Theatre 2017: Review Twenty-three and Twenty-Four - Angels in America

Angels in America, The Lyttleton Theatre, The National Theatre, London. July 2017.

(Millennium Approaches/Perestroika)

I'll confess that I was little nervous as the lights went down for this - Rebecca and I were seeing both plays in one day which added up to just shy of 8 hours theatre, what if it wasn't very good?

Millennium Approaches was split into three parts, each about an hour long and as the first interval started I was starting to be drawn in but I wasn't 100% convinced. This is a complex play with multiple story lines and at this point I just wanted to spend a little more time with each set so I could get to know them. By the second interval I was hooked and had fallen under the play's spell completely and I loved the switching between view points.

It is hard to explain this play, in simplistic terms it is the story of a group of people, living in New York at the height of the AIDS epidemic but at the same time it is so much more - and I think that everyone brings (and takes) something different from each scene as various lines speak to them.

After a break of a couple of hours we were back in our seats for the second play, Perestroika and this was a little longer but again I quickly sank into the story telling and was desperate to find out how the lives of the characters were going to intersect and then play out. Right up until the very last moments of the play could we work out how the story was going to end and that is praise not criticism!

This was a total ensemble piece, with not a weak link in the cast. It took you through every emotion going but throughout the tension was cut through with so much humour - and not just the gallows humour of the dying. At times it was hard to work out what was real, what was dream and what was hallucination but that didn't matter at all because it was the overall effect that was important.

Perhaps my only criticism is that there were no real highs/lows in the storytelling - you remained keyed up throughout with no release, but, when you think about it life is actually like that.

I think we made the right choice in seeing the two plays in one long session. A gap between might have been kinder on our backs and bottoms but I think the full immersion made me fall in love with this play and the characters.

Theatre 2016: Review Twenty-Five

The Deep Blue Sea, Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre, London. August 2016.

This was a play we were lucky to get seats at, and typically the day after I grabbed three together it was announced that there would be a National Theatre Live performance - the very next day to our visit.  However live theatre is preferable and it was nice for Rebecca and I to meet up with the Upstart Wren.

I have a soft spot for Rattigan - I loved Flare Path when Mr Norfolkbookworm and I saw it back in 2011 and I've also enjoyed films penned by Rattigan or adapted from his plays - and so I was happy to go to see this.  I'm not sure what drew my companions to this one - reviews and the cast I think.

In not booking until late we did have seats right at the back of the Lyttleton theatre and for the first half I felt very distant from the action, however by the end this distance worked and it was as if we were watching the play through the deep blue sea.

Like Flare Path this is a play with very little plot as such but is all about emotion - on the surface and repressed and it grew on me very cleverly. At the interval I thought that the recent film was better viewing but I was drawn deeper and deeper in and by the end I was cheering for Hester.

In many ways this is a very modern play, Hester, ultimately, takes a very brave line and goes her own way. She takes neither of the 'easy' ways out that are on offer to her. The men in the play are less stereotypical than you might expect for the late 1940s and early 1950s and there is just a prescient hint of the relaxation of society that started just a few years later.

On reading around the subject, and the wonderfully detailed programme, it becomes clear that this in someways is an incredibly autobiographical play and this might explain why the characters took so long to grow on me - like real people they are more flawed than you'd like and not people you want to identify with. The callous act with the shilling really drove this home.

The set was fantastic, Hester's flat took the main part of the stage but the other other apartments in the building became visible as needed through clever lighting and it made the play both claustrophobic and a great reminder that one couple's drama is very small fry in the scale of the world.

Rebecca and I enjoyed the play more than the Wren but we've spent the past 24 hours discussing the whole thing a great deal which implies that there was more to this play than first thought.  While Rebecca and I became more and more involved as the story went on out third found it becoming more trite... it would be a dull world if we all had the same views and in being challenged in our opinions has meant that we've had to think more about our views which is always good.

All of us however, and the people sitting next to us, were bothered by the slightly anachronistic feel to the props and sound  - the most important piece of music came from at least 5 years after the play was written let alone set...

I'm pleased I saw this live, and with friends so we could discuss it - but I do wonder if we'd have seen a different play if our seats had been closer to the stage...

Theatre 2016: Review Eighteen

Threepenny Opera, Oliver Theatre, National Theatre, London. June 2016.

This was a show that has been on my horizon for a while as surprisingly it was Mr Norfolkbookworm who suggested that it would be a good thing to see. (Rebecca and I were easily persuaded!) I knew nothing at all about it - not even the one catchy tune!

