Sandy Pritchard-Gordon

Sandy Pritchard-Gordon
Theatre Blog

Tuesday 30 May 2017

Angels In America - Part One The Millennium Approaches at The Lyttleton








Three curtain calls and the entire Lyttleton Theatre audience on their feet, highlights that the two ticket only policy for Angels In America is entirely justified.  Let’s hope that Part Two, Perestroika, which I’ve booked to see in August is as good.

Tony Kushner’s epic play (event even) was first staged at The National in 1993.  Set in New York during the Reagan years, 1985 to be exact, Angels in America is funny, sad and thought provoking, all wrapped up as a theatrical extravaganza.  It is termed “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes” and was written when Aids was the huge elephant in the room.  It features Prior Walter who has succumbed to this scourge of gay men.  Unfortunately his male partner, Louis Ironson, can’t cope and does a runner.  Meanwhile a young Mormon, Joseph Pitt, can’t face the fact that he prefers men and, as a result, his unhappy wife, Harper, pops pills - lots of them.  And then there’s Roy M Cohn, not a figment of the playwright’s imagination, but Donald Trump’s legal adviser back in the day.  A very important “legal eagle” Cohn denies his homosexuality and the fact that he has Aids.   
That is the bare bones of the play, which, in theory, is easy enough to condense into a few lines, but in practice is much more complex.  Thankfully, under Marianne Elliott’s expert guidance, any long rambling speeches are crystal clear and she ensures there is always something to assault the senses; incredibly important seeing as how Part One runs for 3 ½ hours.  The lonely and often illusory city life, is embodied within Ian MacNeil’s staging of the play.  Little scenarios are performed within isolated boxes, whilst the discontinuous scenes mark the fractured society of Reagan’s second term of office.

Although the play features more than thirty characters, various members of the cast take on several parts and six further actors are employed as Angel Shadows.  Because, of course, the Angel of the title is actually a physical part of the action, appearing as she does to Prior towards the end of Millennium Approaches.  “Very Steven Spielberg”, comments Prior on her spectacular entrance and how right he is, even though this spiritual being, played by the excellent Amanda Lawrence, is rather more comical in appearance than celestial.

The cast is faultless.  Andrew Garfield more than lives up to expectations as the flamboyant, if intense Prior Walter.  The camp affectations of fluttering hands and elongated neck, give way to howling despair on realising the lesions on his skin are portents of what will eventually befall him.  He is funny, pathetic and, ultimately, pitiable.  His erstwhile, garrulous boyfriend, is brilliantly bought to life by James McArdle, whose long, rambling, political and guilt ridden speeches, rather than amusing, would be painful in less capable hands.  Denise Gough, so good at portraying a troubled soul in People, Places and Things, is equally fine here as is Russell Tovey her soul searching husband.  Another great performance is given by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, the ex drag queen, turned nurse who takes care of Prior.  His nurse is the embodiment of gentleness and practicality that one would expect, whilst he perfects the art of providing just the right amount of undercutting cynicism as Belize.

Which brings me to the Tony Award winning Nathan Lane, as Roy M Cohn.  He changes from soft-spoken seemingly tame pussycat to ferocious lion in a heartbeat and is extremely funny, even when sick to the core with Aids (or liver cancer as he would have it).  He is the epitome of a great American stage actor.

Add to all this the excellent Susan Brown, who amongst others plays Hannah, Joe’s conservative Mormon mother and Amanda Lawrence’s various guises and the whole is an epic delight.  Huge, but strangely intimate and immensely entertaining.

Monday 15 May 2017

Consent at The Dorfman









Nina Raine not only wrote Consent, now running at The National’s Dorfman Theatre, but her young baby also features, albeit for just a short while during the opening scene.  This inclusion adds to the believability of the couple at the heart of her new play.  The baby in question belongs to Kitty (Anna Maxwell Martin) and Edward (Ben Chaplin), who, on the surface appear to be in a happy ten-year-old marriage.  They have just moved into a new home and their great friends, Rachel (Priyanga Burford) and Jake (Adam James) have called round to “wet the house’s head”.  Edward and Jake are lawyers and constantly recall present and past cases in graphic detail, referring to their clients in the first person.  The playwright has obviously studied the way barristers chat to one another, as well as meticulously researching all aspects of the legal system.  Without it there wouldn’t be the ring of truth surrounding Consent.

