Issue 05 - 2006
Prompt Corner 
One of the occasional dubious pleasures of being a critic is that of having one's cake and eating it. Arguably, one instance of this is the number of critics who decried Jez Butterworth's The Winterling for its allegedly comprehensive debt to Harold Pinter, but who did so having attended previews of the show because on its opening night they (like me, hence this abbreviated column) were in Turin for the events surrounding the presentation of the Europe Theatre Prize to... Harold Pinter. Most conspicuously, Michael Billington wrote that Pinter's "distinctive voice is currently reverberating through British drama in ways that begin to worry me", though it didn't seem to worry him enough to raise the issue in the Pinter symposia he chaired or the interview he conducted with the great man.
Readiness
Clearly, this isn't a black-and-white issue, and what reviewers are expressing reservations about is not the mere fact of Pinterian influence, but its supposed extent. Even so, how can we on the one hand praise Pinter for having fundamentally remade the language and landscape of drama and on e other condemn Butterworth for having taken that on board? (For the acknowledged debt has never been in doubt; on the contrary, Pinter himself felt enough of a connection with Butterworth's writing to take a part in the film version of his first play Mojo.) Indeed, is the extent of influence even as great as we perceive it? Synchronicities, strange connections, currents and echoes - whether of literary influence or, say, the occurrence of a lucky number - are to a considerable extent dependent on our readiness to spot them, whether they "are" "really" there or not. It's easy to parody the more Pinterian moments in The Winterling (as, I admit, I was doing after the performance I saw belatedly, with another critic who shall remain nameless, when director Ian Rickson came upon us... oops); once attuned to that frequency, it takes more effort to hear the more characteristically Butterworthian tones familiar from Mojo. What I find worrying is the word that, as a result of the reviews reprinted herein, Butterworth is considering giving up playwriting, which only a couple of weeks ago he was speaking of as the most satisfying avenue of his writing career. It's no skin off his nose financially - he apparently earns a comfortable living as a movie script-doctor - but the rest of us could end up much the poorer if he does leave theatre. That's no reason to go easy on him, or on anyone; but it is, after all, our job to look further into these works. As it is, the only review printed here that doesn't use the P-word is Mark Shenton's Sunday Express paragraph, and that's only 36 words long.
Guilt
Similarly with Mark Ravenhill's The Cut, criticised on the one hand for an allegedly excessive debt to Pinter's more recent political works, and on the other for lacking the specificity of those works' imagery. People seem to find the metaphor of the cut itself unsatisfyingly vague. Well, who says it is a metaphor? Surely it is a more general symbol or emblem. Charles Spencer comes close, I think, when he says he thinks it symbolises "almost anything liberal, western audiences might feel troubled about". But I think there's more to it than that. The character John is eager to be cut, evidently seeing it as a kind of absolution, validation, even liberation; the uncut, led by Ian McKellen's torturer (who, especially on Paul Wills' authoritarian-majestic set, reminded me inescapably of Michael Palin's half-scrupulous torturer in Terry Gilliam's film Brazil), are racked by various worries and guilts. This suggests to me that the cut is an emblem of such guilt, such conscience itself, rather than any nexus of issues which might excite such feelings. Those who are cut, conform; those who do the cutting (in the widest sense - those of their social and political class) define conformity. The cut is explicitly a mechanism of social pacification employed in parallel with programmes of imprisonment and "re-education" in universities. The play seems to me to portray the world as bleakly divided between those who collude in its various atrocities through wilful ignorance or because of a reassuring sense of belonging, and those who administer the various programmes in full knowledge (or reasonable suspicion) of what they are doing. In this reading, it is about the luxury, and in many ways also the sterility, of guilt or compassion. It's a kind of consideration that is in scant evidence among the reviews; have we, then, already been "reeducated" at our own various universities into not seeing ourselves too readily in such dramatic mirrors, or have we already been cut without our even noticing it?
And finally...