This not knowing anything about the play? musical? opera? paid off again as I just fell into the spell wonderfully. This is a Brecht show and so you are never going to feel comfortable but the famous alienation was spot on for me.  Every time I just got settled and thought I knew what was happening there was a twist, a moment of discomfort from either the visuals or words, or even the cast addressing the audience directly but this kept me on my toes and keen to know what happened next. I particularly liked the way that the violence was handled in such a stylish way, and also spotting all of the other cultural references that fitted in seamlessly.

Afterwards the three of us sat over dinner and discussed what we'd seen for ages. Each of us had taken something different from what we'd seen or noticed something different on the stage. Mr Norfolkbookworm was probably the least enthusiastic about the show - he'd recently watched the 1930s film version and found the live version to be just so different - but Rebecca and I were in agreement that if time and funds allowed we'd be seeing this at least once more to spot more of those little details that we'd been talking about.

My one request from this outing - that my two companions could at least keep to the same time & key as they "sing" Mack the Knife.

Theatre 2015: Review Thirty-Eight

Waste, Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, London. November 2015.

After our recent trip to the disappointing The Winter's Tale I'm pretty sure that all three of us were a little nervous of seeing this play, two of us had no real idea of what it was about. I was drawn to it mostly because it is a play that was banned by the censor for many years and I always feel that if those "superior" to me think I shouldn't see/read something then I really probably should.

It is a very talky play, it reminded me a lot of Man and Superman from earlier in the year where there were so many ideas to get across that full attention had to be given at all times, luckily for this production the actors and the script made this easy to give.

The play is a political drama, but all about what goes on behind the scenes, it is also a personal drama and one that I found most affecting.  Time after time my assumptions were proved wrong and I found the ending to be a shocking surprise.

Some parts bothered me slightly - the play started with a very strong female-led scene and then this group of intelligent women vanished from the stage. It has since occurred to me that this is a play from 1907, before the main suffragette campaign was under way, and that of course women would be excluded from everywhere except the drawing room. Even those women who appeared to be powerful behind the scenes could not come to the fore as the political intrigue deepens.

The play was banned because it deals with abortion, a politician gets a lover pregnant and she dies getting rid of the child, however even this is not quite as it seems. The subsequent potential for scandal then is the catalyst for the second half of the play.  I am trying not to go into detail about the play as since I've seen it I have seen many reviews where all of the plot is given away and I think that seeing it unfold organically was the best way.

I found this a political play from over 100 years ago to still be scandalously relevant - decisions made by the old-boys' network behind closed doors making or breaking laws and lives.  The play hasn't been received well by all reviewers but I know that it will stay with me for quite a while and it gave me lots to think about.

Theatre 2015: Review Thirty-One

The Beaux' Strategem, Oliver Theatre, National Theatre, London. September 2015.

After the sadness of War Horse a restoration romp seemed just the thing to see next and I'm pleased to report that Rebecca and I had a great time at the final performance of this comedy.

I think it took me slightly longer to warm to the play than Rebecca in the first instance but very quickly I was swept away in the complicated, multi-stranded plot.

Aimwell and Archer have wasted all of their money in London and are thus taking to the provinces in an attempt to find rich wives who's money will support their chosen lifestyle.  Aimwell is impersonating his older, titled, brother and Archer is acting as a high class personal gentleman as they put into play their strategy - hence the play's title.

In addition to this we have a corrupt landlord involved in all sorts of crimes, imprisoned French officers and their priest and the ladies of the grand house who Archer and Aimwell have in their sights.  There is also an unhappy marriage, brought about by the need for money...

It sounds complicated and until you have grasped who is who, fortunately there is very little role doubling, it seems a little bit of a mess but quickly it is clear what a clever piece of writing this actually is.

In many ways this felt a very Shakespearean play, far more so than the other Farquhar play (The Recruiting Officer) that I have seen.  There was a lot of song, very bawdy humour, a dead pan servant, a jig at the end and a very neat (improbable) tying up of the loose ends to make the finale.  This isn't a criticism, just something I wasn't expecting from a Restoration Comedy.

The set and costumes were sumptuous in this production and the cast were very obviously having a good time - I do wonder if this was heightened as it was a last performance as there was some, hastily recovered, corpsing on occasion.
All in all this was a real mood boost play, with a few things to think about afterwards thrown in for good measure.  It has also left me with a craving for trifle.

Theatre 2015: Review Thirty

War Horse, New London Theatre, London. September 2015.

This trip turned out to be incredibly poignant as while we were ensconced in the auditorium closing notices for the production were posted.

We however found this out afterwards and in the meantime the three of us making this trip were blown away by what we saw on stage.  This was my fourth visit but the first time my companions had seen the play live, although one had seen the NT Live broadcast.

