Issue 3 - 2004
Prompt Corner 
Paul Taylor's review of the Paradise Losts in this issue alludes glancingly to the following subject, but I'm going to have my twopenn'orth anyway.
I'll wager that most of the reviewers who appear on these pages have repeatedly experienced that chilling moment when, on meeting someone at a party or in some other casual setting, they've been asked, "So what's good that's on at the moment, then?" or "What's the best thing you've seen lately?" Obviously, giving a general opinion on shows is one of the principal things we do. Yet when it comes down to such a naked, direct context of this versus that, we tend to feel that comparisons, as (we are regularly reminded) Dogberry remarks in Much Ado About Nothing, are odorous.
Nevertheless, every time I'm asked such a question, I find myself actually stopping and thinking about it, out of a frankly stupid impulse to try to be genuinely helpful. The most helpful response of all would be to enlighten one's interlocutor as to their inanity by spluttering, "Good? What do you mean, good? And 'best THING'? Best writing, performance, direction, emotional heft, social trenchancy, what? And what are your criteria? I've only just met you; I know nothing about you; how in God's name do you expect me to rattle off a pat answer that will chime perfectly with your preferences?"... all the while gently encouraging them to consider such matters before speaking in future by belabouring them about the head and neck with a broken bottle. But rightly or wrongly (perhaps both), people don't do such things. And so the blithe questioning persists.
Sexy
Which is all fair enough until such a mentality starts to impinge on the business of reviewing itself. When separate productions of the same play crop up at around the same time, it's generally looked on by editors as a welcome opportunity to make theatre reviewing appear sexy. After all, if television ratings battles and movie box-office slugfests can be reported in those confrontational terms, why not plays? A couple of years back, I was enticed by a seedy bloke hanging around a theatre door to write a "big match"-style piece for the Sun, comparing Madonna in Up For Grabs with Gwyneth Paltrow in Proof. (Fortunately, my article turned out too lucid to be printable.)
Of course it makes for superficially attractive coverage... for heaven's sake, look at the front and back covers of this very issue. But that layout, I admit, is a matter of blatant opportunism laced with (I hope, evident) self-parody, and I'm not pretending for a moment that it signifies anything deeper.
For the crucial difference is that anyone can see "competing" TV programmes just by hitting a button, or "rival" movies quite possibly in the same multiplex. But who, frankly, is going to travel to both Bristol and Northampton to see different productions of Paradise Lost? Oh, the reviewers are, certainly. But, outside of us and a handful of others in the theatrical profession, nobody else is going to burn up the arterial roads across country or brave the rail service of "a leading entrepreneur" (© David Hare) to do a compare-and-contrast. What most readers with a direct interest want to know is what the production is like in the venue they can reach more easily.
Plainly, by no means every reader is within a geographical catchment area or is reading with a specific view to advice about ticket purchases. Consequently, such comparisons can still be valuable on an essayistic level... as long as one isn't pressed to come down, ultimately, in favour of one production or the other. That reduces the whole business to the level of the old TV talent show where the panel used to mark contestants out of ten on Presentation, Content and Star Quality, whatever that was. But as sure as bust follows boom, that's what happens: we're gently but unambiguously nudged to declare which is "better".
Have... cake... eat
Which is better? How the hell can we say? Do we know whether you, dear reader - you individually - would prefer a conventionally dramatic adaptation of Milton's poem à la Northampton or a more impressionistic meditation in the Bristol manner? The theology (Northampton) or the human yearnings (Bristol)? A traditional rendering of A Doll's House, as offered in Birmingham and on tour, or a cheeky, often over-the-top update of Ibsen, with allusions to Lara Croft and musical flavour of the month N*E*R*D, as purveyed by the Berlin Schaubühne production that visited the Barbican? (On the last point, at any rate, my FT colleague Alastair Macaulay is unambiguous as ever. Ian Herbert, in the back of this issue, agrees with him; I don't.) ...Oh, and by the way, notice also the limits of this confected competition: nobody bothered to incorporate the third Doll's House of that week, Dale Theater Kompani's revival of their version at the Rosemary Branch in Islington, presumably on the grounds that the contenders in the red and the blue corners must at least look as if they're punching at more or less the same weight. Shame.
