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Posts Tagged ‘Richard Howell’

Guards at the Taj

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , on April 13, 2017| Leave a Comment »

This fascinating play by Rajiv Joseph is set in the mid-17th century in Agra, as the Taj Mahal nears completion. Two guards, Humayun and Babur, are posted outside with their backs to the building, forbidden to turn around and see it. They have been friends since army days and they pass the time reminiscing and fantasising. Humayun is earnest and law-abiding; his dad holds a senior position in the Emperor’s court. Babur is more rebellious and cheeky. The play is based on the myth that the Emperor is determined that a more beautiful building is never built and takes drastic action to ensure this is the case.

In the first part, we get to know these two guards as they stand in position engaging in conversation, even though they are supposed to be mute. They talk about the building, a mausoleum for the Emperor’s favourite wife which has taken 20 years to complete, and its architect. They reflect on the Emperor’s life and in particular his harem. They look back fondly to their army days, specifically when they built a tree platform for protection. In the second part, we see the aftermath of the work they had to do at the Emperor’s bidding to ensure nothing as beautiful would ever be built again, one resigned to following orders, the other wracked with guilt. They share thoughts and flights of imagination as they disagree. In the third, they are divided when Humayan is forced to follow his father’s orders.

It’s hard to describe. Though it’s a duologue, it’s mesmerising and completely captivating. In Jamie Lloyd’s gripping production, Soutra Gilmour’s design is complemented by striking lighting from Richard Howell and an atmospheric soundscape by George Dennis, but above all it’s the compelling performances of Danny Ashok and Darren Kuppan which draw you in.

A great way to re-open the Bush Theatre and good to see Jamie Lloyd working on the fringe for the second time this year.

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Labyrinth

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

It’s easy to think that the economic crisis we’ve lived through in the last eight years is unique. As this play shows us, by explaining the Latin American Debt Crisis of the early 80’s, a prequel to the latest one, everything that has and is happening to Greece happened to Mexico, and other Latin American countries, more than thirty years before. History repeats itself and we just never learn.

In Beth Steel’s brilliant play we follow the career of John. He’s not your usual highly driven Ivy League Long Island banking type, but top banker Howard sees something in him and takes him on, to be groomed by high-flier Charlie in the macho world of international lending. As Charlie rises in the Latin American department, so does John. They loan money for projects that will never come to fruition, with money that won’t, because it can’t, be repaid. We learn of John’s troubled childhood, with his small-time fraudster father in prison while his mother loses everything. His dad comes back into his life and is a ghostly presence during the rest of the play, his dishonesty compared and contrasted with the monumentally bigger stunts being pulled by John and Charlie for their bank. John is a clever guy and by putting forward the idea that gets the banks off the hook, overtakes his mentor.

It’s an intelligent, well researched and superbly written play which manages to make the complex comprehensible. It builds, slowly at first, like all the best thrillers, except this isn’t fiction. It’s traverse staging has a clever, clinical, uncluttered design by Andrew D Edwards, with brilliant lighting and light effects by Richard Howell and a soundscape by Max Pappenheim. I haven’t seen any of director Anna Ledwich’s work before but I was really impressed by this. John is a big role and the character has an extraordinary journey and Sean Delaney, a 2015 RADA graduate, is stunning. Tom Weston Jones is outstanding as Charlie, as is Martin McDougall as Howard and Philip Bird as John’s dad Frank.

It owes something to Enron in terms of subject and style, but it’s its own thing, telling a different story brilliantly. I much admired Beth Steel’s previous play Wonderland, about the miners strike, but this couldn’t be more different, and it confirms her as an exciting new playwriting talent. A must see, and a candidate for Best New Play. What are you doing reading this when you should be booking tickets?!

 

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The Hairy Ape

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , on May 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I don’t think this rare Eugene O’Neill play has had a production here for 25 years – and that was in German, part of Thelma Holt’s international season at the NT. In fact, I don’t remember any other production in London in my theatre-going lifetime. Like The Emperor Jones, written just before it (and 20 years before Long Day’s Journey Into Night), it’s an expressionistic piece with a strong social(ist) message.

Yank (representing the working man?) is the natural leader amongst the stokers on a transatlantic liner, where the play starts. A visit by a posh girl, an industrialists daughter who seems to regard her sojourn below deck as an exciting adventure to see another species in their natural habitat, results in her insulting him – ‘a filthy beast’. When in port in NYC, Yank’s walk on 5th Avenue is just as alien for him and, with the insult ringing in his ears, he hits out, resulting in a prison spell. Here he hears of a new union which he seeks to join on release, but his unbelievability means they think he’s a spy and reject him. He heads for the zoo where attempts to communicate with a hairy ape (filthy beast) result in tragedy.

It’s nothing like his intense naturalistic dramas, and it’s not a great play, but it is fascinating if you’re interested in 20th century drama, particularly American drama, and O’Neill in particular. At Southwark Playhouse, every aspect of this production comes together to create a stunning staging – director Kate Budgen. Jean Chan’s design makes brilliant use of this atmospheric space in traverse form with a central crossing. A grill and some smoke conjours up the engine room, a pair of ropes the ship’s deck and a handful of hospital screens, rope replacing fabric, turn into seven prison cells. Crowded 5th Avenue is more crowded with each actor carrying a manequin head. Richard Howell’s lighting does much to aid these transformations, as does Tom Gibbons sound scape (the final scene, in virtual darkness, is particularly effective). The opening is also superb, as the men seem to rise as one from the bowels of the ship – this, and the rest of Lucy Cullingford’s  movement work, is outstanding.

There isn’t a fault in the casting and sometime Corrie bad boy Bill Ward is a revelation as Yank. It couldn’t be much further from his last job, Million Dollar Bash, as the only non-singing character. Here he brings huge passion and conviction to the role and the transition when he leaves his comfort zone, and his leadership position, is completely believable.

A must in my book – a fringe theatre showing how talented people can create great theatre on a shoestring. An unmissable opportunity to catch that rare species – an early 20th century play with bite.

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