Ian S, to the reviewer sitting in front of him at Pete & Dud: Come Again (in a reference to one of their most famously filthy Derek & Clive routines): "'Ere, what's the worst job you ever 'ad?"
The other reviewer (name withheld): "Sitting through that Jeremy Irons thing [Embers] last week."
At the Back
Can You Hear Me In Turin?
The tenth Europe Theatre Prize was duly handed over in Turin last week to Harold Pinter, in a flurry of theatre-related events that provided stiff competition to the Winter Paralympics that were also taking place in the neighbourhood. That Pinter had made it to the event, after a period of troubling ill-health, was in part a tribute to the city and its Teatro Stabile, which had offered him the post of artistic director a few years back and was now the generous host of the weekend's festivities. That generosity attracted over 300 critics and journalists from all over the world: they should have found plenty to write about.
Obituary
Early arrivals were able to warm up at the congress of the International Association of Theatre Critics, which preceded the Prize ceremonies. Its own public event was a colloquium on The End of Criticism? Note the question mark - of course a room full of critics were not going to write their own obituary notice. Nikolai Pesochinsky from St Petersburg challenged the whole idea of subjectivity in criticism: it's all very well to pride ourselves on our personal view, but unless it is informed by a serious competence in performance analysis, it's not much use. Maria Helena Serôdio from Portugal put the point of view of the academic critic, citing the impact of her own new periodical Sinais de Cena, which is a model of the lively and informed specialist theatre journals which exist around the world, though not, sadly, in Britain. The role of the newspaper critic was strongly defended by the Boss himself. "Today, even though we often find ourselves competing for attention with the most vapid ephemera, we are also engaged in a much more dynamic exchange of views and ideas. We no longer pronounce and judge: we argue, advocate and advise. And we listen when others do likewise. We help explain culture to itself, not as part of a debate within a citadel, but within the totality of the ongoing national and global conversation," concluded Ian Shuttleworth.
Credentials
An almost apocalyptic note was struck by the final contributor, Porter Anderson of CNN, who is developing a 24-hour online cultural strand for the news channel. Far from bemoaning the end of criticism he looked forward to a new, informed, global network of critics, to match the explosion of events that the web will bring to our screens.
All four speakers stressed the need for ratification: the reader's right to know just who is mouthing off, be it in a newspaper column or in a weblog, and what their credentials are. It gives a real impetus to the work of the International Association, whose next congress - a special meeting in Seoul in October to celebrate its fiftieth birthday - will be considering how critics should react to the very different approaches to theatre now springing up around the world. (You can read all four papers, and get information about Seoul, on the Association's website www.aict-iatc.org.
Labyrinth
There was plenty of theatre in Turin to exercise the visiting critics. Local hero Luca Ronconi had produced no fewer than five new pieces as a contribution to the Cultural Olympics. I ducked out of his five-hour Troilus And Cressida, but found a strong stylistic cleanliness - and, alas, little else - in two of his other presentations. Biblioetica looked at questions of medical ethics by taking its spectators through a laboratory-like labyrinth, in which actor-scientists presented somewhat lifeless extracts from their treatises, while The Silence Of The Communists moved its audience to and fro across the work's three sets as they listened to three (very long) letters from survivors about the decline of what was once Italy's strongest ideological party.
Tropes
More lively work came from the troupe of Lithuania's Oskaras Korsunovas, who brought an adaptation of The Master And Margarita as well as the Presnyakovs' Playing The Victim. Korsunovas has a distinct style, full of visual gags and supported by a gifted group of actors, but suffers from that annoying tendency to ensure we have got his clever point by repeating it beyond tolerance. Thus the tropes that illuminated his Bulgakov took so long that he had to omit the entire section dealing with Woland's Moscow theatre debut, my favourite section of the book.
Korsunovas was joint winner of the lesser but very important Europe Prize for New Realities, intended to pick out the future candidates for the major prize. His co-winner was Josef Nadj, from the Hungarian community in Serbia's province of Vojvodina, who works most of his time in France. We were not able to see a live example of his work in Turin, but fans of the London Mime Festival know him well. This year he is the big draw in Avignon.