Naturally, just as in the matter of Theatre Record's front cover, the words "have", "cake" and "eat" spring to mind here. As critics, we like it to be appreciated (though we're too discreet to mention it too often or too openly ourselves) that our opinions are founded on our supposed knowledge, experience and general thoughtfulness, both in specific terms of theatre and in broader contexts; yet we're equally adamant that all we can offer are opinions, and that the moment someone pretends to offer an objective judgement is the moment they disqualify themselves as a meaningful, considered reviewer. The rules of the game require us every day to indicate whether productions are "good", or "better" than one another, whilst ostensibly disdaining to make such evaluations. It's like conducting a cultural discourse on lobby terms.
But don't quote me on that.
Ian Shuttleworth
At the Back
It'll take a while to settle into being Theatre Record's number two critic - a distinguished position which will probably make mine the first name on the tenth night press list for most theatres. I've already lost my invite to the Oliviers, although recent revelations, which have confirmed the suggestion I made last year that these awards are now somewhat tarnished, have eased the pain.
Quite understandably, the other Ian has been cherry-picking for this issue, which leaves me to comment on a few shows which he has seen and a couple which he hasn't. I can't say that my return after a month's reviewing leave was marked by anything world-shattering. The fashion of the moment, as exemplified in One Minute and Headstone, seems to be to approach violent issues at a discreet, cool tangent. Simon Stephens' play barely alludes to the fact that its action (such as it is) springs from a child's abduction, later and equally casually revealed to be a murder. Key relationships, such as that of the child's parents, are ignored in favour of exploring minor characters - two women on the periphery of events, two policemen seen at work but not investigating the crime. This seems to be the result of the play's roots in improvisation, and perhaps also from director Gordon Anderson's being at work at the same time on Roland Schimmelpfennig's equally tangential but far more interesting Arabian Night. Several critics were very taken with One Minute. I felt short-changed.
Left unsaid
I had a similar reaction to Rhiannon Tyse's Headstone, which had a couple of fine performances, notably that of Louisa Milford-Haigh, but left far too much unsaid. Its one innovation, a black racist, was I suspect a result of fortuitous casting rather than the script. Maybe its showing at the Arcola affected its rather generous reception.
The same goes for Marcos Barbosa's two thin slices of Brazilian life, touching ever so gingerly on a casual killing (Almost Nothing - indeed) and a nest of paedophilia (At The Table). The only real difference between the episodes was that Mark O'Thomas's translation was impossibly stilted in the first, yet fluently actable in the second.
At least this subtlety was preferable to the four-square exposition of a predictable conflict in Anthony Melnikoff's Allport's Revenge at the Finborough. The evening's only dramatic interest lay in watching the distracting progress of a trickle of blood across Rachel Payne's clean white set in the second act.
My one major outing was to Thomas Ostermeier's meretricious assault on A Doll's House at the Barbican. All I want to say about this silly, design-heavy production has been said very well already by Alastair Macaulay. I'd just reaffirm that Ostermeier's 'contemporary' updating makes no sense whatever, and never could unless its Nora becomes a devout Muslim - or the wife of an orthodox Jew, which in the play's banking context might be interesting. Instead, Ostermeier's noisy superficiality tramples completely over the fascinating series of moral dilemmas posed by Ibsen's carefully layered plotting. Oh, and the school audience loved it.
Surprisingly lively
Last week saw the second edition of the International Theatre Institute's Theatre Forum. It's intended as an annual, public enquiry into where British theatre is and where it's going, but since this wasn't made clear by the organisers a rather bewildered group turned up at the Soho theatre to discuss Making Theatre Strategies Work, a topic which even the meeting's very efficient chairman, Peter Longman of the Theatres Trust, had to admit he didn't understand. In the circumstances, the discussion was surprisingly lively, although the bodies one would have liked to see at such a reckoning were absent - no-one from the Arts Council, ITC, SOLT or the DCMS. Perhaps if someone explains the purpose of the day more clearly they'll be back next year.