Repeated viewings of this production never disappoint me.  Each time I sit in a different area of the theatre and so see something new. This time we had seats in the 'restricted view' seats to the side of the stalls. I have put the restricted view into inverted commas because I think that we missed nothing on the stage at all, and while sometimes the actors had their backs to us that was the only inconvenience.  The seats were in fact just three rows from the front and so we really could see the whites of the actors eyes.

As ever I was instantly swept up into the story and forgot within seconds that Joey and Topthorn weren't real.  In fact where we were sitting we made so much eye contact with Joey at one point that we were all reaching for apples to share with him! This close range also showed just how good the puppets are in scenes where they are used as riders on the "half-horses."

Every time I watch this play I get a lump in my throat at a different point, after all of the work I have been doing on the Norfolk in WW1 project it was the lines about the war being over by Christmas in act one choked me up but it was the very final scene that had me swallowing hard this time.  I know that I have become more involved in the human story in the past few years and while the treatment of the animals is a way into the horrors of war I have moved on from that in some ways and do get more involved with the human story.  However there were still points I had to shut my eyes for!
As we said afterwards - without showing any blood at all this is one of the most violent and brutal things we've ever seen.

In the second act we are taken away from the bucolic Devon countryside and romantic ideas of how the war will be into the horrors of the trenches - the added realism of a real mouse around my feet was a nice,but unnecessary touch!

On the way home we were discussing what we'd seen when the man sitting behind us joined in - it turns out that he'd been the back-end puppeteer of Joey for a few years and had given Michael Morpurgo a ride on Joey!  He gave some fascinating insights to the role, how the puppets work and how hard it was to make it look so real and so effortless.  I'm just glad we had all liked the performance and were saying nice things, it isn't always the case!

I'm now planning one more trip to see War Horse before it closes, and wondering whether to really splash out for those special seats in the front stalls for the 'wow' moment or to stick with the so-called restricted view and go twice...

Theatre 2015: Review Twenty-Nine

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Theatre Royal, Norwich. September 2015.

Back in 2012 Rebecca and I were lucky enough to get tickets to see this play in its original incarnation at the Cottesloe Theatre in London and it made my top 5 plays of the year. I've wanted Mr Norfolkbookworm to see the play for a while but as he isn't too keen on London it was a great relief to discover that the tour was coming to Norwich.

Before going in I was worried how the change from black box theatre to proscenium arch would work.  The set was so integral to the original play we saw, could this be reproduced? I'm pleased to say that it totally worked - and possibly improved some parts.

The set comprised of an open box that was divided into, for better description, graph paper and was used to great effect as lights and drawings appeared on all visible sides as needed.  The three dimensional set also made it clearer that the ever changing lights and projections were reflections of Christopher's mind being unable to process the world around him.  When he is coping there are ordered lines and his own images but when over whelmed it all becomes jumbled, flashing, loud and incomprehensible.

It may be false memory but I did think that the fourth wall was broken more times in this version than in the original and I didn't like this - I was jolted out of the production at these points, but this is a small criticism of a wonderful night out.

If you don't catch this on tour then it is still playing in London and I really recommend going if you can, it is a play that can stand repeat viewings. Mr Norfolkbookworm also gives it his seal of approval!

Two warnings:

• there are unpredictable strobe lighting effects used in this, if you are susceptible to these this really may not be the play for you. 
• there is a slight danger of cuteness over load at one point.

Theatre 2015: Review Nine

Rules for Living, The Dorfman Theatre, National Theatre, London. March 2015

**Preview Disclaimer**

After a break of a couple of hours we were back on the South Bank to see the second play of the day in the newly refurbished Dorfman Theatre.  As this is a 'black box' theatre that can be reconfigured for any play I'm afraid that I didn't notice any changes in the actually auditorium but the foyer, cafe, cloakroom and loos were all very nice!

This play couldn't have been more different from Man and Superman if it has tried and if we hadn't known this was only the second preview I don't think I would have guessed.

The set depicts the ground floor of a large house - living room, dining area and kitchen - all set up on a basket ball court complete with electronic score board at either end.  It is Christmas Day and the family are gathering for Christmas dinner.

It is like watching a car crash in slow motion.  There are secrets in the family which slowly become clear and all of the main players have created their own 'rules for living'. As these become relevant they are flashed up on the scoreboard, this means that as the audience we saw extra humour in the characters that wasn't in the script just by their actions. One character for instance can only lie if he is sitting down and eating something, and as he is with a girl friend he doesn't love and has another secret this becomes very funny very quickly.

The car crash element is because I'm pretty sure anyone who has every had a family Christmas can recognise some of the tensions/actions in the play and seeing your life experiences in glorious Technicolour is excruciating.  Because this is so heightened not every experience is personal so there is some relief and some bits are just funny but I imagine that every audience member finds these different.

