Tag Archives: Stephen Daldry

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“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” at the Phoenix Theatre

This acclaimed hit, with a couple of Olivier Awards last year and a Broadway transfer announced this week, is an adaptation of the Netflix teen horror TV show. Ticket sales are safe, fans happy, and the atmosphere is grand. It’s a long play, packed with action, and entertaining throughout. But perhaps the biggest achievement is that you don’t have to be a devotee of the source material to enjoy its venture on to the stage.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a prequel to the TV series, so we meet earlier versions of characters. But background information isn’t needed. It’s set in a small American town in 1959 – ticking boxes for atmospheric setting and nostalgia – where we follow troubled teen Henry Creel, somehow affected by a military experiment so that he has some kind of deadly power. It’s intriguing enough, but quite simple and lightly plotted, given the writing and story are credited to four people: Kate Trefry, The Duffer Brothers and Jack Thorne.

The TV format antecedents are clear. Tension comes from short scenes a few too many times, there are touches of soap opera about relationships, and the ending is poor (a jump scare and too obvious a call for a sequel). But there’s been a conscious and successful effort to move away from the small screen – director Stephen Daldry makes sure the show is ambitious and theatrical, not least with the inclusion of a play at school, a nice touch.

The coming-of-age story isn’t that convincing. Louis McCartney does a good job as the confused Henry and is excellent at being creepy. But his schoolmates are either too grown up or too immature. There’s a nice role for Ella Karuna Williams, who portrays Henry’s love interest, but her brother (played by Christopher Buckley) just ends up annoying. There are surely missed opportunities when it comes to Henry’s parents, played by Alex Young and Michael Jibson, who are both excellent but too clearly wasted. A suspicion of adults isn’t surprising in a show like this. Completing the theme is the scary scientist, another character written broadly but capably played by Patrick Vaill. The latter’s role as a substitute father for Henry could be developed further. But Netflix could easily cast all these guys in one of their shows… and hopefully they will.

It’s not so much the characters, or the story itself, as the telling of the tale that is the focus. And here Stranger Things: The First Shadow lives up to the hype. The technical accomplishments of the show are extraordinary. Miriam Buether’s expensive-looking set deserves more than one round of applause. The illusions and visual effects, by Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher, will leave you scratching your head, and Jon Clark’s excellent lighting holds the key to a lot of them. Plus the (very loud) sound design by Paul Arditti adds immeasurably. It isn’t all high tech – a lot is done with just torches and the speed of the cast and crew. But what we see is key: the show looks fantastic and there’s no doubt you get your money’s worth.

Booking until 16 February 2025

www.uk.strangerthingsonstage.com

Photos by Manuel Harlan

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“The Inheritance” at the Noël Coward Theatre

Inspired by EM Forster’s novel, Howards End, Matthew Lopez’s epic play, in two parts, develops the novelist’s dictum of “only connect” in almost-present-day New York. Combining important ideas with big characters and plots that pull at the heart strings, it is soon to be on every best-of-the-year list – mine included. A transfer from its sell-out run at The Young Vic means more people have the chance to see this unmissable piece. Or, if they are lucky enough to have seen it already, spot any differences the move to the West End might have brought.

Packing both parts into the same day was my (unnecessary) excuse for going again, leaving me even more in awe of the amazing cast. Paul Hilton ends up the star of the show, primarily through his skilled depiction of Forster. The Edwardian author joins a group of young men to help tell their stories, and is coaxing and commanding in turn as we learn about their lives. This premise, which is such a delight, means we miss the great author too much in Part 2. Hilton’s second role is as Walter, who uses his home as a refuge for the sick during the AIDS epidemic. This story serves as the finale to Part 1 and guarantees not a dry eye in the house.

Paul Hilton and Kyle Soller

During the second part, the story of Walter’s heir, Eric (a career-defining performance from Kyle Soller), takes over and would more than satisfy in any other play. But, despite Soller’s efforts, Eric doesn’t fascinate in the way Forster did. While his story is also moving, it’s far less entertaining. There’s a cruel irony – and a call to action – as, despite improvements in gay rights and the treatment of AIDS, as we come into the Trump era the play becomes more fraught and less joyous. Lopez struggles with the privilege many of his characters possess, while the misery that comes with the stories of Toby Darling and Leo (two more superb performances, from Andrew Burnap and Samuel H Levine) start to feel a touch overblown.

Samuel H Levine and Andrew Burnap

Some of the exaggerations may come from the show’s new location. While the leads are superb and Stephen Daldry’s direction fool-proofs the show, some smaller roles are too exaggerated. The result on the night I attended was whoops of joy from the stalls at political observations. It’s nice to hear such enthusiasm, but the sentiment seems misplaced. Surely Lopez isn’t as partisan as some of his characters? But guessing (which might be presumptuous) that the West End audience was less well acquainted with the original source material leads to a new joy. Instead of nudges at recognition with the book there was shock at revelations in the plot. A gasp from a crowd is always exciting and illustrates the story-telling craft behind the clever ideas here. It’s Lopez’s attention to detail, his rigour, alongside his ambition, that will, let’s hope, result in this play serving as an inspiration and having an inheritance in its own right.

www.inheritanceplay.com

Until 19 January 2019

Cast photo by Johan Persson. Production shots by Marc Brenner.