Those who were there took the opportunity to plug their own activities, which seems perfectly proper. There was a strong contingent from the amateur theatre, so that we heard much about the Little Theatre Guild and the National Operatic and Dramatic Association, including the ominous news that amateur theatre in Scotland is about to lose its central funding. Children's theatres made their presence felt, with Richard Shannon of Polka reminding us that children are not "tomorrow's audience" - they're here now, and demanding the best.
Several speakers, including the Nuffield's Patrick Sandford and theatre consultant Michael Holden, remarked on the gulf between working theatre practitioners and box-ticking administrators, both sides bedevilled by problems of disability access, marketing plans and health and safety requirements. Critic Mark Shenton mentioned a small arts centre which had put on "the worst Christmas show I've ever seen", yet boasted a staff of 39 mostly non-theatrical. At a time when Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has been drawing attention to some astronomical over-runs in expensive Lottery-funded projects, the feeling of the forum was very much a nostalgic longing for the days when committed theatre people were able to achieve a lot on minimal subsidy backed by maximum commitment, and there were several references to the increasing tendency for good theatre to happen in found spaces rather than the expensive new ones the Lottery has built. But it would be mean to be ungrateful for such largesse - the forum was happy to accept the suggestion from the TMA's Kathleen Hamilton that we "celebrate our diversity".
Ian Herbert
Contents / Reviews
London |
||||
ALLPORT'S REVENGE play by Anthony Melnikoff |
Finborough |
5 Feb |
28 Feb |
147 |
ALMOST NOTHING / AT THE TABLE two short plays by Marcus Barbosa, tr. Mark O'Thomas |
Royal Court Upstairs |
9 Feb |
28 Feb |
154 |
BARTLEBY revival of piece adapted from Herman Melville by Jonathan Holloway (Red Shift) |
Greenwich |
5 Feb |
7 Feb |
162 |
THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA adaptation by Roger Parsley of the novel byHanif Kureishi (Snap TC) |
Watermans |
5 Feb |
14 Feb |
149 |
CALCUTTA KOSHER new play by Shelley Silas (Kali TC) |
Southwark Playhouse |
5 Feb |
28 Feb |
148 |
CHANGE OF HEART play by Rosemary Friedman |
New End |
9 Feb |
6 Mar |
145 |
CRAVE revival of Sarah Kane play (Liquid Theatre) |
BAC 2 |
5 Feb |
22 Feb |
143 |
THE DICE HOUSE play by Paul Lucas, based on the novel the Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart |
Arts |
10 Feb |
12 Mar |
159 |
A DOLL'S HOUSE revival of play by Henrik Ibsenadap. Terje Tveit (Dale Teater) |
Rosemary Branch |
11 Feb |
7 Mar |
165 |
A DOLL'S HOUSE - NORA revival of play by Henrik Ibsen (Berlin Schaubühne) |
Barbican |
11 Feb |
15 Feb |
165 |
EDGE transfer of play by Paul Alexander (p47) |
Kings Head |
4 Feb |
13 Mar |
144 |
FAMILY MATTERS libretto by Amanda Holden, music by various composers (Tête À Tête) |
Bridewell |
9 Feb |
22 Feb |
157 |
THE GOAT, or WHO IS SYLVIA? play by Edward Albee |
Almeida |
3 Feb |
13 Mar |
134 |
HEADSTONE play by Rhiannon Tyse (Y Touring) |
Arcola |