Other early reviewers have complained that they found the whole rules for living tedious and overblown but I liked this part of the play - for me it was the end that 'missed' slightly. I think I would have liked it to end just one scene earlier, but as it is a play about cognitive behavioural therapy I can see why it continues, it just would have remained a total comedy for me without it.  However as I have continued to think about this play more than the other two that I saw this weekend it must be doing something right.

In some real theatre geekiness Rebecca and I were sitting near lots of people who were taking notes on this preview performance and in fact I was sitting next to the director, Marianne Elliot.  They were all writing copious amounts so I don't know how much will change between the previews and opening night.

This was uncomfortable fun for me and while I don't think it will make my top 10 at the end of the year it was fascinating to see a new play, in a new space by a relatively new (and female) playwright.

If you are sat in the lower gallery at the front look out for flying eggs...

Theatre 2015: Review Eight

Man and Superman, The Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, London. March 2015.

There has been a little gap in my theatre jaunts, partly thanks to fear of bad weather and partly because the train line between Norwich and London has been so appalling this winter, however recently Rebecca and I had one of our mammoth theatre weekends in London.  Three plays in effectively 27 hours.

First up was Man and Superman which in its own right is a bit of a big-one coming in at over three and a half hours.  Mainly it has to be said due to the author, George Bernard Shaw, who seems never to use one word if fifty will do and then to say it all twice.

That being said this was still, thanks to the cast, an enjoyable experience.  Jack Tanner, Ralph Fiennes, has been appointed an unwilling co-guardian of his friend's daughter Anne.  He is what in the early 1900s was a new man and not keen on this burden and as a radical thinks himself unsuitable for the role and for romance in general. Anne thinks him ideal for the role and also a great romantic catch.

While the acting, costumes and set were all good I did find that some of the ideas that Bernard Shaw put forward as progressive in his time now felt dated and entirely sexist. Anne is not really an independent and intelligent woman but rather a scheming manipulative one who always gets her own way.  Jack and her mother both see through her but seem unable to stop or change her and as a result I never warmed to her character and really hoped that the play would have a different outcome.

The play is so long because stuck in the middle of the action is a dream sequence where Jack Tanner morphs in to Don Juan and ends up in hell debating philosophy with the devil.  This started well and was wonderfully different from the rest of the play but just went on for too long and in the end I did lose a little of the plot and was longing for Andy Hamilton's version of the devil from Old Harry's Game to appear and put an end to it.

Oh dear - again this sounds terribly negative and this isn't quite how I feel about the play. There was a lot of humour and visually it was a treat. It was also brave to stage the whole thing and without the excellent cast this would have fallen completely flat but I do think that a little editing wouldn't have gone amiss, and I was uncomfortable with the way woman in the character of Anne was portrayed.

Rebecca had an interesting idea - the play should be restaged but with the main characters' genders switched...

This play will be broadcast live to cinemas in May but once was enough for me on this occasion.

Theatre 2014: Review Twenty-Three

The Elephantom, New London Theatre, London. July 2014.

The best thing about being an auntie (apart from the cuddles) is being able to share books and other experiences with my nephew.  He's already turning into a junior bookworm and I'm pleased to say that his theatre habit is coming along quite nicely too...

His birthday treat this year was an outing to London to see the Elephantom but we were so lucky with the weather that it turned into a whole day of fun including a trip on the river, hunting for book benches, an introduction to the Globe and a picnic before we even got to the theatre!

On a hot day the New London Theatre was a delight with the cool air conditioning but the real excitement was the show.

A little girl is ignored by her parents until chaos ensues when an Elephantom moves in...so far so standard in children's fiction. The Elephantom however is incredibly troublesome even to his new friend and the tipping point is when he invites his friends over for a party.  Gran comes to the rescue however and after a trip to a magical shop the Elephantom is encouraged to move out and cause chaos elsewhere.

This play is almost wasted on children although my nephew sat spellbound throughout - giggling mightily when the elephant gets wind and poops on stage!  It is a wordless play which is choreographed as carefully as any ballet and the ideas are quite complex. The Elephantom isn't on stage all of the time and this could cause a dip in attention but some how it doesn't.

I hope that at some point the National Theatre release a DVD of this, like they did for their Cat in a Hat, because I think it is a play that can be watched many times at all ages. I know I want to see it again.

Like in War Horse the staging allows you to see the puppet operators as they work the Elephantom but again they are forgotten to the extent that when the little girl tugs the trunk of the naughty elephant and he appears to come apart my nephew really did gasp as if it were real.

My favourite thing of this show is that instead of a programme the ushers are selling copies of the book that the play is based on.  What could be better my two favourite things in one place!

