THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE at the Dorfman, National Theatre - into the woods...

Hot on the lion's tail of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, it was time to see another theatrical adaptation of a fantasy novel - one in which, ironically, CS Lewis' Narnia novel is heavily featured.  Welcome to the at-once familiar, but very strange world of writer Neil Gaiman's THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE.

I have only read one of Neil Gaiman's novels, the topsy-turvy London adventure NEVERWHERE, but have seen him onstage playing wingman to his missus Amanda Palmer, and even met him once ten years ago when we bumped into the two of them taking photographs in the Vaudeville Theatre foyer.  Luckily Owen had one of Amanda's badges on so we got a hug and told her we were seeing her soon at the Union Chapel.  While queueing that night for a signed cd, Neil Gaiman nudged Amanda and said "Oh look Amanda, it's the two gentlemen from the theatre".  Fame, eh?

Gaiman dedicated THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE to Amanda;  it started out as a short story in response to her questions about his childhood, but as he got more involved into the plot it changed to novel-length.  Wildly successful, it later won Book of The Year from the British National Book Awards.  Gaiman has had no involvement in Joel Horwood's adaptation but there is a connection to Amanda Palmer as a frequent musical collaborator Jhereck Bischoff has composed the score.  Not having read the book I had no idea what to expect but it did not take long for me to get involved in the story as well as the way it was told. 

A man attends a family funeral and, strolling back to his old house, he strays towards a nearby farmhouse where he encounters an older woman.  Prompted by her, he vaguely remembers a girl called Lettie Hempstock, who he was inseparable from when 12 years old, and just about remembers that she moved away.  We then flashback to far-flung 1988: he is living with his father and younger sister, and the whole family is silently trying to cope with the death of the children's mother a year ago, his escape being his love of books.

Their lives are further disrupted when the family's former lodger commits suicide after stealing the family car.  The boy meets Lettie on the border of her land soon after and when he tells her about the suicide she brings him home to her mother and grandmother to tell them about it too.  The women of the farmhouse are strange mystics who believe that the man's suicide - caused by guilt of stealing money - has allowed an evil entity - a 'flea' - to attempt to 'cross over' into the real world. Lettie and the boy set out to destroy the 'flea' by magic but the boy is warned not to let go of Lettie's hand - but during the tumult he accidentally does.

Later that night in his bathroom, the boy extracts a worm from a wound in his hand without realizing he has left a piece inside... which means the 'flea' has escaped into the real world!  Shortly after, the boy's dad informs his children that a new lodger is moving in, a woman called Ursula Monckton who bonds with his sister but who the boy takes an instant dislike to.  Slowly he realizes Ursula is the 'flea' in human form and soon his father is her pawn too..

With Ursula able to read his mind, he escapes from the house by reciting from memory THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE to block his thoughts.  Once safe at the Hempstock farm, the boy and Lettie must again fight evil in the shape of Ursula - but what if there is a greater danger than her?

Director Katy Rudd has a firm hold on the narrative for most of the play - oddly it only lapses at the end where the climactic battle between good and evil seems to plateau out - but she not only gives us a good eerie tale but also a sad portrait of a family struggling with the loss of a wife and mother. 

Concentration on the tricksy plot is well-served by Fly Davis' simple set - a thicket of trees serves as a backdrop with all other locations suggested by a few pieces of furniture, this comes into it's own as Ursula spreads her malign influence in the boy's house with her appearing behind every door he opens and, in a particularly scary moment, when the boy casually drops the worm from under his skin into the bath, a bloodied hand reaches out of it.  It was one of a few moments when I wondered how the few scattered pre-teens in the audience were handling it!

Paule Constable's lighting is exemplary in illuminating unsettling moments, Steven Hoggett's movement suggests a whirling world of dark undertows and a particular mention to Samuel Wyer's puppet and costume designs - Ursula's pink peg-leg trousers pinpoint the late 80s very well.

In a hard-working cast, three stood out: Pippa Nixon was very good as the smiling intruder Ursula who left the action too soon; her insidious poisoning of the household was an excellent, unexpected plot twist.  Justin Salinger was very good as the boy's father, trying hard to keep his two children occupied after their mother's death but not seeing the enemy within; he also played the grown-up boy at the beginning and end but he could do little with the over-emphatic lines of half-finished sentences which meant to show his hesitant forgetfulness but, as Owen said, just made you think no one speaks like that in real life.

But the performance of the night was Samuel Blenkin as boy at the centre of the action.  Gawky and uncomfortable, unhappy and sad, he was a very believable anti-hero and delivered a touching and true performance.  I think the play could possibly stand another look-at to iron out some pacing issues in the second act but THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE was an unexpected delight and deserves going on to bigger stages: for a fantasy tale, it has a lot of truth in it about memory and loss.

