Sunday, January 22, 2017

150 word review: A FAMILY AND IT'S FORTUNES by Rachel Kempson

Essential reading for any fan of the actress or the Redgraves but more impartial readers may find Kempson's style too opaque to be fully enjoyable.


Rachel Kempson had a strange habit of being in the right place professionally at the wrong time personally; whenever she discovered she was pregnant with any of her three children she had to leave a promising season of roles so her career had a frustrating stop-start quality to it.


In her book, Kempson muses on her regret at missing out on a more high-level acting career but seems to have found a contentment in being Michael's wife and Vanessa, Corin and Lynn's mother.


While her discretion is understandable in discussing Michael's bisexuality, it is by reading between the lines that her sadness at his frequent disappearances is evident, even when she later reveals a long-running extra-marital affair with an unnamed actor.


Thursday, January 19, 2017

THE RED BARN at the Lyttelton Theatre - dead behind the eyes...

After what has seemed an interminable wait - 19 DAYS! - I have broken my 2017 theatrical duck.  By the way Constant Reader, don't you think 2017 is a very ugly number?  Hopefully that doesn't influence the next 50-odd weeks.  I also hope THE RED BARN does not prove an omen for my theatre-going this year... oops, showed my hand there eh?


David Hare grew up reading the novels of George Simenon and found himself drawn to the writer's stand-alone psychological thrillers more than his Maigret crime novels and now he has adapted the little-known novel "La Main" (The Hand) for the National Theatre stage.  I know what he means.. give me the stand-alone novels of Ruth Rendell of a seemingly normal person going wrong over the neatly-packaged Inspector Wexford books. 

THE RED BARN is the National Theatre debut of director Robert Icke who is the new *hot* director at the Almeida and his production shows all the signs of a director being given all the opportunities the National Theatre can offer - video projections, elaborate scenery possibilities and lighting, special effects...  The trouble is when these are what one remembers of the piece itself...


THE RED BARN is set in a Connecticut town in 1969, the seemingly unflappable community hides a jittery, nervous feeling of unwanted change in the country while on the verge of Richard Nixon's presidency.  Two married couples - Donald and Ingrid Dodd, Ray and Mona Sanders - attend a dinner party which takes an embarrassing turn when Donald stumbles unseen upon Ray having sex with the host's wife.  They all leave the party early due to a flash snowstorm but Ray vanishes when they all have to walk the last mile back to the Dodd's home.

Donald braves the storm again but returns after an hour without Ray and, so Mona will not be alone, Ingrid arranges that they all sleep on mattresses by the fire.  Days later, the snow is cleared and Ray is found dead.  However in the Dodd's nearby barn, the Police also discover a number of cigarette butts which lead to Donald confessing to be his - rather than hunt for Ray during the storm he sheltered in the barn for over an hour smoking.


His motives for this are possibly shown when, while visiting Mona in her Manhattan apartment to offer his professional help, they start a sexual relationship.  However it's not long before Donald starts to slowly become engulfed by his emotions and secrets and when, Mona casually tells him that she is going to marry another man, he suspects that somehow Ingrid is behind it all...

It certainly sounds like a well-told tale; the plot feels very old-fashioned for such a prestige production which might explain the flashy look of Icke's production.  The stars of the show are actually Bunny Christie's set design and Paule Constable's moody, atmospheric lighting - a massive shout-out too for the Lyttelton's tech crew who make the filmic quality of Icke's production work.


But - and it's a very big but - it feels like the one thing Icke is reticent to do is give us a thriller.  Oh no... that's too obvious, too common - no this, is an existential, slow-moving story of the destruction of a dull man's psyche.  The fact that the play features two deaths hardly registers in the frigid air atmosphere.   It all felt like one of those independent films where acting is dialed down to a minimum, the score is usually 'ironic' use of pop songs and the cinematography tends to linger on 'artistic' static set-ups just a little too long. 

The actors do not pull focus under this poe-faced concept (imagine Pinter meets Dennis Lehane): Mark Strong is obvious casting for Donald bearing in mind his last stage role was as the equally obsessed Eddie Carbone in VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE and with his unprepossessing brown wig and nerdy glasses he hardly seems equipped for the passion that allegedly grips him in his desire for his dead friend's wife.  But Strong is playing him on such a low light that his despair rarely registers, apart from an overly dramatic STAGGER SLUMP as he leaves Mona for the last time.