Theatre 2014: Review Nineteen

The Silver Tassie. Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, London. May 2014.

After having a disappointing time at The View From the Bridge which had rave reviews I was very nervous about this play as it has had a very lukewarm reception.

Perhaps going in with lower expectations was the right thing to do as I found this play a real curiosity.  The subject matter meant that it could never be classed as enjoyable but it was challenging and thought provoking in just the right way.

It is a play in four acts, three are set in a very traditional manner and depict life in Ireland during and after World War One and the second act is set in the trenches and is as different to anything I've ever seen on stage as is imaginable.

In a nutshell Harry is our main character and in act one he is the town's sporting hero, in act two we see him at the front and then after the interval he is back in Dublin but this time in a wheelchair after being paralysed from the waist down.

The war scenes are incredible, the pyrotechnic team have a field day and actually blow up the set! The madness of the war is portrayed using song and movement as well as through the way the superior officers act.  The interval is heralded by a howitzer gun turning to face the audience and firing.  I've never wanted to grab the person sitting next to me in fear so much before.

The second half of the play almost depicts the horror of war better as it is all about the maimed survivors.  No one wanted the lads to die but no one wants to actually deal with those who survived but were disabled.

This play is a very early anti-war play, written decades before Oh! What a Lovely War and for those who say that the idea of 'lions being led by donkeys' is a new and revisionist idea should look back at this play and the date it was written.

This is certainly a play that will stay with me for a long time and makes a great foil to both War Horse and Journey's End.

Theatre 2014: Review Five

King Lear, Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London. February 2014.

This was very much a group outing with Mr Norfolkbookworm joining me and two of my theatre going friends. Despite the best efforts of the weather and the trains on all of our travel we made it in time, scaled lots of stairs to the circle of the Olivier and found our seats in plenty of time for 'curtain up.'

This Lear was set in modern dress but in a non specific time and for the most part this worked for me. The costumes and set implied we were in a repressive state run by a tyrant, although this didn't quite work for me as I can't think of any modern tyrant who will voluntarily resign power.  This production skirted the issue and I got the impression that this Lear thought that he could resign all of the nasty bits of power but keep the 'fun' bits and have plenty of time to hunt and hang out with the army.

I found the story to be clearly told, and fast paced - which was good as for the first time at the National I struggled to hear an awful lot of the lines, mainly when Lear and others got excited. The lines seems rushed and mumbled, too much emotion to keep the diction clear perhaps? This did not get any better when the sound effects for the storm came into the equation.

The scene with the Fool was particularly moving and it took me a couple of seconds to see exactly what had happened and then when Gloucester loses his eyes it was truly horrific - once more the sparing use of violence and gore worked to the advantage of the play, especially as the audience couldn't quite see the act being committed.

Act One was nearly two hours long and the action picked up even more after the interval but for me didn't manage to engage with me emotionally. I don't think that it helped that many of the deaths appeared to be played for laughs, not  Lear or Cordelia, but Edmund, Goneril and Regan's certainly.

In fact on talking this through with one of my companions afterwards we think that this lack of emotional connection was one of our biggest complaints, well that and the inaudibility.
I  don't know if I was expecting too much of this production after the wonderful Othello last year but I came away feeling a bit 'meh' and I don't think that any of the cast deserved the standing ovation that some in the audience gave.

In a way I don't think that the play was that bad, but like at a book group, it is far easier to discuss something that you don't like...

One of my recent uni tasks has been to think about reviewing productions, and taking notes on a production. I tried this at King Lear and they have certainly helped me recall details on the play but I think that talking to people who also saw the same production afterwards helps me more.

The notes I took in the dark are:

• Lear speaks too fast
• Long blackouts for elaborate scenery moving which don't seem so elaborate when the lights come up*
• All speak too fast  when excited emotional, can't hear them
• Storm  is rumbling around before the main scene as a portent
• No wind in the storm and only sound effect rain
• Images of lightning out of sync with the thunder +
• The revolve constantly turning in Poor Tom scene making me dizzy
• Lear's affection of clasping his buttocks makes me think he needs the loo - distracting ^
• Fool and Gloucester scenes brilliant
• Deaths towards end farcical not moving

* - in fact in Act Two it got stuck, I thought it had at the time but this has been confirmed by a friend and another review.
+ - surely not a good sign that all I can see is this and not one of the most important speeches of the play
^ - this started as hand behind back, became clasping and then scratching, I am guessing this is the 'tell' for madness but sadly it didn't stay consistent and was just distracting.

Theatrical Interlude 29

Edward II, Oliver Stage, National Theatre, London. October 2013.

