Issue 01 - 2004
Prompt Corner 
As ever, a warm welcome to old and new readers alike of Theatre Record as we enter our twenty-fourth year. Well, not quite "as ever". In last year's Issue 1-2, Ian Herbert mused in this column on matters of longevity and continuity. In the interim, however, he's taken the decision to become discontinuous and less prolonged, at least in terms of column inches. I'm both grateful and honoured to have been given the opportunity to take the helm of this magazine which Ian founded and built into the essential work of reference on contemporary British theatrical productions and the critical responses to them. I hope that I can do justice to his achievement, and perhaps add something of my own. Ian's friendly guidance will continue, both to me as I settle my botty into the editor's seat and to you as he takes up a horribly liberated column of his own, beginning in Issue 3.
This issue also marks the farewell of Verena Winter as Contributing Editor. Over the last three years Verena's energy and dedication have been Olympian, as she managed to cram reviewing, production and administrative work for Theatre Record in alongside her continuing duties with Konzertdirektion Landgraf in the German-speaking countries. She and her Opposite Prompt column will be much missed hereafter.
Large number of opinions
And as for me, and as for me... I remember one of my early colleagues on the Independent's Edinburgh Fringe review team (ah, those heady days when London papers thought it worth sending sizeable teams up for the full season of the world's biggest group of arts festivals!) saying that, however hard he tried to sound cerebral and chin-stroking, his first couple of reviews every year effectively did little more than burble inanely, "Well, I'm delighted to be here once again, and I expect shortly to be having a large number of opinions for you." Nice chap; I often wonder what became of him. Lanky, and a little languid. Slight air of the English eccentric about him. Tom something. Big hair. Morris, that was it, Tom Morris. Where is he now, eh?
In any case, I'm delighted to be here for the first time, and I expect shortly to be having a large number of opinions for you. I'm aware, though, that I shall also be continuing to appear in the main body of the magazine, in my capacity as one of the Financial Times reviewing team. I hope you'll bear with me as I try to avoid the twin traps of, on the one hand, excessively pummelling my own agendas and preferences in Prompt Corner as well as elsewhere and, on the other, undue diffidence and self-effacement... absurd and fantastical as that may seem in a critic.
One worthwhile idea has already been proposed by a member of the critical tribe (who shall remain nameless, but it was the same one who greeted me in my new role with a cry of, "Ah, here's the Invigilator!") - namely, that these couple of pages be opened up to correspondence. Sounds good to me. Obviously, the first place to address points in individual reviews reprinted here would be the letters page of the publication in question, but as for more general critical issues or matters arising from TR's original content, then bring it on. After all, one function of Prompt Corner is to pick up such issues and run with them, and why should the editor have all the fun?
Reporting
Here's one to kick off. At the presentation of the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards 2003 (whose winners you can find listed at the bottom of Opposite Prompt), Michael Coveney fired off en passant a battlefield WMD at the New Statesman and the Spectator for downgrading their theatre review coverage. He singled out a Spectator piece by Lloyd Evans that purported to lay into critics and criticism as a whole, and rightly picked out one damning sentence, in which Lloyd imagines he's justifying himself against accusations that it's wrong to leave a show before the end when you're reviewing it: "Fundamentally this is a reporting job," he wrote, "and once I've gathered enough facts to write an entertaining piece I race home and get started."
How can I put this temperately? If your job is reporting, then your job is to get ALL THE BLEEDING FACTS, not just as many as will help you fill your allotted space. If entertainment is your priority, then you're not being a reporter, you're being a clown. Britain is at the moment in the middle of a profound three-way crisis of distrust between politicians, the media and the public, and what catalysed it was one man who settled for writing a piece based on only as many of the facts as he needed to make it entertaining. OK, so it was a piece about weapons of mass destruction, not about a play in Hammersmith. The principle is the same. Reviewing that exalts being a transient, jolly read over trying to get all the important stuff down in print is reviewing that colludes with editorial decisions to demote it. And if you're annoyed that nobody takes you seriously as a critic, then why not try being serious as a critic? It might just work.
