Sandy Pritchard-Gordon

Sandy Pritchard-Gordon
Theatre Blog

Saturday 29 December 2012

The Effect at The Cottesloe


This time around, The Cottesloe has been transformed into a private clinic.  Except it isn’t a normal clinic but one where they carry out drug trials.  As I overheard a lady saying during the interval, why would anyone put themselves through such a thing, especially when the play write, Lucy Prebble, of Enron fame, eloquently shows us what can go wrong.  Of course this is fiction, but fiction of the powerful kind that makes one think about the subject long after the viewing has ended.

This particular drug trial is concerned with finding a cure for depression and Billie Piper, playing a psychology student called Connie and Jonojo O’Neill as Tristan, a laid back Northern Irish drifter, are two of the guinea pigs.  Their mutual attraction is apparent from the onset of the play and they constantly flirt with one another.  The two trialists are under the constant supervision of medic, Lorna, played by a nervy, humourless Anastasia Hille, who, in turn, reports back to the smug, self-important Doctor Toby played by Tom Goodman-Hill.  It is evident quite early on that these two doctors have a history, which has left Lorna less than happy with its outcome.

Having passed the preliminaries, Connie and Tristan are accepted onto the trial and so they begin a course of daily doses of a dopamine based antidepressant.  As the trial progresses, their dosage is increased and what started out as mutual infatuation, turns into full-blown feverish love.  But is the love real or the result of them taking the drug?  Come to that is one of them actually only ingesting a placebo and, if so, which one?  And, in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter if the couple cannot altogether trust their feelings, given that brain chemicals are what make us fall for one another in the first place?  All questions that make you think whilst watching the four actors faultlessly portray their characters.

There is one scene that for me is the highlight of an otherwise nearly perfect play.  Tristan and Connie have escaped the “big brother” atmosphere of the main clinic and find themselves in a large, unused room.  Here, Tristan courts a more cautious Connie by doing an impromptu tap dancing routine to the strains of I’ve Got You Under My Skin.  The wooing is so successful that the growing intensity of their feelings for one another is palpable and I’m sure I won’t be the only female that is likewise charmed. 

Their growing love affair is cleverly balanced by the very unsuccessful relationship between the two Doctors.  It transpires that Lorna who is skeptical about the use of anti-depressants actually drove Toby away because she herself suffers from depression.

The four actors cannot be faulted.  Billie Piper and Jonjo O’Neill are superb and compliment each other perfectly.  One totally believes in their burgeoning love affair as surely as one cannot imagine Tom Goodman-Hill playing anything other than super-smug.  And surely Anastasia-Hille really does have depression problems?  As despair threatens to overcome her character, Lorna, she manages to seemingly bring a corpse-like intensity to her complexion.  Meanwhile Mirian Buether’s design perfectly portray the luxuriousness of the private clinic, whilst, when required, Jon Clark’s lighting imparts an unreal calm and Rupert Goold’s direction is spot on.

This is a play to make you think and enjoy in equal measure.







Saturday 15 December 2012

Uncle Vanya at The Vaudeville Theatre


On paper this production of Uncle Vanya, translated by Christopher Hampton, should be excellent.  Lindsay Posner directing the stellar cast of Ken Stott, Anna Friel and Samuel West and Christopher Oram designing was, in my view, a must see.   So, it’s odd that I left the theatre last week feeling, to a large extent, unmoved.

Ken Stott is his usual watchable self as Vanya and conveys very well his frustrations at his unrequited love for Anna Friel’s Yelena.  She, in turn, makes a very beautiful, doll-like Yelena and expertly captures her own frustrations at being married to the much older Serebryakov.  The male eye candy of the piece, Doctor Astrov, is a wonderfully brooding, dashing Samuel West, who is emotionally scarred.  The only thing capable of eliciting his passion is the subject of trees!  Yes, he fancies Yelina but doesn’t care about her and is totally dismissive of the lovelorn Sonya.  Her fate is that of Vanya, a life filled with regret at what could have been.  Laura Carmichael plays her adequately enough, although her whiney voice does grate after a while.

This is a witty version of one of Chekhov’s most famous plays and it does have its moments.  What doesn’t help raise it to more than a capable production are the long scene changes.  A bus can be driven through the end of Act I and beginning of Act II.  The curtain stayed down for so long the night I went that we, the audience, were palpably embarrassed, especially on realising that the long wait isn’t actually worth it.  One exquisitely aged and distressed setting in the Russian dacha has been replaced by another one. 

I’m glad I’ve seen this version of Chekhov’s story of regrets, resentment and lost dreams, but, surprisingly it doesn’t bring anything new.  Competent but nothing more.

Wednesday 5 December 2012

The Magistrate at The Lyttleton


This latest production of The Magistrate now showing at The Olivier includes more than a hint of Gilbert and Sullivan and I for one am rather glad.  This farce penned by the Victorian playwright Arthur Wing Pinero, although amusing, isn’t exactly side splitting and the musical interludes performed by a brightly costumed, be-wigged chorus makes the whole evening much more interesting.  Whereas a typical French farce involves a large helping of sex, Pinero’s English equivalent is a little more staid.  The plot revolves around the widowed Agatha Posket, who, after marrying a respected magistrate, knocks five years off her age.  As a result, she is forced to pretend that her son, Cis, is 14 years old, when he is actually nearly twenty.  All well and good, except that Cis is not in on her fib and smokes, gambles and flirts;  not the sort of behavior one expects from a school boy, which, of course, leads to much confusion.  The poor unsuspecting magistrate gets embroiled in one of Cis’s excursions to a shady hotel and chaos ensues.  There are several “Give Us A Clue” innuendos, which, allow the audience a chuckle or two, but this rather tame and, at times, irritating play, is never hilarious. 

The actors equip themselves very well, although I did find the casting of John Lithgow as Posket rather odd.  He is undoubtedly an excellent actor but here he seems ill at ease and rather labored and somehow doesn’t capture that particularly British pompousness which is needed to highlight the magistrate’s eventual loss of dignity.  His wife, however, is played to perfection by Nancy Carroll and she, for me, is the best thing about the evening.  Although bad tempered and cross, she also manages to be convincingly touching and human.  Plaudits, must also go to Joshua McGuire playing the frisky Cis, who with his erect ginger quiff ensures that the innuendo is expertly delivered and Jonathan Coy as Colonel Lukyn in a permanent state of puffed up fury.

Richard Stilgoe’s lyrics are excellent and I very much enjoyed Katrina Lindsay’s pop-up design.  It’s cleverness is almost a show in itself.

Enjoyable, but not amazing Christmas fare.