So much for not having so much time to blog - well I suppose I am reading less for fun currently and don't have so many book reviews to share.

This past weekend Rebecca and I had another of our London binges - this time two plays and two museums in the space of 36 hours (37 if you count the end of BST!). We were joined by another friend but she has more sense than us and just came for lunch and the first play - Marlowe's Edward II...

This was a mix of styles in performance as some of the actors were in period costume and others very much in modern dress. The same followed through with the set and staging and after a few moments to understand that this was the style I found that it didn't bother me too much. The swapping of genders for participants also took a while to settle in but the actors were so good this did also cease to be an issue.

The play itself is also a little bit of a mixture as it has a deceptively simple story line - bad king makes bad decisions and his lords rise up against him. However as plotting to overthrow a monarch is something best done in private how to show this, and all of the bad decisions, on stage...

This production used handheld cameras to follow the actors into less visible areas and at times there were two stories being told - the actors at the front of the stage and then the projected video feed on the walls to the side.

I think it worked.

I came away being bowled over by the quality of the actors and the power of the story but slightly less convinced on the staging.  The Oliver theatre has a wonderful revolving section and in my mind I'd imagined that being used to switch between parts of the story.

A lot of Edward's downfall comes about because he advances his (male) lovers politically and the existing nobles,naturally, don't particularly like this usurpation of their power. For me this play wasn't about their homophobia - when the king kisses his favourites (which he did a lot) the lords aren't shocked by this, or repulsed. It is the behaviour of the lovers as they flaunt their wealth, power and influence that enrages the establishment.

Gaveston (the King's lover and one cause of his downfall) was seated in the audience at the start and when he leapt from his seat and started talking to the stage I did wonder if there was an unhinged audience member. While this use of the whole theatre works at The Globe it felt a little awkward in this performance and made me long to see this either done in a more 'straight' fashion or actually at The Globe with full groundling participation.


This all sounds more negative than I actually felt on seeing the play as I enjoyed it a great deal.  It also makes an interesting comparison with this week's set uni text which is Richard II - another poor king who loses his life.

picture of the whole cast and crew of the play tweeted by the National Theatre and taken just after the curtain fell on the matinee that we saw.

Theatrical Interlude 21

The Hush. The Shed at the National Theatre, London. July 2013.

In London for the weekend and with open return train tickets what were Rebecca and I to do but squeeze a fourth play into our brief holiday...

Even we admitted that we didn't think we had the stamina for a full length play - although Amen Corner looked very tempting - so we decided to try the new temporary venue and a 55 minute play.  The free drink was also welcome on a warm afternoon!

The Hush isn't getting great reviews from either the press or other bloggers but I enjoyed it a lot, and the more I think about it the more happy I am that I saw it.  It is a simple play with just two speaking characters, one male and one female.

The characters enter a room called The Hush, the man is recreating noise for a scene (but you never really know if he is writing a play or recreating a memory) and the woman is listening to recordings created by her (dead?) father.

The stars of the show are the Foley editors. On a balcony above the set are two people creating the majority of the sound effects in the play - from showering to turning over in bed.

I found it very clever and with no script the impact of noise became very clear and when a cold wind was played I did get goose bumps and I now have immense respect for those who create all of the sound effects for radio plays.

There was no real story and through the use of sounds the audience is left to create a narrative, I can see that some would find this pretentious but for me the chance to try something so different was a treat and I am glad that we went.

The Shed - a temporary stage while the Cottesloe Theatre is being renovated to relaunch as the Dorfman

Theatrical Interlude 15

Othello, Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre, London. June 2013

After a wonderful performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream in the original setting was the decision to see Othello in modern dress a mistake?  I've found in the past that seeing Shakespeare in a dark theatre far harder to engage with...

I needn't have feared.  The Olivier Theatre stage isn't a proscenium arch and the lighting set up meant that the theatre wasn't pitch black!

In this performance the action has been transposed to modern Cyprus and is set on a modern day army base - this worked very well for me and I engaged with the characters from the outset.

Othello is a play that I have previously studied a little and I think that this did help with the interpretation. Othello comes across as easily led and you can't understand how such a respected man can be so weak, but knowing that he feels out of place as a black leader in a white world makes this corruption comprehensible.

While the play is called Othello for me Iago was the focus and Rory Kinnear played him wonderfully - keeping him from being a total pantomime villain whilst still being delightfully evil and scheming.  The cast as a whole backed up the two leads and although Shakespeare didn't write strong female characters in this play both Desdemona and Emilia made the most of their roles.

The modern setting worked very well, and the staging was simple but brilliant - it really did look like a hurriedly constructed army camp, all concrete blocks and offices in former containers.  The only thing that jarred with the setting was when Othello hits his wife in public. While in the late 1500s this would have passed without comment I'd like to think that the modern army would have punished him on the spot.