Hope Davis as Donald's emotionally controlled wife Ingrid certainly gives her an icy exterior but again is played in such a colourless way that you cannot care for her.  However she does make some impression, which is more than can be said for Elizabeth Debicki as the recently widowed Mona.  Her banal performance leaves you utterly clueless as to why Donald would throw up his life to be with her - he would surely be equally at home with a showroom mannequin.  I am sure she is supposed to be a blank canvas that Donald projects all his fantasies on but any interior life is totally missing from her phoned-in performance.

As I said the real star of the show is it's design; Bunny Christie has utilized black screens that move up and down, left and right to create a theatrical version of film pans and zooms which makes it enjoyable to watch - although this technique for making a show more filmic is not original - and has also designed the set to change in an instant: from the long and low cabin of the Dodds, to the Sanders' wide open and expansive Manhattan apartment.


Paule Constable's moody and atmospheric lighting is almost too much at times - in the final scene you are squinting at the stage to make out what is going on in the log cabin - but she does deliver, and Tom Gibbons' soundscape comes into it's own at the end, sounding louder and more discordant to signal to you that something shocking is about to happen.... and it does. If it had not been for this you would hardly be aware there was about to be a violent conclusion as Icke's production is played at such a glacial rate.

Something which only struck me later was how insidiously misogynistic it was - Donald is seemingly trapped between the primly efficient Ingrid (who looked astonishingly like Hilary Clinton at times from where I was sitting) and the icy beanpole Mona.  The drama is all his and after the offstage afternoon sex scene between Mona and Donald it is of course Debicki who enters topless... why?  What did that possibly add to the scene bearing in mind Strong was fully clothed.  Added to the violence of the climactic act it really did make me wonder on whether this crossed Hare or Icke's mind at all.


Thursday, January 05, 2017

150 word review: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: MAD PILGRIMAGE OF THE FLESH by John Lahr

Don't be put off by the monumental size of Lahr's biography of the landmark playwright, this truly is a magnificently involving and engrossing read.


Lahr opens with the opening night of THE GLASS MENAGERIE on Broadway which launched Williams as the most promising post-war American playwright, and through detailed analysis of his subsequent successes and, in later years, increasing failures, also reveals the troubled man behind the work.


Lahr draws fascinating parallels between the private life and public writing showing Williams to be the most autobiographical of playwrights, wrestling with family and lovers through his fictional characters.


Williams emerges as a troubled man whose self-destructive relationships with their closest to him - lover Frank Merlo, director Elia Kazan, agent Audrey Wood - make him hard to admire but under Lahr's forensic gaze easier to understand.


With unprecedented access to archives of letters and diaries, Lahr has written an unforgettable biography.


Wednesday, January 04, 2017

The 10th Annual Chrissie Awards - the red carpet awaits...

Time to dig out that old Balenciaga and the dinner jacket with the shiny lapels (and backside) - it's only the 10th Annual Chrissies... the award that all the West End wants...

BEST DRAMA (Original/Revival)
 
RICHARD III - William Shakespeare (Almeida)

Nominees:
THE DEEP BLUE SEA - Rattigan (Lyttelton) / ELLEN TERRY WITH EILEEN ATKINS - Atkins/Shakespeare (Sam Wanamaker) / KENNY MILLER - Poulson (Arcola) / THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS - O'Casey (Lyttelton)
BEST MUSICAL (Original/Revival)
SHOW BOAT - Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II (Sheffield & New London)
Nominees:
RAGTIME - Flaherty / Ahrens / McNally (Charing Cross Theatre) / SHE LOVES ME - Bock / Harnick / Masteroff (Menier) / THE THREEPENNY OPERA - Brecht / Weill / Stephens (Olivier) / TITANIC - Yeston (Charing Cross Road)
BEST BALLET/OPERA
THE RED SHOES - Matthew Bourne (Sadler's Wells)
Nominees:
LA FILLE MAL GARDÉE - Ashton (Covent Garden) / TOSCA - Puccini (London Coliseum) / LA TRAVIATA - Verdi (Covent Garden) / THE WINTER'S TALE - Wheeldon (Covent Garden)
BEST ACTOR (Drama)
  RALPH FIENNES - Richard III (Almeida)
Nominees:
O-T FAGBENLE (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) / DAVID MORRISSEY (Hangman) / LUCIAN MSAMATI (Amadeus) / LUCIAN MSAMANTI (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)
BEST ACTRESS (Drama)
HELEN McCRORY - The Deep Blue Sea (Lyttelton)

