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Posts Tagged ‘Dorfman Theatre’

Romeo & Julie

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I can’t remember the last time I was so emotionally engaged in a play. It isn’t a reworking of Shakespeare’s play, it’s a modern love story – moving, tragic and beautiful. Simply staged, with stunning performances, I adored every minute of it.

Romeo is a single dad from Splott, a working class area of Cardiff. He got a girl pregnant on a one-night stand which she at first decided to terminate but then changed her mind. After the birth she didn’t want the child, so Romeo is left, literally, holding the baby. His alcoholic mother tries to get him to put her in care and when she fails refuses to play a part in her granddaughter’s upbringing. He’s on his own, but he’s a loving dad.

There’s a chance meeting with Julie in the library. He’s killing time and she’s trying to study. She’s destined to read Physics at Cambridge, spurred on by her dad and step-mother who live nearby, but in a better part of town. Their relationship develops and history repeats itself, which results in a period of agony for them both as they weigh up their options. Julie’s parents won’t support her, Romeo’s mother is incapable of support though they do take refuge with her. Not only are they in love with one another, but both with Romeo’s daughter.

Playwright Gary Owen showed he had an affinity with stories like these in three previous plays in the last eight years – Violence and Son, Killology and Iphigenia in Splott. He has an ear for the dialogue of such characters – authentic and sparkling with humour, accompanied by sincere emotionality and pathos. You can’t fail to have empathy with all of these people, not just the lovers. There is a sense of both hope and hopelessness. I was captivated by it.

All five performances are pitch perfect. Callum Scott Howells invests Romeo with a nervous energy, physicality and vulnerability that is extraordinary. Rosie Sheehy brings the intelligence and logic of a budding scientist to Julie, but also her profound love for Romeo and his daughter Neve. Catrin Aaron as Romeo’s mum Barb shows the scars of being a single mum, her support for her son tempered by realism. Paul Brennen as Julie’s dad Col conveys the desperation he has for her to realise her potential and frustration with anything that might get in her way. Anita Reynolds as step-mum Kath shares these, but in a more detached way. Rachel O’Riordan has directed two of the other three Owen plays I’ve seen and she clearly has a strong connection with the material.

It’s great to see the NT hosting and co-producing the best of regional theatre, with Sheffield’s Standing at the Sky’s Edge in the Olivier next door, and this really is the best. Don’t miss this little gem.

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Kerry Jackson

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , on December 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Yet another occasion where reading reviews is bad for your health. I almost didn’t go to see this on Monday, snow and travel disruption adding to the critical mauling, but I’m glad I did. April De Angelis’ new play has its flaws, but it’s very much a play for our times.

She’s putting up a mirror to our new world, where everything is black and white, no shades of grey, and you’re either for or against everything. Class wars, Brexit v Remain, gentrification or preservation, woke and anti-woke. We either sympathise with immigrants and the homeless or we see them as parasites, to be sent home or left to rot.

The setting is Walthamstow Village, where working class Essex girl Kerry is trying to fulfil her dream and ambition of owning a Spanish tapas restaurant. Her chef Athena is struggling to get Leave to Remain even though she’s been her since she was 5; a hold Kerry has over the person who is clearly key to her chance of success. Outside homeless Will is putting off the customers. She seeks to recruit local worthy Stephen to deal with this, and at the same time publicise her venture in his news sheet for the gentrified. Stephen is recently widowed and he and his gap year daughter Alice are struggling to move on. An unlikely relationship develops between Kerry and Stephen, as ex-copper Warren, a very old and very vague acquaintance of Kerry, turns up with only one thing on his mind.

The problem is that De Angelis throws in the kitchen sink and allows her characters to become caricatures and stereotypes spouting cliches, and the humour sometimes crosses the line to gross, even for someone as broad-minded as me (well, I suppose I would say that!). This waters down a potentially strong argument that our divisive world, fuelled by social media and fake news, is exceedingly unhealthy, sacrificing intelligent debate and free speech at the alter of point-scoring.

