Issue 23 - 2003
Prompt Corner 
How bad is bad taste? When do we cry 'enough'? How far back should we push the boundaries? These questions will receive different answers at different times, and this issue offers a good excuse to address them once again. Ten years ago, in this column, I was even suggesting that authors should practise self-censorship; that there were some things that should not be presented on stage. This was after seeing Anthony Neilson's shocking Penetrator, which is being revived now - you'll find a review in our next issue which describes it as a comedy. Neilson's own response was best shown in 1997 in his excellent The Censor, which argued strongly for complete freedom: we need to explore and expose our darker nature, not hide it.
The risk of this approach was graphically presented by that fine but under-rated writer Don Taylor, who sadly died last month. In his 1994 play When the Barbarians Came, a theatre producer is approached by a representative of 'The Barbarians', who have taken power in a nameless country. Would he be able to find an actor who would consent to play the blinding of Oedipus for real? The producer finds such an actor, who is duly blinded on stage. The next question: how about an actor prepared to play a death scene for real?
Nowadays, I have come to admit that you can make out a very good case for the theatre as a kind of laboratory of experience, where audiences can explore in safe conditions what it would be like to undergo situations which they might not wish to face in real life. The offstage horrors of Greek tragedy, as instructive as they were cathartic, were brought on stage by Seneca and then Shakespeare, then - oh, you know the story . And today you can get all the gore you want in the cinema, all the swearing you want in pre-watershed 'family' TV comedy, gags about bodily functions mingled with gay in-jokes in children's Saturday morning series - what's to worry about? Only those Barbarians, waiting in the wings.
Which brings us to Jerry Springer, now said (by its producers, admittedly) to be the hottest ticket in the West End, with some audience members going back for the fourth or fifth time. I didn't go back for the third time when it opened at the Cambridge, partly because no one asked me to but partly because I had had a sufficiently great experience at the BAC and Lyttelton openings. I did, however, receive the two-CD live recording from Sony, though not, rather stupidly, its catalogue numbers. All the magic of the stage show is there, folks, except of course the brilliance of the staging. Richard Thomas's music is the best to adorn a musical for a long time, and the quality of the singing is of the highest. However, without an ecstatic audience around you, it gets a little wearing to hear all those expletives, especially between songs when they don't come with the added value of Thomas's Handelian settings. That feeling of overkill is creeping into some of the reviews of the transfer in this issue, though Avalon already have enough raves to decorate their adverts and needn't worry which production they referred to.
There are raves, too, in the adverts now appearing for the truly monumental pile of bad taste which is Tonight's the Night, the Rod Stewart musical. You won't find many of them from the more straight-faced reviewers in these pages, since they come from the likes of the Sun and the People. In this case, it would have been a blessed relief for me to miss the event and hear instead a songs-only CD. Ben Elton's energetic, talented cast deliver the Stewart back catalogue with verve, and a quality of singing that suits his throaty ballads. But where We Will Rock You was tongue in cheek, Tonight's the Night is tongue up bottom, with the most nauseous Stewart-worship equalled only by the sickness of many of the show's themes. Yes, there are some genuine laughs from a man who can be a very funny writer, but Elton's hubris in thinking he can direct the show what he wrote means that there has been no restraining voice to say (as should so often have been said) 'Ben, this sucks, cut it.' Honesty compels me to add that while I found the event acutely embarrassing, there were many audience members who enjoyed themselves a lot, as well as the obviously paid claque who waved their arms and joined in most of the songs. But unless the Barbarians have really arrived, I can't see this show doing anything like the business of We Will Rock You - if only because it becomes very clear in the course of the evening that Mr Stewart has only ever written about three tunes.
Far more interesting as a musical was the little gem which is Faster - and it's not really a musical. I saw Filter's short, very effective show at the Lyric Studio when I couldn't get in to Madame Bovary in the main house, which turns out to have been a slice of luck if you read the Bovary reviews. Faster is a devised piece played largely by three actors, stylistically half way between Rejects Revenge and Frantic Assembly. It's a simple enough tale of a three-way relationship that comes across as a present-day Jules et Jim. What gives it an extra edge is the presence of three more people on stage, musicians who serve as both backing group and supernumaries, while delivering a fearsome array of sound effects and even the occasional song to heighten the work of the actors. A packed young audience loved every minute of it, and so did I.