On the night we went, the actress playing the boy's sister was unwell and could not perform and while the Dorfman as is has the same rule as the Cottesloe as was, eg. no understudies, still they managed to find an actress to go on reading the script.  Well done whoever she was - there was no slip in the programme and the stage manager mumbled her name.  Needless to say she got a nice round at the end...

50 Favourite Musicals: 36: HERE LIES LOVE (2013) (David Byrne, Fatboy Slim)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life: 

First performed: 2013, Public Theater, NY

First seen by me: 2014, Dorfman, London

Productions seen: one

Score: David Byrne, Fatboy Slim
Book: David Byrne

Plot:  Inside the Club Millennium disco, we see the rise and fall of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos 

Five memorable numbers: HERE LIES LOVE, WHEN SHE PASSED BY, CHILD OF THE PHILIPPINES, WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME, PLEASE DON'T

From one club-set musical to another, from Pet Shop Boys to David Byrne and Fatboy Slim.  However HERE LIES LOVE trumps CLOSER TO HEAVEN with it's focused story-telling and concept.  The spark for composer David Byrne's vision was when he heard that the notorious Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos had been a disco dolly, visiting discos like Studio 54 and installing her own club on the top floor of the presidential palace in Manila while having a glitter-ball installed in her NY apartment.  Of course there are comparisons with the other first lady musical EVITA but they show how sometimes history has a way of repeating - it's basis in a concept album, the vengeful leading character and in the title song it has her sugar-coating her actions as in DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA.  The odd thing is that my criticism of CLOSER TO HEAVEN - facile book, paper-thin characters - could be levelled at HERE LIES LOVE with it's almost totally sung-through score but here it really doesn't impinge on your enjoyment as Byrne isn't asking you to engage in that way with his characters.  However the success of the show is that it changes your idea of Imelda Marcos... without a single reference to her shoe collection, her drive and ambition to be someone at the expense of others may not make her likeable but it does make her understandable - and a great musical bitch!  Alex Timbers' production provided an all-encompassing world within the club setting utilizing sound, lighting and design - the idea to present it as a mostly promenade production with the standing audience marshalled by the cast around different podiums worked excellently as a lot of the numbers have Imelda, Ferdinand Marcos or their nemesis Ninoy Aquino making speeches or justifying their actions to their supporters - and all to an excellent driving dance beat.   It's a shame that HERE LIES LOVE - a genuine ground breaker in advancing the musical form - looks like it might be overlooked in the rush to over-praise HAMILTON as the way forward.

This extended trailer for the Public's production - which won 10 off-Broadway awards - gives you a taste of the show's kinetic, immersive excitement:

HUSBANDS & SONS at the Dorfman, National Theatre - In The Pits....

I had been toying with seeing this as it is directed by the always-interesting Marianne Elliott but never got round to it until O booked tickets for it as the first of his birthday week theatre trips.  It certainly had it's moments but it also showed the worrying way that "director theatre" is taking.

So it turns out that in a workshop of D.H. Lawrence's three most important plays: THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW, THE WIDOWING OF MRS HOLROYD and THE COLLIER'S NIGHT IN - none of which he ever saw performed - Elliott and Ben Power (who has that dreaded job, a dramaturg) hit upon the *whizzer* idea that, as they were all of comparable length, why not stage them all at the same time and have all three plays performed on the same stage - Lawrence's Eastwood community alive at the same time.

The trouble is that Lawrence, while obviously skilled as a writer, had a limited dramatic palate; the three plays seem to have the same rhythm, the dramatic peaks all seem to happen at the same time - and the dramatic lows all happen at the same time too.

I am sure if Lawrence - who had yet to hit his full literary height when he wrote these plays - had wanted his plays to be performed as such he would have written an ensemble piece.  They are three miniatures that have been pasted onto a massive painting.  This "cut and shunt" approach to plays is growing more prevalent as directors make productions more about them then about the text they are presenting.

The idea of setting a play within it's period and within the writer's character delineations are becoming more grist to the star director's mill.  If I go to see UNCLE VANYA then I want the lead character to be called Vanya... and not John as is currently the case at the bloody Almeida.  And what with the National announcing in the past week that Tamsin Greig is going to be playing MalvoliA in a re-imagined TWELFTH NIGHT...

Bunny Christie has transformed the Dorfman into a Nottinghamshire version of OUR TOWN or DOGVILLE with the outlines of the three houses cheek-by-jowl and one couldn't fault the lighting design by Lucy Carter and video design of Tal Rosner.

The cast were mostly ok but no one really seized their role and gave it a damn fine shake.  Anne-Marie Duff is unlikely to ever give a bad performance and she was suitably downtrodden as Mrs Holroyd and I liked Katherine Pearce as Gertie, a fine big lump of a girl, always up for a laugh.  Otherwise, the performances were anonymous.