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“The Inheritance” at the Young Vic

Here’s a little idea: in times of cultural crisis, heroes are needed, and for Liberals they don’t come bigger than EM Forster. In Matthew Lopez’s play, about America but receiving its premiere in London, the Edwardian novelist appears on stage – portrayed with extraordinary skill by Paul Hilton – mentoring a group of young gay New Yorkers as they tell their stories. The clash of cultures is fun, adding a light touch to serious content that ranges far and wide. Played over two parts, with a marathon running time of nearly seven hours, perhaps the highest praise is that not a moment is wasted or uninteresting.

The Forster classic that the play is so very consciously in dialogue with is the 1910 Howards End. Lopez has characters narrating, shaping, scripting and performing events, a method that comes close to a combination of novel and play that is formally innovative and highly engaging. Action follows the book closely as sensitive artistic types (the Schlegels for Forster) come into contact with the world of commerce. Negotiating an update is full of wit. And thought provoking, too – when parallels become too forced, characters fight against what comes next. A reservation: it’s essential to know the book well to appreciate all this. The rewards include the novel’s titular abode transformed into an informal AIDS hostel – a stroke of imaginative genius that proves particularly moving.

The house is the base from which Lopez explores the inheritance in his title: the legacy of the AIDS epidemic and its relation to the gay community. History is alive and hauntingly literal for Lopez, which results in a truly stunning ending for Part One. Arguments are laid with ferocious intelligence and passion. A sense of fear about the current political climate results in inspirational calls to action – this is a play with a mission. It’s clear director Stephen Daldry is on board, treating the text with reverence: every joke is played for all its worth, each rallying speech given space. Daldry’s staging, imbuing more grandeur than the text requests, emphasises what an event the show is. Beautiful, too, bathed in a golden light by Jon Clark.  Similarly, the conviction of the performances is humbling, as a strong ensemble creates a chorus of supportive friends, loved ones and artists.

Kyle Soller, Paul Hilton and John Benjamin Hickey
Kyle Soller, Paul Hilton and John Benjamin Hickey

One Eric Glass is the emotional heart of the piece (the lead Schlegel, if you will) and a hugely appealing creation that makes for a career-defining role for Kyle Soller, who is riveting throughout. Lopez retains the name of Henry Wilcox, transforming him into a billionaire property developer, giving the character great weight, and the performance from John Benjamin Hickey does this justice. Oh, and Vanessa Redgrave has a part, too – an extended version of the housekeeper Mrs Avery. Of course, it’s exciting to see her on stage (and a blissful nod to the Merchant Ivory film) but, no matter how small the role, it’s testament to the production that even Redgrave can’t overwhelm the play.

Lopez gets tricksy when it comes to the role of Forster’s clerk Leonard Bast. Some elements of his role are shared out, his famous umbrella threw me, and taking on some of his aspirational characteristic is Toby Darling, rendered vividly by Andrew Burnap. Playing a self-destructive writer, trying hard to win an award as the ultimate narcissist, there are plenty of laughs. Toby’s own inheritance, an abusive childhood, lingers over the play and, while Burnap handles the scenes well, they feel like a loose end. Meanwhile, the parts of Leo and his doppleganger – a wealthy actor called Adam – are both performed by Samuel H Levine. All actors play more than one role but the flipping between parts for Levine shouts his talents deafeningly.

Kyle Soller, Samuel H Levine and Andrew Burnap
Kyle Soller, Samuel H Levine and Andrew Burnap

In the novel, Leonard is pivotal to deflating authorial grandiosity. The character retains his dignity and questions the role of art. Abandoning this, Lopez takes on a pious tone. Leo’s life as a member of an underclass – a prostitute who gets involved with drugs – brings us the play’s darkest moments, coming close to misery porn. While Leo’s end is ultimately happier than Leonard’s, it feels unrealistic. And it gives rise to surprisingly crass points on inequality. An earnestness pervades the play – it’s a fault some find in Forster, too – that makes it all a touch High Table. The humour that seeks to compensate doesn’t have Forster’s bite or finesse. The dialogue, rooted in contemporary privilege, might sound as foreign to English ears as anything Edwardian – which is interesting in itself – but some scenes, surely destined for auditions, feel like contrived set pieces.

While the conversation with Forster’s novel is fascinating, a final assessment of Lopez’s play rests on what he does with his inspiration. Current political concerns, social injustices and Trump trauma are all thrown in, sometimes messily. The legacy of AIDS, so sensitively handled, engulfs the play. Connections to Tony Kushner’s Angels in America are clear, but that’s another blog! An epilogue, which doesn’t leave a dry eye in the house, is when we arrive at a fantasia and when the play becomes its most aspirational. Concerning itself with the widest of societal connections through the personal, struggling so hard to connect the prose and the poetry – in the here and now – is the biggest lesson learnt.

Until 19 May 2018

www.youngvic.org

Photos by Simon Annand