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Prompt Corner

This will have to be a hasty tour of what is a very busy issue. I've used up all my time on the enormous Edinburgh supplement that accompanies it - ironic, when you read my introduction lamenting the absence of critics from Edinburgh this year. The latest news from Scotland is that they really are going to have a national theatre, more as an idea than a building, and it's already producing lively debate up there. I hope it turns out as an enormous old warehouse, where creative people can test themselves and technical people can build for them, producing work of all shapes and sizes for venues all over the country.

Back in London, the emphasis of this issue is very much on politics, with three lead shows taking different routes to similar conclusions. Michael Frayn's Democracy is a cool, measured exposition of what could seem a boring subject - post-war German governments. Its style is reflected in Peter J Davison's cool office set, which proves surprisingly versatile and has a final surprise up its sleeve. The acting is to match, with Roger Allam and a fine group of NT stalwarts joined by a slightly too obtrusive Conleth Hill (whose spying job, after all, is to be unobtrusive.) The play brilliantly succeeds in making the boring gripping, and extending Frayn's ideas on the uncertainty principle, where the point of observation is crucial to results.

Antony Sher takes a more theatrical route through recent history, with Johanna Town's lighting playing a major role in his chiaroscuro rendering of the man who stabbed Verwoerd. He's written a tremendous part for himself, and he plays it with tact - none of his usual excess. The bravura is in his expressionistic telling of Tsafendas's tale, with an on-stage tapeworm (Alex Ferns) a major character. Reactions to I.D. are much less unanimous than for Democracy. I think it works well, both as a portrait of the Afrikaner siege mentality and as a broader commentary on the still bubbling racial melting pot of South Africa.

The most contemporary political commentary of the three is in John Galsworthy's 1913 The Mob. It's not a great play of its time, as those who've seen Granville Barker at the same venue can testify, but Sam Walters has had the neat idea of sliding its anti-war discussion forward ninety years at the interval, taking advantage of what has been criticised in the play - its lack of specificity about the war in question. It's beautifully staged, and the mob scenes are truly disturbing in the tight confines of the Orange Tree.

One could add Ed Wilson's farewell production for the National Youth Theatre to the list, for the speeches of the four knights who step forward to justify a political killing at the close of Murder in the Cathedral have a very modern ring. They are well delivered, as are all the arias, recitatives and choruses of this magnificent spoken oratorio. Lyn Gardner seems to dislike anything by Eliot, but anyone else with an ounce of soul - or a feel for politics - would warm to this very fine production, hugely enhanced by the medieval atmosphere of Southwark Cathedral, whose nave, aisles and sanctuary are most intelligently used. The other NYT show I caught, Paul Roseby's staging of Stella Duffy's Sohemian rhapsody Immaculate Conceit, couldn't have offered a better contrast in style. Seventy years after Eliot put the Church on stage, comes a jokey, postmodern tale of a virgin birth in the new Jerusalem. It's a pleasant change to see aspirant youth rather than desolate drop-outs, even if their heads are just as empty; their antics on Francisco Rodriguez-Weil's clever set make most engaging entertainment. If you want standard youthful ennui, it's there in Playing the Victim, but apart from a show-stopping Japanese song (twice) from Amanda Lawrence, Richard Wilson's too clever production and Told By an Idiot's physical skills only serve to point out that the Presnyakovs' musings may be less significant than they have been cracked up to be.

The Catholic youths who put on R & J in their dorm couldn't be cleaner, in their black pullovers and shiny shoes. They're also accomplished if rather showy actors, which I find the weakness of Joe Calarco's adaptation. The premise doesn't match the conclusion - gawky kids find true passion and a Kabuki style for Shakespeare. Mr Calarco expects his audience to know the original pretty well, since he leaves out half of it, distributes the remaining characters at random, and yet needs the support of various sonnets and chunks of the Dream to make his (or Shakespeare's) point. Lovely lighting, though.

If you want full-blooded traditional Shakespeare you couldn't ask better than Jonathan Kent's almost uncut Hamlet, in Japanese. The Setagawa cast rattled through it at tremendous speed, leaving the surtitles whirring helplessly in their wake, but the on-stage pictures had tremendous clarity, thanks in part to another truly breathtaking design from top man Paul Brown, giving a new meaning to the term 'box set'.  Yes, it was over the top, but splendidly so, with a thrilling martial arts duel to top it off.