Silly season
Mind you, that's all a bit rich given that our most serious theatrical minds have in the past month been principally exercised over a mere silly season confection. (And the season's arriving sooner every year. Forget the first cuckoo or crocus: the first Evening Standard "West End in crisis" story was spotted in the second week of January, a good three or four months earlier than usual.) The Musicians' Union prepares to strike against live musos being replaced by the latest hi-tech son-of-synth (plus ça change...); the Hampstead Theatre is in managerial upheaval after an impatient Arts Council assumes it should have bedded down into its new premises and artistic régime immediately; in Scotland, another sneaky funding depredation threatens that country's major young people's theatre company. So naturally, the big debate is about star ratings on reviews.
After an initial volley in the Guardian by David Hare, who should know better than to sound so earnest about such a piddling matter, and Michael Billington's attempt at a voice-of-reason reply, the two pages(!) of readers' correspondence subsequently printed on the topic followed exactly the same trajectory as most middle-class debates about censorship or law 'n' order.
People advanced the argument that unspecified others - but implicitly rather dimmer folk, to whom the likes of us owe a patronising duty of care - might benefit from, or contrariwise might be confused or misled by, star ratings on reviews; but as for the letter-writers themselves, no, they bridled with genteel offence at the thought that they might be so influenced. One single hardy soul admitted that star ratings might occasionally sway him as to reading the full review, an admission so hedged about with qualifiers as to be easily missed. And that was it. So if none of those voicing concern are doing so on their own accounts, then can we perhaps leave the poor benighted hypotheticals to speak up for themselves whilst we get on with the business of caring about the actual shows and theatres, not to say the content of reviews?
At which point I should perhaps take my own advice and stop coming over like a strange luvvie version of Tony Parsons.
Glorious
The trouble is that, after all that defiant outspokenness, there are no significant axes to grind about January's shows. I mean, "His Dark Materials: rest of critical world entirely right" won't set the earth, or any parallel dimension, alight. Yes, Nick Hytner has staged the piece wonderfully, and finally made decent use of the Olivier's drum revolve. Nicholas Wright's adaptation deserves a little more praise than it received, not least for a remarkably astute approach to editing the trilogy of novels down: one doesn't miss an entire world and a major supporting character that have been cut. (Interesting, too, how very televisual the catch-up montage is at the beginning of Part Two of the diptych drama; it really needs a voiceover announcing, "Previously in His Dark Materials...") Anna Maxwell Martin is simply magnificent in the mammoth central rite-of-passage role of Lyra, and deserves to be hymned at far greater length than this. And yet, Philip Pullman's books are so rich and detailed that, especially in Part One, one wishes Wright and Hytner could find two minutes together for exposition-free drama. Nevertheless, it comes as no surprise that the plays are to be revived again at the end of the year; you can't afford to put on a production like this and then pack it away in tissue paper like a wedding dress, a glorious memento and no more.
I was a little disconcerted by the reticent audience response on the press night of The Riot Group's Pugilist Specialist, wondering if perhaps its historical moment had now passed with the capture (and strange disappearance from the news) of Saddam Hussein. Benedict Nightingale reckons so, albeit due less to news on the march than to the Edinburgh bends. But what seemed so sharp and vibrant up there last August still does to most of us, to the extent that a return visit has been booked in at the end of the show's current tour: any Londoners who missed it this time round can catch it at the Riverside Studios in late April/early May.
By then Richard Dormer will be in rehearsal for his new show, to be unveiled in Belfast in May. But Hurricane will be long remembered by those who saw it. Dormer's physical resemblance to former snooker champion Alex Higgins is close enough; his vocal precision is amazing, reproducing the bizarre gumbo of Belfast, Berkshire and Blackburn in the Hurricane's accent. But his energy in that solo portrayal is breathtaking. It's the only way to do justice to such a character - the George Best of snooker, in effect - and I was glad of the reassurance that my fervent response to the show first time around hadn't simply been due to my being a Belfast boy of the right generation.
Special
Few felt quite as warmly as me about Honeymoon Suite at the Royal Court, however. I thought it really rather special, notwithstanding Richard Bean's recent success with Under The Whaleback. Bean has always struck me as being at his best when he allows social comment to grow organically out of his characters, and here he delivers an unobtrusive sense of the 1950s, the Eighties and the present day through the personal and social standing of the three couples who inhabit the same hotel room. Plus, of course, in having them weave through the space simultaneously, he pulls off a formal coup worth of Alan Ayckbourn, whose Scarborough base is just a few miles from the Bridlington setting here.