The cast work hard to develop these characters and get every laugh they can, though I thought Fay Ripley was dangerously close to over-acting on occasion. The most successful characterisations were Madeline Appiah as Athena, Michael Fox as Will and Gavin Spokes as Warren. I would have expected its flaws to have been ironed out before it got on one of the National’s stages, particularly by a director of the quality of Indhu Rubasingham. Still, I don’t regret going and making my own mind up, which is more 3* than 1* or 2*. Decide for yourself.

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The Boy With Two Hearts

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , on October 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »

This is a true story adapted by Phil Porter from Hamed & Hessam Amiri’s memoir of their journey as refugees from Afghanistan to Wales and their lives upon and since arrival. It has transferred from the Wales Millennium Centre to the National’s Dorfman Theatre.

The sparks that lead to their decision to leave are mother Fariba’s campaign for women’s rights, as a result of which the Taliban target her, and eldest son Hussain’s need for treatment for his heart condition. Their journey is as tortuous as we have come to expect, exploited by handlers, targets for thieves, spending long periods of time in confined spaces in cars, lorries and containers. We’ve heard similar tales many times and this one is told in a style that may have been intended as accessible to children, but felt a bit patronising to me. The second half was a much more personal story and as a result captivated more, as the family establishes itself and goes about getting treatment for Hussain.

I liked a lot of director Amit Sharma’s inventiveness, particularly when actors changed characters, and the use of movement and physical theatre, but I found the continual use of surtitles in English, even when English was spoken, distracting. The five actors, who play all roles as well as the family members, are all excellent. The second half really won me over, a deeply moving story of resilience and familial love which also showed the welcome the real people of Britain are capable of, despite their leaders.

Lovely to see this heart-warming true story make it onto one of the National’s stages.

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All Of Us

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , on August 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »

In my view it’s one of theatre’s roles to put up a mirror to our society. Another is to entertain. This play examines the impact of recent welfare changes on the disabled. It managers to do both successfully, and perhaps surprisingly, though less so given it’s written by a stand-up comedian with cerebral palsy who refers to her condition as wobbly.

Jess has a successful career as a therapist. Her parents have been very supportive, as is her flatmate Lottie. She has a lovely Polish carer called Nadia who often goes way beyond her responsibilities. She introduced Jess to Poppy, a younger disabled woman with an extraordinary love of life and bags of energy, charm, cheek and an infectious naughtiness. They are both hit, in different ways, by the introduction of assessments. Jess loses her car and ultimately her job. Poppy becomes bed-bound for 12 hours a day.

Though both challenge their treatment, they react differently. Jess fights back using the appeal process, Poppy gets angry. There’s a pivotal scene at the beginning of the second half at a public meeting with their MP. His responses to theirs, and others, questions is patronising and dismissive. Some in the audience air their views of benefit scroungers and the failure of disabled people to just get on with it and stop whinging, though it soon transpires that some may be plants, so it’s unclear if their views are sincere or stage-managed. Jess makes an important connection with a referred client with alcohol addiction and after his initial dismissiveness of therapy she breaks through, they bond and the connection becomes significant.

Government policy targeted at benefit fraud has created much bigger issues for disabled people. The assessment process isn’t fit for purpose (best judged by the extraordinary number of successful appeals) and the squeeze on the caring services has created more vulnerability and dreadful treatment of the carers, whilst the contractors continue to profit. I’ve long been ashamed that I live in a country which has allowed this to happen, so I guess the play is preaching to the converted in my case, but it isn’t preaching, it’s presenting facts which anyone who approaches them objectively can process for themselves. Given playwright Francesca Martinez’ background, it’s perhaps not surprising that it’s littered with laughs which sit comfortably with its campaigning message and prevent it from becoming too earnest and mawkish.