Probably the most important new play of this issue is David Hare's The Permanent Way, to which I hope to return when it reaches the Cottesloe next month. Meanwhile, that space is occupied by another magnificent piece of theatre which will certainly be in my thoughts when it comes to nominating this year's best new play. We learn from the reviews that The Pillowman is an early Martin McDonagh work, which failed to win the Verity Bargate playwriting award in the eighties. This led one tiresome contributor to BBC2's Late Review to criticise this incredible piece only on the idiotic ground that it was early work. To my mind, either the Bargate jury missed a sitter or the play has been massively revised, for it is a work of such power and depth, mingled with McDonagh's usual sardonic comedy, that it seems a huge advance on his Oirish plays. Terrible things - and terribly funny things - happen in The Pillowman, but at its end we are left with so many bubbling thoughts about the human capacity for love and suffering, about the value of creativity, about the pervasiveness of institutional evil, about how intrinsically horrible are many well-loved 'fairy stories' - on and on the brain races, captivated by McDonagh's towering talent. John Crowley's superbly paced production - don't believe those who will tell you it's too long, you couldn't cut a second - is helped by the performances of its four fantastic leading actors, David Tennant, Adam Godley, Jim Broadbent and Nigel Lindsay. It's an enthralling evening, absolutely essential theatre, and I can't help wondering whether I, too, would have resisted its cruelty of language and action ten years or more ago when it was first written. It may not be sufficiently raw food for the Barbarians, but it's strong meat all the same.
Our Barbarian friends would have enjoyed Gary Mitchell's Loyal Women, if only for the frighteningly realistic tarring and feathering that marks its climax. It's another of Mitchell's slices of Ulster Protestant low life, slices which (for some reason that escapes me) seem to go down very well with London critics. Like its predecessors, it would be good enough on the box, but on stage (especially in Josie Rourke's clumsily blocked production, where much of the action is obscured for much of the audience) it seems thin stuff, with some very dodgy motivations glossed over in the pursuit of some violent action and simplistic politics. Still, it is blessed with some fine performances from both young and more experienced actresses.
The belated West End transfer of Stephen Poliakoff's 1996 Sweet Panic was a sad disappointment for most, the more so because its two usually reliable lead actresses made such a hash of it. Parts that had seemed believable enough in the original now appeared completely hollow, and the strong sense of place that distinguished the play in Hampstead was nowhere to be seen. Maybe it will work as a film, which is its next step - but it will need a serious rethink from both Victoria Hamilton and Jane Horrocks. I'd be interested to see what might happen if they swapped roles.
Theatre criticism as well as the wider literary world has
lost a friend in Giles Gordon, who has died after a fall
at his Edinburgh home. I knew him first nearly forty years
ago, when as successive Chairmen of the Society of Young
Publishers we ran the Book Bus, a barmy but glorious idea
intended to bring culture to the masses of places like Luton
and Crawley. Imagine us bowling down the motorway, driven
by the advertising manager of the TLS, with Paul Hamlyn and
his secretary, one Carmen Callil, in hot pursuit in the Hamlyn
Roller. We shared a passion for the theatre, which he was
able to indulge as Penguin's drama editor, later as the editor
of the quarterly Drama and in stints of criticism for Punch,
The Spectator and the short-lived London Evening News. I'll
miss him - he was no Barbarian.