Edward's latest case is defending a man convicted of raping Gayle, a young working class woman (Heather Craney), whilst Tim (Pip Carter) has the job of prosecuting him.  Gayle is having problems understanding why no one is defending her.  Even when Tim explains that she isn’t the one being tried, the legalities of the whole judicial system go completely over her head.  All she knows is that she was raped on the day her younger sister was buried.  The fact that she was drunk and undergoing therapy fails to make her understand that her rape assertions have holes.  Certain things about the legal eagles do become clear to her once the case is over.  On gate crashing a Christmas party, she sees the lawyers for what they really are.  Not the men with the moral high ground in court, but dope smoking, champagne-quaffing mates who don’t give their cases, win or lose, a second thought.  It’s only following her explanation as to why she needed therapy, that she glimpses some flicker of remorse.  Heather Craney imbues this account with such credibility that the whole episode is incredibly moving.

The final character is Kitty’s best friend Zara (Daisy Haggard) an actress who would like nothing more than to be in a happy relationship.  In order to do something about this, Kitty decides it would be wonderful if Zara and Tim could become an item. Unfortunately in the creative world of Nina Raine, life is never that simple.  Even though the emotive crime of rape is at the heart of Consent, the title doesn’t just allude to agreeing to have sex.  It also incorporates what you consent to within a marriage.  Adultery rears its ugly head more than once in this production and Raine explores how different people react to this form of betrayal.

The entire cast are exemplary.  Ben Chaplin has exactly the right air of self-righteous smugness at the start, when everything appears to be going his way.  Then when his marriage falls apart, the man who appears to have allowed the professional callousness required for his job as a defence lawyer to have invaded his personal life, totally breaks down.  Kitty’s complaint that he is totally lacking in emotion finally proves unfounded.  Her decision to try and make him understand the devastating effect of a loved one embarking on an affair, by doing the self same thing with Tim, has succeeded.  Anna Maxwell-Martin is in her usual tip-top form, concealing her long held bitterness behind a veneer of nervy cheeriness.  They make a most plausible couple and one wills them to put the past behind them at the end of the play.

Adam James and Priyanga Burford also succeed in convincing us that they are a fully rounded couple, even though their relationship is less detailed.  Daisy Haggard is instantly recognisable as a Bridget Jones type whose biological clock is ticking away madly, whilst Pip Carter, the perpetual batchelor is superb. 

All in all Nina Raine has done it again.  She has devised an amusing, non-judgemental insight into the legal profession and shone the spotlight on young, professional relationships.  Having Director Roger Michell at the helm is no bad thing either, for he ensures the acting matches the strength of the zippy writing.  Thoroughly recommended.

Sunday 14 May 2017

Obsession at The Barbican









Following Ivo van Hove’s brilliant productions of A View From The Bridge and Hedda Gabler, his latest offering starring Jude Law and members of the Belgian’s Toneelgroep Company, seemed like a no brainer.  Conceived and directed by van Hove, in an English Language version by Simon Stephens, Obsession is based on Luchino Visconti’s 1943 movie of the same name, which, in turn, was based on the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice.

It centres around Gino (Jude Law), a handsome drifter, who on meeting Hanna (Halina Reijn) for the first time falls head over heels in love/lust or perhaps both.  The only problem is that she is unhappily married to Joseph (Gijs Scholten van Aschat) a not altogether pleasant older man.  She, too, is obsessed with Gino, although her idea of the perfect life is very much at odds with her free spirited lover.  Needless to say, this all-consuming love affair ends in tragedy for all concerned.

