claim to be universal: Greek theatre is in the background and makes a fascinating parallel to her work.

Consent is a think piece, cerebral to a fault, with discussions about justice, guilt, repentance and atonement. Yet the play is as emotionally intense as you could wish, with broken hearts all around and characters driven to crazed revenge.

As you might expect with so many abstract ideas, this is serious stuff. But (another contradiction) the play is full of great laughs. Not just dark humour, either – some of the jokes are surprisingly childish and it’s a shock to hear laughs so close to such dark subject matter.

Heather Craney and Stephen Campbell Moore 

The strong material is meat and drink to the talented cast. Stephen Campbell Moore and and Claudie Blakley are superb as the leading couple Edward and Kitty. There’s strong support from Adam James and Sian Clifford as their friends, while Heather Craney takes two roles with equal assurance. A final accolade goes to director Roger Michell, who tackles Raine’s superb text with such assurance. He’s bold enough to bring out all the tension and subtle enough to show each complexity.

Until 11 August 2018

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photo by Johan Persson

“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