I saw this play with Rebecca and I think I enjoyed it more than her, perhaps because it was my first time seeing the play or perhaps because I did have the little bit of insight for a play that did have some ambiguity.  The one thing that I hope passes soon is the fashion for having characters throw up on stage - at least this was more off stage than in Macbeth but is it really necessary?

Theatrical Interlude 2 (2013)

People, Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, London. February 2013

Due to the Writing Britain exhibition and week of events I am late in writing this review and I am finding it hard to write as a result.

This was our third Alan Bennett play in 2 months and this was the full length play rather than 'shorts'. The stage and settings looked very familiar however as Hymn and Cocktail Sticks use the same stage.

The premise of the play is that Dorothy has inherited a stately home which the family can no longer afford to maintain. Her sister wants her to hand it over to the National Trust but she isn't so sure and is contemplating selling precious family heirlooms or the house itself to private buyers. At one point she also considers renting it out as a location for 'adult movies'.

I found the separate strands of the play to all be good.  The characters were all drawn a little over-large and seemed to be caricatures of real people but on a large stage with a relatively small cast this wasn't too much of a problem. There was a reasonable amount of humour in the play but I did find Bennett's usual under current of sadness/pathos missing.

For me the strands just didn't quite come together to make a cohesive play, it was more than skits but less than a fully formed piece.

Bennett also has a lot to say about the National Trust - he recognises that they obviously do an enormous amount to save important things for the nation but that in doing so they definitely sanitise history. He is very convincing - and I did come out of the play feeling a little sheepish at having become a member of the NT last year!

As ever in a Bennett play there is one refrain that sticks with me and that really resonates even after a few week's reflection: PST. People Spoil Things.

I am very pleased that I saw this play in London with the original cast, missing out on seeing The History Boys with the original cast both in London and Norwich is a huge regret, but I'm not sure that it will be remembered as one of Bennett's better plays.

The Magistrate, National Theatre Live (Encore), Cinema City, Norwich. January 2013.

Thank heavens for the continuation of the National Theatre Live programme.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to see this at all and so didn't bother getting tickets in London. Then the reviews and the bloggers started talking about it and I was kicking myself.

The actual 'Live' broadcast sold out, and in fact took place on a day when Norwich was blanketed in ice and I'd incapacitated myself by slipping over so I was very lucky that the daytime Encore fell on a day off.

The cinema was packed and thankfully for a comedy the audience was lively and so it was much more like being at the cinema than other broadcasts have been.

The Magistrate is a late Victorian farce. A widow has remarried but lied about her age in a fit of vanity. This has also meant that she has re-aged her son too, everyone thinks he is a forward 14 year old when he is actually 19. The family set up is already funny but when a figure from the past threatens to reveal the deception the comedy really kicks off.

I enjoyed the play, all of the actors were very,very good. They all managed to keep the balance between straight acting and comedy so this felt like a cohesive play rather than a pantomime, but all had excellent timing and the audience couldn't help but laugh along with the characters' predicaments.

Unlike some reviewers I did like the addition of the songs during the (clever) scene changes. For me the costumes, dancing and words made me think of Gilbert and Sullivan and added to the Victorian setting.

However I am still glad that I didn't rush for tickets in London - it was a fun afternoon but nothing that special.

Theatrical Interlude 24

Sunday Double Bill, Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, London. December 2012

I think that the general feeling was that Rebecca and I were slightly insane in planning a theatre trip to London less than 10 days before Christmas but we're afraid that the lure of two new Alan Bennett plays was too strong.

After some freezing cold and dreadful weather we were very lucky and spent the morning wandering along the South Bank's Christmas market in glorious (and for December)warm sunshine.  An indulgent lunch followed before we settled in to the circle at the Lyttleton for the first of our two playlets.

Hymn

This is  a collection of memories and micro essays from Alan Bennett set to live music.  The set is very sparse, just an armchair and side table plus 4 seats for the string quartet. The musician appear first and were very talented then Alex Jennings, looking and sounding very much like Alan Bennett, walks on and starts talking.
The snippets were humorous, moving and educational and the music sublime although just occasionally I lost some of the words due to the volume of the music.

This is a very short piece, just 30 minutes and then we left the theatre for the 45 minute interval - the idea is that you indulge in a nice Sunday tea but we were too full form lunch so browsed the bookshop and then looked at the Landscape Photographer of the Year Exhibition.