Back in the realm of precocious schoolchildren, I must confess to warming much more easily to Brenda Bly - Teen Detective and her chums. Kevin Hammonds and Charles Miller seemed at first to be taking a very easy, superficial route to crowd-pleasing musical entertainment, but their little spoof has tons of plotting and a whole slew of very good numbers, and turns out much richer than it seemed at first glance. It also benefits from a totally committed, energetic and very talented cast - Ruth Madoc has to struggle to keep up with her young charges. It could survive in a bigger space than the user-friendly Bridewell. More, please!
Ian Herbert

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At the Back

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Contents / Reviews

London
THE ARGUMENT (A Family Portrait) devised and presented by Theatre O  (BITE 03)	The Pit	3 Sep	27 Sep	1176
THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE revival of the play by Martin McDonagh  (Not the National Theatre)	Bloomsbury	3 Sep	6 Sep	1168
BRENDA BLY - TEEN DETECTIVE book and lyrics by Kevin Hammonds, music by Charles Miller	Bridewell	2 Sep	20 Sep	1178
COME OUT ELI devised by Alecky Blythe  (Recorded Delivery)	Arcola	2 Sep	27 Sep	1180
DEMOCRACY play by Michael Frayn  (NT)	Cottesloe	9 Sep	30 Dec	1199
THE FATHER revival  of the play by August Strindberg, translated by Sandra Theresa Buch	Etcetera	29 Aug	14 Sep	1171
FIVE CARD TRICK   play by Andrew McGuinness	White Bear	19 Aug	7 Sep	1179
HAMLET revival of the play by William Shakespeare (Setagaya Public Theatre, Japan)	Sadler's Wells	29 Aug	6 Sep	1164
HAMMERKLAVIER Yasmina Reza novel adapted by Mark Kilmurry and Susie Lindeman	Jermyn Street	1 Sep	27 Sep	1169
HELLO YOU devised by John Keates  (Fecund)	Riverside	3 Sep	27 Sep	1175
I D play by Antony Sher	Almeida	4 Sep	18 Oct	1185
IMMACULATE CONCEIT adapted by Paul Roseby and Stella Duffy from her novel  (NYT)	Lyric Studio	28 Aug	13 Sep	1161
LE COSTUME  (THE COAT) adapted by Mothobi Mutloatse & Barney Simon from novel by Can Themba	Young Vic	27 Aug	13 Sep	1153
MIGUEL STREET Stephen Landrigan adaptation of V S Naipaul novel	Latchmere	27 Aug	7 Sep	1163
THE MOB revival of the play by John Galsworthy	Orange Tree	5 Sep	4 Oct	1192
MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL revival of the play by T S Eliot  (NYT)	Southwark Cathedral	1 Sep	5 Sep	1162
ONE LAST FLUTTER Fascinating Aida	QEH	9 Sep	13 Sep	1168
OUT OF BOUNDS one-man show by Rajesh Gopie	ICA	27 Aug	29 Aug	1179
PLAYING THE VICTIM play by the Presnyakov Brothers  (Told By an Idiot)	Royal Court Upstairs	2 Sep	4 Oct	1183
POSTCARDS FROM MAUPASSANT adapted by Caroline Harding from the short stories of de Maupassant	Old Red Lion	3 Sep	27 Sep	1182
R & J adapted by Joe Calarco from the play by William Shakespeare  (The Splinter Group)	Arts	8 Sep		1195
ROSS NOBLE: UNREALTIME comedian	Garrick	1 Sep	27 Sep	1172
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT revival of Chris Manoe monologues	Kings Head	3 Sep	14 Sep	1156
TABLOID CALIGULA/A ROAD IN WINTER   plays by Darren Murphy  (Penny Dreadful TC)	Union, SE1	4 Sep	20 Sep	1198
TOP DOGS revival of play by Urs Widmer translated by Patricia Benecke and Patrick Driver	Southwark Playhouse	3 Sep	20 Sep	1190
TWELFTH NIGHT revival of the play by William Shakespeare	Courtyard	2 Sep	21 Sep	1204
Regions
THE CARETAKER  revival of the play by Harold Pinter	T R Bristol	9 Sep	23 Sep	1211
THE GRADUATE adapted by Terry Johnson from the film of the novel by Charles Webb	Arts, Cambridge	27 Aug	6 Sep	1208
A HAPPY MEDIUM  play by Dorothy Paul and John Bett	Byre, St Andrews	29 Aug	20 Sep	1211
THE HIRED MAN Revival of the musical by Howard Goodall, from the novel by Melvin Bragg	Salisbury Playhouse	5 Sep	27 Sep	1209
I CAUGHT MY DEATH IN VENICE  written and performed by The Brothers (John and Martin) Marquez	Minerva, Chichester	4 Sep	4 Oct	1207
KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS Adapted by Andrew Taylor from the screenplay of the Ealing Film	Queen's, Hornchurch	29 Aug	27 Sep	1210
POETRY OR BUST  revival of the play by Tony Harrison	Salt's Mill, Saltaire	5 Sep	13 Sep	1210
SALT O'THE EARTH  written and performed by Little John Nee Cumbernauld Theatre)	Brunton, Musselburgh	5 Sep	27 Sep	1212
TWELFTH NIGHT revival of the play by William Shakespeare	Dundee Rep	3 Sep	20 Sep	1212

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