When Dominic Cavendish asked me to take part in a panel discussion for his excellent (if Flash-heavy) Web site www.theatrevoice.com on Gregory Doran's RSC revivals of The Taming Of The Shrew and John Fletcher's sequel The Tamer Tamed, I expected to be the ghost at the feast; instead, I found myself often the most favourable of the four reviewers around the mic. The transfer from Stratford has not been kind, in particular to Fletcher's play; it's not surprising, either commercially or in terms of the material, that it's only being staged twice a week in rep with the main Shakespeare piece.
It would be advisable to draw a discreet veil over Raymond Gubbay's Savoy revival of The Pirates Of Penzance to partner the disappointing Peter Pan already running. No, it would be advisable to weight its ankles and chuck it overboard into an ocean trench. Let me simply say this: if musical director John Rigby thinks the way to make Sir Arthur Sullivan's score more digestible to a modern stage-musical audience is to whack a leaden drum kit behind it and make it sound like Ronnie Hazlehurst's big band in a 1970s TV seaside variety show, he might care to think again.
Now, where was I? Oh yes, being welcoming...
Ian Shuttleworth
Opposite Prompt
It's a thoughtless attitude in the arts business to sniff at regional theatres, thinking “provincial” (it's just as big a problem in Germany ) and ignoring their important contributions to communities' dynamic cultural infrastructures and their very identities. The Haymarket in Basingstoke – with its dedicated director Alasdair Ramsay – is a good example of a theatre that works with great enthusiasm to nurture its spectators, and keep them tied to their theatre. Its French season ends with Émile Zola's Thérèse Raquin, in a superbly condensed adaptation by Julia Bardsley, subtitled Murder By The Seine in the hope of tickling the interest of non-Zola-readers. Ramsay directs a very strong cast; he choreographs this psychological thriller of a fatally entangled ménage à trois (brilliantly acted) with chilling precision, generating an electrically eerie flow. Ecstatic outbursts mingle with narrative sequences, anchoring naturalistic images of total hopelessness. Jon Nicholls' descriptive, emotional music is as atmospheric as Simon Hutchings' beautiful light, and both com-plement Martin Johns' clever design: rain falls on to slanting boards and disappears into a stream-like gutter at stage front; sliding shop windows open up a tower of Babel of chests, drawers, clothes and spiral staircase. Here deadly love takes its course, culminating in one of the best murder scenes I've seen on stage: Camille drowns and disappears in a pool of water, then sudden comes up once more to the horror of Laurent and the audience. This production deserves to be sold out!
David Hare's blistering political/topical documentary drama The Permanent Way is stirringly presented under Max Stafford-Clark's masterly direction with a superb cast of nine, looking at four disastrous train crashes (all after British Rail had been privatised), their causes, victims and at follow-up reactions. At the beginning, when a cluster of commuters dance out their workaday public transport troubles, one of the passengers says, “In England you can't move. We're useless at it.” Well, that's true and obvious (I long ago gave up, and now use my car in every case), but Britain (or her writers) is absolutely top-class at popping out plays dealing with flaming current affairs or with globally relevant political questions (what would Germany do without Michael Frayn's superb dramas Democracy and Copenhagen, or Ronald Harwood's Taking Sides?). Go and see this riveting testimony of misconduct in the maze of business and politics! (Maybe all users of trains and tubes should go on strike, causing a total standstill – that might awaken a more genuine care for the country's permanent social issues.)
Gobsmacked
What I like about London's theatrical world is this map of pub theatres, all trying to launch exciting programmes and new plays too. At the famous Bush, Simon Stephens' play Christmas offers the spitting image of a run-down East End pub (James Humphrey and Geoff Rose's meticulously naturalistic design) filled with male souls drowning their dead-end unhappiness in alcohol. Joanne McInnes directs with deep empathy, making the spectator a voyeur of claustrophobic reality theatre of failed lives. The pace has a slow one-to-one approach as the pub is opened and guests arrive. The clientèle consists mainly of men using this drinking venue as home-from-home (though what's home to them anyway?); passers-by come and go rather quickly, until Charlie, an ex-cellist and now a postman, tears up the layers of pretence to cut open small, sad lives, revealing also his own tragedy of his murdered wife and disintegrated self-esteem. What outstanding actors this island country has!