Cocktail Sticks

The second of the two plays is longer, and more traditional although there are still musicians on the stage.  This time the play starts with Alan Bennett clearing his parent's house and coming across a packet of cocktail sticks in the kitchen cupboard.  From here it becomes a narrative tale with Bennett's memories and thoughts about his life being told and at times re-enacted by his parents and various other people.
A cast of 5 (Alan, Mam, Dad and 2 people playing everyone else) tell over 40 years of family history in just over an hour and in that time the audience is taken on a really emotional roller coaster journey - such as only Alan Bennett can.

The stories weren't new to me as I have read Bennett's books of autobiography/memoir but this didn't matter at all - hearing them in Alan Bennett's voice and acted out made the stories live even in a way that Bennett's writing hadn't.

These are two very odd pieces of theatre that were both sublime.  They were odd because unlike so much theatre I think that you really do need to be older to understand and appreciate them.  If you have no experience of his themes you won't understand either the humour or the sadness.

The best bit? Bennett's take on the line "they f*** you up, your mum and dad"

This isn't my last theatre trip of 2012 but was the last with Rebecca and very soon I shall have to work out my top 10 shows of the year.

I'm loathe to do this yet for as I started to do this with my books of the year but then in the past 3 days have read 2 books that have been fantastic and who knows what I'll think of the last play!

Theatrical Interlude 23

One Man, Two Guvnors, Norwich Theatre Royal. December 2012.

Norwich is getting some great London shows at the moment (and next year's brochure looks just as exciting) and I was very pleased to have the opportunity to see this without a trip to London.

I missed the initial buzz around this play when it opened in London, and to be honest the original lead wasn't someone that I particularly liked but after winning so many awards I realised that I'd be daft not to see One Man, Two Guvnors when the chance arose.

I knew that it was a comedy based on a style of theatre from years ago but nothing more than that, and again the not knowing worked very well. The show started with a very good quartet playing guitars, double bass and washboard. The theatre was noisy with people arriving and I couldn't tell if the songs were original or music from the era (late 1950s/ early 1960s). They were very good and it made a nice start to the evening.

To explain the play and plot is nigh on impossible - it is farce, pantomime, melodrama and totally ridiculous...but very funny. As the audience you can see everything that is going to happen it doesn't matter, in fact as the cast address the audience directly throughout it is hard to remember sometimes if you are seeing a stand up comedy show or a play.

The first half was brilliant, I was giggling like a loon throughout and even the audience participation worked a treat - never has the phrase "normal for Norfolk" been more apt. I'm not a great one for slapstick comedy violence but the restaurant scene was just perfect.

The second half didn't quite hit my funny bone in the same way, the humour became a little cruder and the script felt like it had run out of steam. 

The actors gave it their all throughout even if events and interjections caused them to corpse more than once - who knew Swaffham could cause such hilarity?!

It was still a fun evening and for once seeing a comedy alone didn't matter - the play was funny enough to overcome the need to share the emotion - but Noises Off* remains the funniest thing I have ever seen in a theatre.

*luckily for me (and Mr Norfolkbookworm) the Old Vic are touring Noises Off next year and Norwich is one of the cities it is coming to. Time to book some tickets I feel!

Theatre at the Pictures

Timon of Athens, National Theatre Live, Cinema City, Norwich. November 2012

Thank heavens for whoever had the wonderful idea of broadcasting London productions into cinemas around the country (and indeed around the world).

This is the only play from season of National Theatre Live that I've seen at the cinema - one play I'd seen at the National and the other I missed due to having the lurgy.  I'm glad that I went out on a cold, wet Thursday night for this production, which was in fact was the very last performance of the play's run.

I've established over the last year that I prefer my Shakespeare performed as at the Globe so I was a little concerned about this version as it was totally up-to-date and had a definite setting of 2011/2012, however the draw for me was Simon Russell Beale. Everything I've seen him in has been great!

The play is all about money and how fickle people are - when Timon appears rich and lavishes gifts on his friends and entertains extravagantly everyone loves him, as soon as they realise he is bankrupt they all desert him.  The second half is all about Timon's life as a destitute person, and what I saw as his descent into controlled madness.

This is very much a play of two halves, and I preferred the first, but the acting was incredible and all credit to the National Theatre and the actors for making me see that Shakespeare can work in an updated form in a traditional theatre.

This is one of the plays that Shakespeare wrote with another author and Nicholas Hytner, the director, did say in the interval film that they had to alter/add to some scenes just t make the play make sense. Not having read the original I think that they did a good job, from start to finish I could follow the story and no lines stood out as being 'modern' despite the updating. Several people in the audience were unsure of making some roles female (the steward for example) but for me that was the only way that the play could have stayed realistic with the modern setting. 

Seeing this at the cinema was ideal, the expense of a trip to London for this would have been okay but the convenience of trying something I was unsure of close to home was just right.