We are warned of scenes of a sexual nature and, sure enough, when the couple indulge in a spot of heaving rumpy pumpy, we are privy to a close-up of the action via large video screens.  No need for a warning, though, for it is tastefully, if rather clinically done; so carefully choreographed that any emotion is sadly lacking.  Even the almost constant musical score, making up for the lack of dialogue, fails to produce any atmosphere.
Ivo van Hove and his designer, Jan Versweyveld, have stripped the whole production down so that it is far removed from reality.  A car engine suspended from the ceiling suggests the garage attached to where Joseph and Hanna live and the vast Barbican stage contains nothing else apart from a water tank, wooden bar and perspex windowed doors.  Oh and this excuse for a car, also has another purpose, in that black sump oil pours from its bowels during the bloody murder scene.  Dripping in this treacly mess, the couple strip off and wash themselves in the water tank; silently. When the couple run away together, they do so via a treadmill, which elicited giggles from some of the audience on the night I went.   

Obsession, the film, was shot in Italy’s long, winding roads and countryside, but there is no sense of place in this adaptation, the only reference to Italy being snatches of the Italian Opera, La Traviata.  I have to say, there is also no sense of real passion.  Whereas van Hove’s A View From the Bridge and Hedda Gabler worked so well under his non-realistic approach, Obsession fails.  It is sterile and cold and I for one was completely uninvolved.
Part of the problem is the theatre itself.  The Barbican, with it’s huge stage is rather sterile, even more so when it is almost completely bare.  Since watching the play, I have seen the South Bank Show covering the rehearsal period, interviews with Law and van Hove and the play’s first foray onto the stage.  This, for me, was so much more involving and I wonder how much better the production would have been in a smaller space, like say the Donmar.

At least the strapping, sexy and soulful Jude Law shines, even though the rest of the company hardly glimmer. He also manages to inject some feeling into the sparse rather flat dialogue.  But, unfortunately, even he looks rather lost in this huge barren space.  I wonder if he was as pleased as me when the 1 hour, 50 minutes were up?

Obviously I won’t give up on Ivo van Hove.  A director who is so radically different and believes that realism in the theatre is a misnomer is bound to have his off moments.  But from his take on Arthur Miller’s play being one of the best productions of 2014, this one could possibly be one the worst of 2017.

Monday 8 May 2017

The Ferryman at The Royal Court









This is the reason I’m a member of so many of our great London theatres.  I get to be one of the first to make sure I get to see those plays that cause a flurry of excitement as soon as they are announced.  Jezz Butterworth’s epic new work, The Ferryman, is one such play.  Sold out in one day at the Royal Court and with tickets for its transfer to The Gielgud already sparse (and that’s before Press Night in the Sloane Square venue) anticipation at being privy to seeing the possible successor to Jerusalem, has been immense.  And those of us lucky enough to watched it already can attest that we have viewed something very special indeed.

Jezz Butterworth has once more tuned into countryside rituals (Jerusalem) and gangland bureaucracy (Mojo) but on top of this he has now tackled the huge issue that was Northern Ireland in 1981.  Ten republican prisoners have died from hunger strike in the Maze prison and it is no surprise that the IRA feature strongly in The Ferryman.  Except for a brief prologue, the play is set in a farm in County Armagh, designed by Rob Howell, who has left no stone unturned in creating the Carney’s realistic overcrowded farmhouse kitchen.  The house is inhabited by several generations of the Carney family and it’s the time of year when they and their extended family celebrate the annual harvest.  However, two incidents imbue this year’s festivities with a sinister element.  The body of Quinn Carney’s (Paddy Consadine) brother, Seamus, has been found face down in a bog, and this in turn elicits a visit by a leading republican.  We discover that Quinn defected from the IRA just before Seamus went missing; it’s all too obvious that one’s past can never be totally erased.  Butterworth equally demonstrates that the power of love (especially the forbidden and, in this case, hidden kind), can never truly stay in the shadows.  From the all consuming and tender relationship between Quinn and his brother’s wife, Caitlin (the astonishing Laura Donnelly) to the two elderly sisters who both still mourn their loved ones, love is the heart and soul of this magnificent play.

As with Jerusalem, The Ferryman merges the otherworldly with meticulous realism.  Aunt Maggie far away (Brid Brennan), in her rare moments of lucidity, entrances the children with her magical reminiscences, whilst the sole Englishman, Tom Kettle (John Hodgkinson) produces a live baby bunny and goose and there is also a live baby on stage.  All of which helps ensure that we, the audience, are as one, silent and transfixed as the story enfolds.