The playwright plays Jess herself in a fine understated performance, with Francesca Mills brilliant as Poppy. They are supported by a fine ensemble of fifteen other actors.

Important and urgent theatre.

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Middle

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , on June 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

I’ve rarely left the theatre of late feeling totally satisfied by a new play. Until this. The pandemic has made the wait five rather than three years for the second in David Eldridge’s relationships trilogy, but it was well worth the wait. Hopefully, it won’t take as long for the third – End? – as I for one am already full of anticipation.

Like Beginning before it, it’s a two-hander, played in real time over 100 minutes during a sleepless night in Maggie & Gary’s Essex home. Gary’s trajectory from market boy to City slicker is like many of his generation from Essex. It’s enabled him to afford the six-bedroom home, private prep school for daughter Annabel and holidays abroad, at a price. Maggie was late to motherhood, after problems conceiving, and has only recently returned to her career. This should be a success story in so many ways.

It’s a lot more than this personal story, though. It covers universal themes, things so many experience in midlife, many important and prescient issues, as Maggie & Gary’s marriage unravels before your eyes. They include the cost of success and the price (in fulfilment) of motherhood. I found myself connected and emotionally engaged with these, which seem to have become even more urgent during the pandemic, with many people focusing so much more on the work-life balance. If only Maggie and Gary had.

Though they are both regulars on our TV screens, we don’t see enough of Clare Rushbrook and Daniel Ryan on stage. Clare has already provided a cinematic highlight this year with Ali & Ava, now she provides a stage highlight to match it, a woman late to motherhood struggling to bond with her child and achieve the fulfilment her career once provided. Daniel is on an equally captivating roller coaster ride from frustration and despair to helplessness and rage with a character that’s high on ambition, but low on emotional intelligence. These are such visceral, committed performances you can’t help but empathise with their characters. The same creative team – director Polly Findlay and designer Fly Davis – handle the material with the same sensitivity.

You could never have the same intense, deeply rewarding experience as this in any other art form. It’s why I go to the theatre. You’d be completely bonkers to miss it.

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Our Generation

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , on March 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »

My relationship with verbatim theatre blows hot and cold. The toughest thing for me is the intrusiveness in the subjects’ lives, and sometimes the humour extracted at their expense. It was particularly acute at this because the subjects were minors, and the latter point was accentuated by some people a couple of rows in front who thought the whole thing was an uproarious comedy, their loud laughter jarring.

Alecky Blythe and her team interviewed twelve teenagers over five years from six schools, both state and public, in all four nations of the UK. Each of her ‘collectors’ followed just two subjects. The twelve represent a diversity of sex, race and class. The six hundred hours of recordings have been edited down to three, during which we watch them change and grow up. The actors who portray them also bring alive and populate the piece with their friends, families and teachers.

There are three parts, but its the third, short one, living through the pandemic, which is the most insightful and moving, as we see the impact on their lives, education & careers and mental health. It took a long time to overcome my concerns (not entirely until I read the programme on the way home to discover the subjects had read, and in some cases seen staged, all of their words being used, though not their portrayals) but in the end it proved to be an extraordinary insight into a generation I rarely engage with, and now feel much more empathy for.

It’s worth seeing just for the superb ensemble, who bring both the subjects and their relationships alive, mostly staying on the right side of caricature. Director Daniel Evans further animates this with music, movement and projections. At 3 hours 40 minutes it is too long, though its hard to see how it could be edited further without detriment to the characterisation and storytelling. That said, the part that packed the most punch was half as long as the other two.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it, but read the programme interview about the process first, and respect the subjects who have been generous enough to allow us into their lives at a formative stage.

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Trouble in Mind

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »

This is a 1955 work by African American playwright Alice Childress, written and first produced at the beginning of the civil rights movement (Rosa Parks challenged segregation the same year) which was staged off-Broadway but never got its planned Broadway run because of the playwright’s refusal to water down its satire on racism in the American theatre. Until 2021, that is, when it finally made it to the ironically named ‘Great White Way’ (actually named after the white lights on billboards and marquees).