4 Feb |
21 Feb |
146 |
THE LESSON revival of Eugene Ionesco play, tr. Donald Watson |
White Bear (1 week); Etcetera |
3 Feb |
29 Feb |
162 |
A LITTLE GRAIN OF SAND play by ChristopheAllwright tr. Ros Schwartz (Runaway TC) |
White Bear |
11 Feb |
29 Feb |
161 |
NAPOLEON IN EXILE devised and written by CPT |
Drill Hall 1 |
7 Feb |
28 Feb |
163 |
THE ODDEST COUPLE comedy revival scripted by Geoff Aymer for Eddie Nestor and Robbie Gee |
T R Stratford E15 |
9 Feb |
28 Feb |
162 |
ONE MINUTE play by Simon Stephens (ATC) |
Bush |
6 Feb |
28 Feb |
150 |
PLAY THIS new play by Ezra Godden |
Hen & Chickens |
4 Feb |
28 Feb |
163 |
SEMBLANCE OF MADNESS play by John H Newmeir |
Etcetera |
29 Jan |
15 Feb |
164 |
SLAVA'S SNOWSHOW clown show with Slava Polunin |
Hackney Empire |
29 Jan |
31 Jan |
152 |
THICK AS THIEVES new comedy by Mark Whiteley |
Blue Elephant |
11 Feb |
28 Feb |
156 |
WHAT ELSE? new piece written and performed by PatriziaPaolini |
Oval House |
5 Feb |
21 Feb |
153 |
THE WINDMILL play by Gloria Tessler on the life of Peter Kien |
Union |
29 Jan |
14 Feb |
164 |
Regions |
||||
| ALL MY SONS revival of the play by Arthur Miller | Manchester, Library | 9 Feb |
13 Mar |
177 |
| THE CRUCIBLE revival of the play by Arthur Miller | Sheffield, Crucible | 10 Feb |
28 Feb |
180 |
| DEAD FUNNY revival of the play by Terry Johnson | St Andrews, Byre | 5 Feb |
14 Feb |
188 |
DEATH OF A SALESMAN revival of the play by Arthur Miller |
Edinburgh, Royal Lyceum |
7 Feb |
6 Mar |
187 |
A DOLL'S HOUSE revival of the play by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Bryony Lavery |
Birmingham Rep (then touring) |
3 Feb |
14 Feb |
167 |
KNIVES IN HENS revival of the play by David Harrower |
Manchester, Royal Exchange |
5 Feb |
21 Feb |
177 |
LIFE'S A BEACH new play by Alison Watt |
Hull Truck |
30 Jan |
14 Feb |
175 |
LITTLE MALCOLM AND HIS STRUGGLE AGAINST THE EUNUCHS revival of the play by DavidHalliwell |
Bolton, Octagon |
30 Jan |
21 Feb |
175 |
MACBETH revival of the play by William Shakespaeare |
Bristol, Tobacco Factory |
6 Feb |
22 Apr |
178 |
MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN revival of the play by Bertolt Brecht, adap.Oladipo Agoluaje |
Nottingham Playhouse (then touring) |
10 Feb |
21 Feb |
182 |
NIGHTINGALE AND CHASE REVIVAL OF THE PLAY BY Zinnie Harris |
Glasgow, Citizens, Stalls Studio |
5 Feb |
28 Feb |
185 |
PARADISE LOST adapted by Ben Power from the poem by John Milton |
Northampton, Royal |
3 Feb |
14 Feb |
170 |
PARADISE LOST adapted by David Farr from the poem by John Milton |
Bristol Old Vic |
3 Feb |
21 Feb |
170 |
SMOKING WITH LULU revival of the play by Janet Munsil |
Glasgow, Citizens, Circle Studio |
6 Feb |
28 Feb |
186 |
SWEENEY TODD revival of the musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler |
Newbury, Watermill |
9 Feb |
27 Mar |
178 |
TOP GIRLS revival of the play by Caryl Churchill |
Glasgow, Citizens, Main Theatre |
7 Feb |
28 Feb |
186 |
THE WINTER'S TALE revival of the play by William Shakespeare |
Oxford, Spiegeltent @ BMW Plant |
11 Feb |
3 Apr |
179 |
THE WOODEN FROCK adapted by Tom Morris and Emma Rice from original sources |
Leeds WYP Courtyard |
4 Feb |
14 Feb |
176 |