Into Soho whizzes Hurricane, alias snooker legend Alex Higgins, alias charismatic, chameleon actor Richard Dormer – and I was gobsmacked! Rachel O'Riordan (who comes from ballet) directs with a luminous touch Dormer's fiery, physically draining dance of a man's self-destructive powers and helter-skelter life between fame, ruin, obsession with snooker and addiction to alcohol. Dormer, who also wrote this monologue which reaches to the heart, seems to feed his body with an everlasting source of energy while flying, running, spinning across Garry McCann's out-of-kilter square revue-stage alias snooker-table; within a tenth of a second he changes age, mood, behaviour, character, and he clings to his cue as if it were a lifeline. Utterly, unbelievably mesmerizing – I wish I could see it again.
Also at Soho, Adriano Shaplin's Pugilist Specialist has its London première, after the San Francisco-based Riot Group's successful Fringe run in Edinburgh 2003. Four military psyches on mission “Bush” impossible (without being too specific): this is sharp, well executed satire against military power-games – and one hopes it causes Rumsfeldian minds an itch when it premières in New York.
Tickling humour
David Ives – at home in New York – arrives with a quintet of wonderfully quirky, half-surrealistic, refreshingly witty, black-humoured (Roald Dahl-esque) sketch-like plays at the Old Red Lion. In Mere Mortals, Polish charladies-cum-cooks waltz through their kitchen preparing a funeral feast while gossiping about the dead and the mourners – only to find themselves struck by death too; a patient's session with her psychiatrist turns into a synchronised ballet of doppelgängers, one pair talking, the other repeating each move in silence; late at night, a wife drives her husband mad with her persistent fear that something terrible is happening next door, where she believes she hears a woman being beaten by a man – though finally the ghostly images of her anxieties turn into her own and her husband's reality. Tom Edmunds directs with superb accuracy and ticklish humour in Adam Stanley's smart cartoon box of black lines on white. Some clever talents have come together here.
Steve Hennessy's double bill Lullabies Of Broadmoor at the Finborough looks at historical murder cases of the 19th century, asking if mass killing is much different from individual murders. Hennessy should take the time to turn his playlets into proper, elaborate plays: as Helen Chappell points out, the author sits on a locked box of dramatic tricks that should be released (and weren't by director Caitriona McLaughlin). But there is some good acting, especially from John Coleman.
Enjoyable, though not riveting
Brand X's Die obviously worked a treat on the Edinburgh Fringe last year, but it didn't push my comic button. It's trash-as-trash-can... though the basic idea of satirising America 's craving for entertainment and reality TV is fun, as hell becomes nothing more than another Disneyland, while a death sentence depends on the viewers' verdict.
I was surprised to find that Victor/Victoria has only now had its UK stage première at the cosy Bridewell – thanks to Phil Willmott, who is always in search of new musical entertainment. He directs with pizzazz some nicely talented singer/actors – strong-voiced Ria Jones, hilarious Emma Barton, sturdy Christopher Holt, film-like goody-gangster Mark Halliday – creating a night-clubbish atmosphere, perfectly accompanied by Annemarie Lewis Thomas's musical arrangements. Whatever it was (costumes?), the show was enjoyable, though not riveting.
In January 2001 I joined Theatre Record with
the eager aim of carrying the “chronicle of the British stage” on
my own shoulders. With the end of this double issue I'm leaving...
after three wonderful years in this country flooded with artistic talent,
new and daring writing, powerful acting and directors who dissect the
itching core of a play and see through the soul's realistic attire. My
deepest thanks to Ian Herbert and all at Theatre Record for their
support and generosity throughout my time here, and the wonderful opportunity
to immerse myself in British theatre. Dear readers, thank you too
for going through my concoctions of words and meaning. I hope you
found Opposite Prompt a useful guide.