It takes a director of Sam Mendes stature to be able to choreograph a cast of 21, plus baby on the relatively small Royal Court stage.  The action unfurls as naturally as this ensemble of actors inhabit their roles.  And his attention to detail is unrivalled.  Genevieve O’Reilly as Quinn’s sickly wife, Mary, doesn’t need to voice her hurt that she knows she has a rival for her husband’s affections.  A quiet turn of her head so as not to watch Caitlin taking charge of her kitchen is enough. Mendes also manages to change the atmosphere in the blink of an eye.  From the sexual frisson when we first see Quinn and Caitlin dancing together to the tension and then fear when leading Republican Muldoon (Stuart Graham) issues his demands.

All the characters, thanks to the brilliance of the cast, are fully formed and real.  No caricatures here.  Paddy Consadine, in his first stage role (who would believe it) has a commanding stillness, speaking each line as if it’s the first time it’s been uttered.  Laura Donelly is equally fine.  Their love for each other is so heartbreakingly real that the very air between them seems to crackle.  Dearbhla Molloy imbues the irascible Aunt Pat with an acerbic wit and profound passion for the Republican cause, whilst relative newcomer, Tom Glynn-Carney, is remarkable as Shane Corcoran, whose inability to keep quiet will get him into deep trouble with Muldoon.

As you can probably gather, I can’t rate The Ferryman highly enough.  Jezz Butterworth who has named his play after Charon, the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead, has done it again.  And despite the running time of 3hrs 20mins, or maybe because of it, I have booked to see it again in the West End.  If you want to see a gem, hurry up and book too, before it’s too late.

Wednesday 3 May 2017

The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui at The Donmar



The Donmar has been transformed into a dimly lit Chicago Speakeasy designed by Peter McKintosh, for Bertolt Brecht’s parable on the rise of fascism led by Adolf Hitler and his henchmen, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.  In this new adaptation by the American Bruce Norris, there is no hiding the fact that The Donald has rather taken over the Hitler analogy, despite the assertion by the Announcer that “any suggestion of a correlation between the leader of a certain nation and the homicidal gangsters we depict is something that the management must strictly disavow”.  When said scripted disclaimer is then wiped on the announcer’s backside, we know where the evening is going.  There is no subtlety whatsoever in making sure we don’t forget the parallels with today as the script is littered with Trump references, including “I’m gonna make this country great again”.

Ui of the title, who obviously stands in for Hitler, starts the play as a shambling small time hoodlum, whose callous manipulation of the Chicago cauliflower protection racket, enables him to rise to city boss.  Once in this exalted position, he is on the lookout for yet more territories to dominate. Likewise Dogsborough, a corrupt city hall boss represents President Hindenburg.

Michael Pennington plays Dogsborough with just the right mix of venality and vulnerability, whilst the rest of the cast equip themselves well, whether as one character or several. Tom Edden as Announcer/Ragg/Sheet/Actor/Butler and Grocer is particularly fine.
All of which brings me to the subject of Lenny Henry, the erstwhile stand-up comedian, turned classical actor, whose Ui, whilst not necessarily chilling, is a powerful presence.  Not a small man by any means, Henry does manage to portray Ui as a moody, lolloping dolt at the beginning, before transforming him into a force to be reckoned with once he’s got a taste for power. 

Unfortunately, the excellent metamorphosis from theatre to club is rather at the expense of comfort, so well done one theatre goer for bringing her own cushion (insider knowledge?).  Mind you her “ringside” position, one of the wooden chairs surrounding various circular tables, did entail her rather prolonged participation as a defendant in the trial scene.  Whilst audience participation can be effective, the less is more rule doesn’t apply here I’m afraid.

Despite the heavy-handed approach to various themes present in Brecht’s 1941 play, there is much to recommend this production.  Thanks to Simon Evan’s excellent direction, it is pacey and funny, whilst a dangling mic is often put to good use, especially when various members of the cast burst into short snippets of popular songs. Rag ‘N Bone Man’s ‘I’m Only Human’ sung superbly by Gloria Obianyo, being one of them.

It’s a fun evening, which for me was spoilt by Lenny Henry (seemingly out of character) indulging in some political lobbying at the end …. Unnecessary!