I wish I had liked it more but the concept kept getting in the way.  What next I wonder?  Hey, Noel Coward wrote plays about the same types of people - why not do PRIVATE LIVES, HAY FEVER and DESIGN FOR LIVING all at the same time and call it RICH PEOPLE?

The 7 Shows of Xmas 3: HERE LIES LOVE

Before I saw this, a work colleague asked me what I was seeing.  I replied "A disco musical about Imelda Marcos written by Fatboy Slim and David Byrne".  We both then burst out laughing as it sounded like I was just saying random words out loud!

It did indeed sound a mind-twanging concept, but it was one of the shows I was most looking forward to - as well as seeing what had happened to the National's Cottesloe auditorium now it has been redesigned and rechristened the Dorfman.

The Theatre has found space to fit in a new staircase, bar, cloakroom and loos, although there was still no room to swing a cat as the show was a sell-out as is the rest of it's run.  The auditorium doesn't look terribly different but it was exciting to see it transformed into a club setting, the lighting cues becoming more and more urgent the closer we got to start time while the audience who had standing tickets nervously bounced from one foot to the other to the banging electro tunes.

So the set-up: David Byrne had been intrigued when he read that Imelda Marcos was a disco fan and had visited Studio 54 when in New York and had even had a floor in her NY Townhouse equipped with a disco-ball.  Collaborating with Fatboy Slim, they have used this as a springboard to explore her and husband Ferdinand's rise and fall in the Philippines.  Together they have crafted a fascinating piece of musical theatre quite unlike anything else thanks to the imagination of director Alex Timbers.

Imelda's story is told using an excellent score, projections, lighting and a shape-shifting set of platforms that move around the auditorium floor.  Bizarrely, apart from the music and staging, Imelda's trajectory follows that of Eva Peron's in EVITA - poor girl makes good in the big city then meets politician with an eye on the prize, she rises to become the President's wife and, while inspiring great love among voters, is adept at turning a blind eye to the violent cracking down on any dissent.

Unlike the sexist approach to EVITA however, here at least there is an attempt at understanding the hunger that drove Imelda to strive for more as well as view her with sympathy in relation to her marriage to Ferdinand, who seemed to view it more like a business take-over.  One can then understand her anger when the Western actress Ferdinand was keeping as a mistress went public with covert tapes of their lovemaking when he dumped her.

With Ferdinand's health in decline, Imelda seized her opportunity to woo world leaders to do business with the Philippines and to also take a bigger grasp of the political reins.

The interesting facet to her story was that the Marcos' opponent Ninoy Aquino had been Imelda's boyfriend when she first arrived in Manilla, allegedly dumping her because she was too tall.  This gives the politics an intriguing soap opera element.  My knowledge of Imelda Marcos was minimal so it was all an education to me!

For such a far-reaching subject, there are only four main characters in the show: Imelda, Ferdinand, Ninoy and Estrella, Imelda's maid who was her only friend in a loveless home.  She later ran foul of Imelda when she spoke to a reporter of her former friend's humble beginnings which ran counter to the official Marcos version - she was kept under house arrest for her pains.

The score gets darker as the Marcos grip on the people gets tighter until Ninoy Aquino is assassinated on the airport tarmac minutes after arriving back from exile in America.  We then leap three years to the Peace Revolution which brought down the Marcos regime in only four days.  This is done simply but very effectively by having the theatrics stop and with just the house lights on, a trio from the ensemble sing the song GOD DRAWS STRAIGHT.  This ends the show but you can't keep a bad girl down and Imelda reprises HERE LIES LOVE, a fantastic show song which lodges itself in your memory as soon as you hear it.  The title comes from an interview when Imelda was asked what she wanted inscribed on her tombstone.

The production was an astonishing combination of theatrical storytelling: music, choreography, lighting and performance melding together to make an unforgettable experience.  David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's score pulses and blares with energy but the attention never slips when the pace or tone gets slower or darker. 

Natalie Mendoza was electric as Imelda, effortlessly moving from ingenue to diva with an unstoppable energy that could power the whole of the Philippines.  If the supporting cast don't have quite the same opportunity to shine, it doesn't stop them making impressions: Mark Bautista as a slick Ferdinand, Dean John-Wilson as an impassioned Aquino and Gia Macuja Atchison as the increasingly invisible Estrella.

The ensemble worked every minute of the show and Frances Mayli McCann and Li-Tong Hsu caught the attention in their solos as the Mistress and Aquino's mother respectively.

It would be great if the show could come back in some way as it is sold out until it closes in early January.  More people should have the opportunity to experience this remarkable show.