Ian Herbert
At the Back
No "At the Back" this issue
Contents / Reviews
London |
||||
BIRO written and performed by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine |
Drill Hall 1 |
9 Nov |
30 Nov |
1568 |
A DOLL'S HOUSE revival of the play by Henrik Ibsen in Samuel Adamson version |
Southwark Playhouse |
5 Nov |
29 Nov |
1515 |
FASTER conceived and devised by Filter |
Lyric Studio |
12 Nov |
22 Nov |
1529 |
HAPPY DAYS Samuel Beckett revival |
Arts |
18 Nov |
1559 |
|
JERRY SPRINGER - THE OPERA musical by Richard Thomas, book/ lyrics Stewart Lee, Richard Thomas |
Cambridge |
10 Nov |
1530 |
|
KATHMNANDU Greg Freeman play |
Menier |
5 Nov |
15 Nov |
1563 |
KING CROMWELL play by Oliver Ford Davies |
Orange Tree |
14 Nov |
13 Dec |
1556 |
LEAR'S DAUGHTERS revival of play by Elaine Feinstein and the Women's Theatre Group (Yellow Earth) |
Soho |
17 Nov |
22 Nov |
1523 |
THE LISBON TRAVIATA play by Terrence McNally |
Kings Head |
17 Nov |
21 Dec |
1564 |
LOYAL WOMEN play by Gary Mitchell |
Royal Court |
11 Nov |
13 Dec |
1534 |
MADAME BOVARY: Breakfast with Emma Fay Weldon play from Gustave Flaubert (Shared Experience) |
Lyric Hammersmith |
5 Nov |
22 Nov |
1516 |
THE MAIDS dance drama from the play by Jean Genet (Theaterhaus Stuttgart - BITE 03) |
Barbican |
17 Nov |
29 Nov |
1567 |
ONE LAST FLUTTER Fascinating Aida |
Comedy |
12 Nov |
6 Dec |
1547 |
THE PILLOWMAN play by Martin McDonagh (NT) |
Cottesloe |
13 Nov |
27 Mar |
1550 |
REVOLTING play by Simon Startin (Ministry of Clowns) |
Jackson's Lane |
5 Nov |
15 Nov |
1563 |
ROCKET MAN play by Ritchie Smith |
Union SE1 |
13 Nov |
29 Nov |
1567 |
RUNNERS Cristina Teixeira play |
Blue Elephant |
12 Nov |
29 Nov |
1558 |
SHADOWS William Yang solo (BITE) |
The Pit |
5 Nov |
15 Nov |
1520 |
SO MUCH THINGS TO SAY Lenny Henry show written with Kim Fuller |
Wyndham's |
11 Nov |
29 Nov |
1543 |
SWEET PANIC Stephen Poliakoff revival |
Duke of York's |
12 Nov |
1538 |
|
TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT musical with Rod Stewart songs, Ben Elton book |
Victoria Palace |
7 Nov |
1524 |
|
TWENTY SECONDS play by Emily Sherley (Bare Boards TC) |
Camden People's |
11 Nov |
30 Nov |
1549 |
VENOM play by Matt Harris |
Oval House |
13 Nov |
29 Nov |
1555 |
WAITING FOR GODOT Samuel Beckett revival (The Godot Collective) |
Finborough |
6 Nov |
29 Nov |
1568 |
Regions |
||||
BREAKING THE CODE revival of the play by Hugh Whitemore from the book by Andrew Hodges |
Royal, Northampton |
11 Nov |
29 Nov |
1577 |
THE DANNY CROWE SHOW revival of the play by David Farr |
Dundee Rep |
5 Nov |
21 Nov |
1569 |
GLASGAY 2003 including Adrienne's Dirty Laundry, O A P and Sisters, Such Devoted Sisters |
Glasgow venues |
22 Oct |
15 Nov |
1573 |
KEEPERS OF THE FLAME play by Sean O'Brien |
Live, Newcastle |
4 Nov |
30 Nov |
1577 |
MARIA-DOLORES written by Wayn Traub |
Tramway, Glasgow |
14 Nov |
15 Nov |
1572 |
THE PERMANENT WAY play by David Hare (Out of Joint tour) |
T R York |
13 Nov |
15 Nov |
1579 |
RUM AND VODKA revival of the play by Conor McPherson |
Dundee Rep (platform) |
10 Nov |
17 Nov |
1570 |
THE SANCTUARY LAMP revival of the play by Tom Murphy |
R Exchange Studio, Manchester |
13 Nov |
29 Nov |
1578 |
SCREAMING BLUE MURDER play by John Godber |
Hull Truck |
17 Nov |
6 Dec |
1578 |
THE SLAB BOYS revival of the first part of the trilogy by John Byrne |
Traverse, Edinburgh |
14 Nov |
24 Jan |
1571 |