The whole play is a rehearsal for a ‘coloured show’, where black actors play stereotypes like servants and ‘mammies’. It sends them up with exaggerated acting and mannerisms. Leading character Wiletta has a song and dance background but is desperate to become a proper actor, something reserved for white people at the time. Though relationships develop and individual character stories emerge, it’s essentially a one issue play. One reviewer of this production suggested each of the three acts are set in historically different periods, moving forward in time, but I have to confess I didn’t see that.

Though it’s important in highlighting unacceptable practices, I felt it was somewhat laboured, often lacked pace and despite the exceptional performances, 2.5 hours felt like a long time to make its point, perhaps less effectively because of the length. I’m not sure it has stood the test of time. Designer Rajha Shakiry has created a very realistic period backstage environment. Tanya Moodie leads an excellent cast that includes the great Cyril Nri, on fine form, a superb performance from Rory Keenan as the director of the play-within-a-play, a delightful cameo from Gary Lilburn as Henry the stage doorman and an outstanding professional debut from Daniel Adeosun as John Nevins, a newbie actor from the same town as Wiletta.

Though the black lives matter movement has made us realise this issue still exists, I’m not sure this play brings them to the fore in a way that would add to the debate and promote reform. I felt it was an interesting period piece rather than a contribution to the current discussion.

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Rockets & Blue Lights

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , on September 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »

I love plays which make connections between people, periods, places and events to present a bigger picture. Winsome Pinnock’s new play places Turner’s painting ‘Slaver’s Throwing Overboard the Dead & Dying – Typhoon Coming On’, more commonly known as ‘The Slave Ship’, at the centre, from which we move back and forth unravelling the connections.

We see black school-kids and their teacher studying the painting in a gallery and an actress researching and filming something inspired by the painting, to the period and events it depicts. Characters like a schoolboy and the actress are deeply affected by what they have viewed. The play’s key point, the impact of these historical events on descendants living today, is made explicitly clear at the end.

Pulling off such an audacious piece of theatre requires clarity in the staging, but I didn’t feel that was the case here. I’m afraid I thought Miranda Cromwell’s production was more confusing than clear, and difficult scenes like a historical ballroom dance and dancing at a contemporary party happening simultaneously don’t get the deft staging they need to work.

Most of the talented cast play two or more roles, which works perfectly well. On the night I went, Paul Bradley was indisposed and Lloyd Hutchinson (not an understudy) played the roles of Turner / Roy, script in hand, remarkably well. The staging in-the-round facilitated speedy changes of scene, with some remarkably speedy changes in costume!

I thought it was well written, making an interesting point that people like me may not have hitherto understood and may need to hear, but its impact was marred by the production, which may have benefitted from a more experienced director.

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Death of England

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , on February 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »

No other art form could tell this story so well. It would have nowhere near the same impact on screen, big or small, or on the page. Clint Dyer & Roy Williams’ one-man monologue takes you hostage at close quarters, and Rafe Spall inhabits his character Michael in a towering performance of energy, passion and playfulness.

Michael is a lovable Londoner. He loves his mum, but worships his dad, who has a flower stall in the market. He’s a bit contemptuous of his sister. His best friend Delroy is black. Football is his game and the family team are Leyton Orient – and England, obviously. These are open, warm-hearted people, salt of the earth. We see the best of them. Then they are confronted by a political choice and a resurgent England head for the World Cup and for some patriotism becomes nationalism and racism and we see the worst of them.

Rafe Spall prowls the cross-shaped platforms, with almost every member of the audience in touching distance, making eye contact with virtually all of them. There’s no set as such, but the design team cleverly integrate the enclosed space with lighting and sound, with objects left all over the auditorium that Michael uses to illustrate his story. His character engages with us, banters, cheekily. It’s funny and charming, until Michael has a meltdown at a funeral when it becomes angry and passionate and incredibly powerful. These people have been used by other more powerful people, which has made some of them ugly.