Verena Winter
Contents / Reviews
London |
||||
THE ALCHEMIST revival of the play by Ben Jonson; N1 Theatre Company |
Courtyard |
6 Jan |
25 Jan |
80 |
ANORAK OF FIRE revival of the play by Stephen Dinsdale; Small Fish TC |
Etcetera |
7 Jan |
25 Jan |
29 |
BOX STORY return of performance piece by Bobby Baker |
The Pit |
28 Jan |
14 Feb |
88 |
THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS revival of play by Ron Blair |
Etcetera |
7 Jan |
25 Jan |
23 |
CHRISTMAS play by Simon Stephens; A.P.E.-Made In Brighton-Yes/No Prods |
Bush |
9 Jan |
31 Jan |
30 |
THE COUNTRY WIFE revival of the play by Wiliam Wycherley |
Courtyard |
27 Jan |
15 Feb |
58 |
DIE devised and presented by Paul Garner, Matty Mitford and Sarah Nield |
Riverside |
28 Jan |
14 Feb |
90 |
DRALION Cirque du Soleil presentation |
Royal Albert Hall |
8 Jan |
1 Feb |
34 |
DUST return of piece by Indefinite Articles, first seen in 2001 (p405) |
Lyric Studio |
14 Jan |
24 Jan |
62 |
EDGE solo play written by Paul Alexander on the life of Sylvia Plath |
New End |
9 Jan |
31 Jan |
47 |
EDWARD'S PRESENTS by Sally Llewellyn, presented by Earwig Arts |
Union SE1 |
8 Jan |
24 Jan |
40 |
FILM CLUB (BABY JANE): PEOPLE SHOW 113 previously seen on Edinburgh Fringe 2003 (p1112) |
Riverside |
7 Jan |
24 Jan |
26 |
GOD IS A DJ by Falk Richter, translated by Maja Zade |
Latchmere |
22 Jan |
8 Feb |
82 |
HIS DARK MATERIALS by Philip Pullman, adapted in two parts by Nicholas Wright |
Olivier |
3 Jan |
27 Mar |
9 |
HOLE IN THE HEART written and directed by George Eugeniou |
Theatro Technis |
20 Jan |
1 Jan |
91 |
HONEYMOON SUITE play by Richard Bean, presented by English Touring Theatre |
Royal Court |
12 Jan |
7 Feb |
48 |
HURRICANE written and performed by Richard Dormer on the life of Alex Higgins |
Soho |
14 Jan |
7 Feb |
67 |
I'M A FOOL TO WANT YOU devised by Told By an Idiot, conceived and directed by Paul Hunter |
BAC |
27 Jan |
22 Feb |
85 |
IN FLAME revival of play by Charlotte Jones; True Red Prods |
Jermyn Street |
21 Jan |
7 Feb |
81 |
JOURNEY'S END revival of play by R.C. Sherriff, directed by David Grindley |
Comedy |
21 Jan |
6 Mar |
70 |
KING LEAR revival of play by William Shakespeare; Galleon TC |
Greenwich Playhouse |
22 Jan |
15 Feb |
33 |
LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING revival of the play by Joe Penhall; Better Read Than Dead |
Old Red Lion |
27 Jan |
14 Feb |
66 |
LULLABIES OF BROADMOOR two plays by Steve Hennessy: The Murder Club and Wilderness |
Finborough |
8 Jan |
31 Jan |
41 |
MERE MORTALS five plays by David Ives; Surething Prods |
Old Red Lion |
6 Jan |
24 Jan |
42 |
ORDINARY MIRACLES play by Kubilay QB Tuncer with Lale Mansur |
Arcola |
9 Jan |
27 Jan |
69 |
THE PERMANENT WAY play by David Hare, first seen on tour in 2003 (p1579); Out Of Joint |
Cottesloe |
13 Jan |
1 Jan |
54 |
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE Gilbert & Sullivan revival, presented by Raymond Gubbay |
Savoy |
8 Jan |
20 Mar |
43 |
PUGILIST SPECIALIST play by Adriano Shaplin, first seen on Edinburgh Fringe 2003 (p1069 etc.) |
Soho |
16 Jan |
7 Feb |
63 |