Nominees:
EILEEN ATKINS (Ellen Terry with Eileen Atkins) / SHARON D. CLARKE (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) / LISA DWAN (No's Knife) / GLENDA JACKSON (King Lear)
BEST ACTOR (Musical)
RORY KINNEAR - The Threepenny Opera (Olivier)

Nominees:
PAUL AYRES (Kinky Boots) / EUAN GARRETT (Billy Elliot) / HARRY HEPPLE (Into The Woods) / MICHAEL XAVIER (Show Boat)
BEST ACTRESS (Musical)
  SCARLETT STRALLEN - She Loves Me (Menier)

Nominees:
ANITA LOUISE COMBE (Ragtime) / LAURA PITT-PULFORD (Side Show) / JENNA RUSSELL (Grey Gardens) / SHERIDAN SMITH (Funny Girl)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Drama)
STEVE PEMBERTON - Dead Funny (Savoy)

Nominees:
FINBAR LYNCH (Richard III) / ANDY NYMAN (Hangman) / DOMINIC ROWAN (The Tempest) / PETER SULLIVAN (The Deep Blue Sea)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Drama)
VANESSA REDGRAVE - Richard III (Almeida)

Nominees:
LINDA BASSETT (Escaped Alone) / SUSAN ENGEL (Richard III) / BRONWYN JAMES (Hangmen) / GRÁINNE KEENAN (The Plough and The Stars)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Musical)
ADAM J. BERNARD - Dreamgirls (Savoy)

Nominees:
ALLAN CORDUNER (Show Boat) / NICK HOLDER (The Threepenny Opera) / EMMANUEL KOJO (Show Boat) / MALCOLM SINCLAIR (Show Boat)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Musical)
REBECCA TREHEARN - Show Boat (Sheffield & New London)

Nominees:
SHEILA HANCOCK (Grey Gardens) / KATHERINE KINGSLEY (She Loves Me) / SANDRA MARVIN (Show Boat) / JENNIFER SAAYENG (Ragtime)

BEST BALLET/OPERA MALE
DANIEL COLLINS - Jekyll & Hyde (Old Vic)

Nominees:
BENNET GARTSIDE (The Winter's Tale) / STEVEN McRAE (La Fille Mal Gardee) / EDWARD WATSON (Strapless) / THOMAS WHITEHEAD (The Invitation)
 

 BEST BALLET/OPERA FEMALE
CORDELIA BRAITHWAITE - The Red Shoes (Sadler's Wells)
 
Nominees:
KERI ALKEMA (Tosca) / MARIANELA NUNEZ (Giselle) / MARIANELA NUNEZ (The Winter's Tale) / NATALIA OSIPOVA (La Fille Mal Gardee)

BEST DIRECTOR
RUPERT GOOLD - Richard III (Almeida)

Nominees:
MATTHEW BOURNE (The Red Shoes) / CARRIE CRACKNELL (The Deep Blue Sea) / CASEY NICOLAW (Dreamgirls) / MATTHEW WHITE (She Loves Me)

BEST DESIGNER
  LEZ BROTHERSTON - The Red Shoes (Sadler's Wells)

 Nominees:
HILDEGARD BECHTLER (Richard III) / BOB CROWLEY (La Traviata) / BOB CROWLEY (The Winter's Tale) / PAUL FARNSWORTH (She Loves Me)

BEST LIGHTING
 PAULE CONSTABLE - The Red Shoes (Sadler's Wells)

Nominees:
JON CLARKE (Richard III) / JEAN KALMAN (La Traviata) / NATASHA KATZ (The Winter's Tale) / HUGH VANSTONE (Dreamgirls)

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY (Musical)
CASEY NICHOLAW - Dreamgirls (Savoy)

Nominees:
CRESSIDA CARRÉ (Titanic) / PETER DARLING (Billy Elliot) / ALISTAIR DAVID (Show Boat) / REBECCA HOWELL (She Loves Me)

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY (Ballet)
CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON - The Winter's Tale (Sadler's Wells)
Nominees:
FREDERICK ASHTON (La Fille Mal Gardée) / MATTHEW BOURNE (The Red Shoes) / KENNETH McMILLAN (Anastasia) / PETER WRIGHT (Giselle)