I’ve long admired Roy Williams’ writing and here, with co-writer Clint Dyer, his ear for natural dialogue shines once more. Dyer directs too, and his visceral staging, and Spall’s extraordinary performance, create this testosterone-fuelled world, bringing alive the unseen characters and propelling the personal story and its socio-political parallels. I was enthralled and captivated for 100 minutes.

It was a co-incidence that I had returned to see Mike Bartlett’s Albion the night before and I was struck by how much they seemed like companion pieces. Michael and Albion’s Audrey couldn’t be more different, but they are affected and infected by the same thing. Two state of the nation plays, poles apart but resonating in the same world. Theatre doing what it does best, putting up a mirror to help us see and understand the world in which we live.

Absolutely unmissable.

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The Best Theatre of 2019

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 31, 2019| 1 Comment »

One of the most positive things about 2019 was that more new plays and new musicals made my shortlist than revivals of either; new work appears to be thriving, theatre is alive.

BEST NEW PLAY

I struggled to chose one, so I’ve chosen four!

Laura Wade’s pirandellian The Watsons* at the Menier, clever and hilarious, The Doctor* at the Almeida, a tense and thrilling debate about medical ethics, How Not to Drown at the Traverse in Edinburgh, the deeply moving personal experience of one refugee and Jellyfish at the NT Dorfman, a funny and heart-warming love story, against all odds

There were another fifteen I could have chosen, including Downstate, Faith Hope & Charity and Secret River at the NT, The End of History and A Kind of People* at the Royal Court, The Son and Snowflake* at the Kiln, The Hunt at the Almeida, A German Life at the Bridge, After Edward at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Appropriate at the Donmar, A Very Peculiar Poison at the Old Vic and Shook at Southwark Playhouse. Our Lady of Kibeho at Stratford East was a candidate, though I saw it in Northampton. My other out of town contender was The Patient Gloria at the Traverse in Edinburgh. I started the year seeing Sweat at the Donmar, but I sneaked that into the 2018 list!

BEST REVIVAL

Death of a Salesman* at the Young Vic.

This was a decisive win, though my shortlist also included All My Sons and Present Laughter at the Old Vic, Master Harold & the Boys and Rutherford & Son at the NT Lyttleton, the promenade A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge, Noises Off* at the Lyric Hammersmith and Little Baby Jesus at the Orange Tree.

BEST NEW MUSICAL

Shared between Come From Away* in the West End and Amelie* at the Watermill in Newbury, now at The Other Palace, with Dear Evan Hansen*, This Is My Family at the Minerva in Chichester and one-woman show Honest Amy* at the Pleasance in Edinburgh very close indeed.

Honourable mentions to & Juliet* in the West End, Ghost Quartet* at the new Boulevard, The Bridges of Madison County at the Menier, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Fiver at Southwark Playhouse, Operation Mincemeat* at The New Diorama and The Season in Northampton.

BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL

Another that has to be shared, between the Menier’s The Boy Friend* and The Mill at Sonning’s Singin’ in the Rain*

I also enjoyed Sweet Charity* at the Donmar, Blues in the Night at the Kiln, Falsettos at the Other Palace and The Hired Man at the Queens Hornchurch, and out-of-town visits to Assassins and Kiss Me Kate at the Watermill Newbury and Oklahoma in Chichester.

A vintage year, I’d say. It’s worth recording that 60% of my shortlist originated in subsidised theatres, underlining the importance of public funding of quality theatre. 20% took me out of London to places like Chichester, Newbury and Northampton, a vital part of the UK’s theatrical scene. Only two of these 48 shows originated in the West End, and they both came from Broadway. The regions, the fringe and arts funding are all crucial to making and maintaining the UK as the global leader it is.

The starred shows are either still running or transferring, so they can still be seen, though some close this week.

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