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Posts Tagged ‘Tom Stoppard’

Leopoldstadt

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , on February 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a big cast in a West End theatre – thirty-one actors playing thirty-five characters over fifty-six years – which, added to the fact its a new Tom Stoppard play, a partly autobiographical one too, makes this a highly anticipated major theatrical event.

We start in 1899 Vienna, Christmas with three generations of the Jewish Merz and Jakobovicz families. This city at the turn of the century is an intellectual and artistic powerhouse and names we know are dropped with abandon – Freud, Mahler and Klimt to name but three. Though it is clearly important to what follows to introduce the characters and set the scene, by the interval it seemed to me to be a bit of an inconsequential family saga, albeit beautifully staged and performed.

When we return after the interval 24 years have passed, another generation have been born, and it becomes somewhat farcical, mostly revolving around the circumcision of one of the newcomers – Carry on Foreskin! We soon jump forward another 12 years, the doorbell rings and we realise we’ve been lulled into a false sense of security as it becomes positively chilling. It’s 1938 and the Nazi’s have come to call. The play ends in 1955 at a reunion of what’s left of the family, now in three countries on two continents, and we learn the fate of the rest in a deeply moving ending.

Though I see the necessity of the scene-setting and the point of the changes in tone, it is a bit imbalanced, with that whole hour in 1899 in particular. I think it would have been a better play if they shortened this and placed the interval between 1924 and 1938. That said, there’s much to enjoy in Patrick Marber’s staging, with a fine ensemble, too many to mention, and much to help understand the profound impact the events of this period had on just one family. I feel it will probably resonate even more, and differently, with people of shared heritage. A major theatrical event nonetheless.

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Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , on March 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »

I think I might be falling out of love with Tom Stoppard. I didn’t really like his latest play The Hard Problem and I took against Travesties in it’s recent revival at the Menier. I last saw this play six years ago, when it left me with the same feeling as the recent Travesties – ‘look how clever I am’ – but I decided to give it another go as I recall enjoying earlier productions.

The titular characters are of course minor characters in Hamlet and you probably do need to know that play, which is effectively playing concurrently, mostly off-stage, to ‘get’ this one. What we get is these minor Hamlet character’s musings, adventures at sea en route from Denmark to England and interaction with The Player and his troop. Hamlet, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Horatio and Fortinbras all put in appearances.

Today it seems the work of a clever clogs young playwright showing off. It’s undoubtedly intelligent, but that comes with an air of superiority and glibness which for me rather stifles it. Whatever you think of the play, though, David Leveaux’s production is as good as it gets, with a superb impressionistic design from Anna Fleischle.

The chemistry of the titular pair is crucial. The last paring I saw was Jamie Parker and Samuel Barnett, who had worked together for years on The History Boys but didn’t have that chemistry. Daniel Ratcliffe and Joshua Maguire don’t appear to have worked together before, yet they have it in abundance. I admire Radcliffe for how he has managed his post-Potter career and here he takes a role often upstaged by two others without any attempt to use his star status or upstage his colleagues. David Haig as The Player is a larger-than-life ‘Lord of Misrule’ with punk gothic followers,  like some sort of Pied Piper, and he almost steals the show.

Great production. Great performances. Maybe the play has had its day.

 

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Travesties

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , on November 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »

I blow hot and cold with Tom Stoppard. I wasn’t in London for the first outing of this piece, but I was for the first revival, with Anthony Sher in the lead role, and I recollect being dazzled by it. Time is a funny thing, though, and on this occasion I found it hard to engage with it. It had an air of superiority about it and made me feel like I was being patronised.

It links real people who were in Zurich during the First World War – Lenin, James Joyce, Dada founder Tzara and The British Honorary Consul Henry Carr – and weaves in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Carr was apparently in a production of that play at that time and Joyce was involved. The rest is an exploration of revolution and art. This time I found it glib, clever for the sake of it, and I didn’t think it had much to say. Pointless intellectual fireworks.

It has moments of delicious absurdity and humour, particularly when it unexpectedly bursts into surreal scenes of song and dance, but they were few and far between, especially in the longer first half. Patrick Marber’s direction is very assured and Tim Hatley has designed an excellent set. The whole ensemble, led by Tom Hollander as Carr, give virtuoso performances.

I’m clearly at odds with most of the audience and critics, so I’m prepared to accept it’s a matter of taste. Not for me, I’m afraid.

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The Hard Problem

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , on February 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I blow a bit hot and cold with Tom Stoppard. At his best, his intellectual jigsaw puzzles sparkle and thrill like fireworks, but they can sometimes be damp squibs too. I’ve actually enjoyed his most recent work – the Coast of Utopia trilogy & Rock & Roll – more than the clever clogs stuff like Jumpers and Travesties, but I’m afraid this is a huge disappointment, devoid of any emotional engagement and, well, rather dull.