ROMEO AND JULIET revival of the play by William Shakespeare |
Southwark Playhouse |
16 Jan |
31 Jan |
75 |
ROUND THE HORNE - REVISITED adapted by Brian Cooke from radio scripts by Barry Took et al. |
Venue |
22 Jan |
1 Jan |
76 |
STAR STRUCK solo show by David Benson, devised with David Sant |
Jermyn Street |
4 Jan |
17 Jan |
24 |
STRICTLY DANDIA play by Sudha Bhuchar and Kristine Landon-Smith; Tamasha TC |
Lyric Hammersmith |
20 Jan |
14 Feb |
83 |
THE TAMER TAMED revival of the play by John Fletcher; production first seen at Stratford in 2003 (p495) |
Queens |
21 Jan |
1 Jan |
96 |
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW Shakespeare revival; production first seen at Stratford in 2003 (p495) |
Queens |
15 Jan |
1 Jan |
92 |
TRIP'S CINCH/THREE MORE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS Phyllis Nagy/Caryl Churchill double bill |
Lion & Unicorn |
27 Jan |
8 Feb |
61 |
Up4aMeet? play by Jeff Moody and Simon Peek; Strawberry Theatre |
Oval House |
15 Jan |
7 Feb |
46 |
VICTOR/VICTORIA musical by Blake Edwards, Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse |
Bridewell |
13 Jan |
31 Jan |
59 |
A WEAPONS INSPECTOR CALLS transfer of play by Justin Butcher |
Pleasance |
13 Jan |
28 Feb |
1671 |
THE WICKER WOMAN devised by Lucy Montgomery, Barunka O'Shaughnessy, James Bachman |
Jermyn Street |
4 Jan |
17 Jan |
24 |
LONDON INTERNATIONAL MIME FESTIVAL 2004 |
Various |
10 Jan |
25 Jan |
100 |
Includes reviews of |
||||
DOPAMINE SUITE created and performed by Joan Baixas |
ICA |
15 Jan |
18 Jan |
107 |
FORGET ME NOT performed by Paka, presented by Black Hole |
Albany |
15 Jan |
30 Jan |
106 |
"MISS, DID IT HURT WHEN YOU FELL DOWN FROM HEAVEN?" presented by A2 |
ICA |
12 Jan |
14 Jan |
107 |
THE OVERCOAT by Nikolai Gogol, adapted by Morris Panych; Canadian Stage Co |
Barbican |
20 Jan |
24 Jan |
103 |
PANDORA 88 presented by Fabrik |
Purcell Room |
10 Jan |
12 Jan |
108 |
PLAN B presented by Compagnie 111 |
Queen Elizabeth Hall |
16 Jan |
18 Jan |
108 |
WHITE CABIN presented by Akhe |
Purcell Room |
14 Jan |
18 Jan |
105 |
Regions |
||||
8000M new play by Suspect Culture (text by David Greig) |
Glasgow, Tramway |
24 Jan | 7 Feb |
124 |
THE ENTERTAINER revival of the play by John Osborne |
Liverpool Playhouse |
16 Jan | 7 Feb |
110 |
GENEVA solo written and performed by Jane Arnfield |
Newcastle Playhouse |
8 Jan | 17 Jan |
109 |
A LIFE IN THE THEATRE revival of the play by David Mamet |
Edinburgh, Royal Lyceum |
10 Jan | 21 Jan |
123 |
THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE revival of the play by Jim Cartwright |
Manchester, Royal Exchange |
26 Jan | 21 Feb |
113 |
STILL LIFE revival of the third play in the Slab Boys trilogy by John Byrne |
Edinburgh, Traverse |
3 Jan | 25 Jan |
121 |
THÉRÈSE RAQUIN (MURDER BY THE SEINE) revival of the Émile Zola adaptation by Julia Bardsley |
Basingstoke, Haymarket |
27 Jan | 7 Feb |
120 |
TIME AND THE CONWAYS revival of the play by J.B. Priestley |
Richmond |
17 Jan |
24 Jan | 117 |
WATERS OF THE MOON revival of the play by N.C. Hunter |
Salisbury Playhouse |
23 Jan | 7 Feb |
118 |