I thought reading the programme in advance might help, but it made my brain hurt before I’d even taken my seat. It’s familiar philosophical / scientific territory, this time the brain and consciousness. Psychology graduate Hilary gets to work at a world famous brain science institute which is funded by financier Jerry Krohl for ethically dubious reasons. The intellectual debate is between her and her teacher / lover Spike, competing scientist Amal, the institute’s senior researcher Leo and Krohl himself. There are three strands, as there is a somewhat contrived personal story and a mere brush with the world of finance as well as the core scientific debate, but they don’t combine to produce anything with enough substance.

Designer Bob Crowley’s creativity (and budget!) has gone on a brilliant light installation high above the action, which provides a nice distraction during the over-long and fairly frequent scene changes, but leaves the stage looking sparse during performance. There’s nothing wrong with the performances – the actors do the best they can with somewhat flimsy characterisations. It all seemed a bit half-hearted to me.

Perhaps it would have been better if Stoppard retired with the already impressive body of work he has behind him. My playwriting hero Arthur Miller endangered his legacy with weak late plays like Resurrection Blues and Mr Peter’s Connections and for me Stoppard is in danger of doing the same.

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Incognito

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , on May 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

It looks like I’m going to a lone voice again, as I fail to join in the euphoria for this new Nick Payne play. It’s a bit of a Stoppardian affair, both slick and somewhat glib, but unlike Stoppard doesn’t really go anywhere. I left the theatre thinking ‘so what?’

Three narratives interweave – the story of the American pathologist who stole Einstein’s brain in the hope of learning where genius comes from, a man who’s brain is damaged after botched surgery for his epilepsy and a neuroscientist and her relationships and her challenging views on the brain. This latter thread is the weakest.

It’s all very well staged by Joe Murphy in a traverse setting underneath a geometric web of chrome tubes, with a piano at each side. You can’t fault the four actors who play multiple roles, with switches seemingly faster as the pay goes on.

At first I admired the cleverness, the stagecraft and the performances, but I tired of it. It came to seem self-indulgent, an intellectual exercise that exists for itself rather than to illuminate or entertain. In the end, I just didn’t see the point of it. Then again, maybe I’m just thick.

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Rosencrantz & Gildenstern Are Dead

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , on July 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Waiting for Godot meets Six Characters in Search of an Author, but not as satisfying as either.

Memory is a funny thing. I think I’ve seen this twice before and I think I liked it on both occasions. Last night it irritated the hell out of me…..Tom Stoppard at his best sparkles with wit and invention. This one’s smug, glib, pompous and too clever for its own good. It’s like an intellectual student showing off. Stephen Fry on stage.

The characters of the title are of course minor roles in Hamlet and Stoppard puts them centre stage and weaves them in and out of that play and the work of The Players of that play, but its all rather pointless. It does have some good lines and it is sometimes funny, but like an overlong joke, it just goes on and on for 2.5 hours.

I’d love to say that fine young actors Samuel Barnett and Jamie Parker were good, but for some reason they overacted mercilessly; Barnett particularly camp in a way that seemed at odds with the role – whatever was director Trevor Nunn thinking of? The rest are mere bit players as they say, but they did their bit perfectly well. I liked Simon Higlett’s simple design with what seem like time tunnels through which the ensemble enter and leave.

I am a bit hot and cold when it comes to Stoppard, so I’m prepared to accept that it’s a matter of taste. For me, though, a profoundly annoying piece of theatre and a waste of a lot of talent.

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The Real Thing

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Based on his plays that preceded this one, which I first saw 28 years ago, I always thought Tom Stoppard was too glib for his own good – he always seemed to be showing off, clever clever and knowing in a way that frankly irritated me. This was the first of his plays where he seemed to be portraying real people, relationships and indeed love! I don’t know whether it is, but it did seem to be autobiographical, then and now.

Playwright Henry leaves his wife for the wife of her colleague / their friend and later finds this new relationship strained by his new wife’s relationship with a younger colleague. It’s cleverly structured with terrific sharp and witty dialogue and the character development is excellent. You really feel you know Henry very well two hours later.

Anna Mackmin’s staging is slick and fast paced, aided by Les Brotherston’s set which moves between four flats with the rise / fall of panels. It’s very well cast, with Toby Stephens a particularly good Henry (I preferred him to Roger Rees in the original production and Stephen Dillane in the Donmar’s revival some time back).

This is the Stoppard play to see even if you don’t like Stoppard, because it’s the least Stoppardian(!) and you’d be hard pressed to find a better revival.

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