Torturers
But the man we had all come to see was Harold Pinter. His work was celebrated in a performance led by a grand old man of French theatre, Roger Planchon. His idea of putting together all the short blasts against totalitarianism and loss of personal freedom that have dripped from Pinter's pen over a number of years since the appropriate 1984 came off very well. When you have met the torturers of One For The Road and Mountain Language, and the urbane security man-turned-Minister of Culture giving his Press Conference, the smooth, wittering neo-cons of Party Time suddenly come into horrific focus. Some found this show too rough at the edges; I was amazed at what had been achieved in just ten days' work. The usual crowd of admirers from academe and journalism were there to add their praises in a Pinter symposium, most of it easy enough to miss, but with the occasional lively moment.
Prophecy
The prize-giving gala was followed by a series of Pinter readings from a glittering cast, directed by Alan Stanford: Penelope Wilton, Charles Dance, Michael Gambon and Jeremy Irons. The great man himself gave a suitably feisty acceptance speech. But the event's highlight was the long interview he gave to Michael Billington, his biographer. He talked of his plays and poetry, of the impact of the Nobel Prize for literature, and above all of his loathing for the US - not for the American people, but for the leaders overt and covert who have controlled what he sees as the United States' murderous imperialist policy in Latin America and the Middle East. His warning that it might extend to Europe might seem hysterical, but time and again Pinter's "hysteria" has come to be seen as prophecy. Perhaps it is not surprising that this Cassandra of the left has had little recognition recently for his achievements - did you hear anything on the BBC about his Nobel, or see any 75th birthday celebration at the National or the Royal Court? Not surprising, indeed - but rather shameful.
Obituary
The next winners of the Europe Prizes for Theatre and New Realities were decided in secret in Turin, but where they will be honoured is not yet clear. The local team so enjoyed the event that they would stage it again, but the Prize's tireless organiser, Alessandro Martinez, has other enticing invitations in his in-tray.
Contents / Reviews
London |
||||
AS YOU LIKE IT Revival of play by Shakespeare (RSC) |
Novello |
7 Mar |
25 Mar |
254 |
BEDROOM FARCE Revival of play by Alan Ayckbourn |
Upstairs at the Gatehouse |
23 Feb |
19 Mar |
234 |
THE BEST OF FRIENDS Revival of play by Hugh Whitemore |
Hampstead |
9 Mar |
1 Apr |
262 |
BLACKWATER ANGEL New play by Jim Nolan |
Finborough |
3 Mar |
25 Mar |
250 |
THE CUT New play by Mark Ravenhill |
Donmar |
28 Feb |
1 Apr |
228 |
DOCTOR FAUSTUS / THE DEVIL IS AN ASS Revival of plays by Christopher Marlowe I Ben Jonson |
White Bear |
2 Mar |
26 Mar |
248 |
EMBERS New play by Christopher Hampton, adapted from novel by Sándor Márai |
Duke Of York's |
1 Mar |
|
235 |
THE GRUFFALO'S CHILD New adaptation of book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler |
Pleasance |
8 Mar |
26 Mar |
270 |
GUERNICA New play by Yiannis Lamdas Lymtsioulis, translated by Anton Juan (Theatre Lab) |
Oval House |
7 Mar |
25 Mar |
256 |
MACBETH Revival of play by Shakespeare (Community20) |
Theatro Technis |
22 Feb |
18 Mar |
232 |
THE ODYSSEY Revival of adaptation by David Farr from Homer |
Lyric Hammersmith |
1 Mar |
1 Apr |
240 |
PETE AND DUD: COME AGAIN New play by Chris Bartlett and Nick Awde |
Venue |
7 Mar |
|
251 |
POET No 7 New play by Ben Ellis |
Theatre 503 |
2 Mar |
18 Mar |
241 |
PRIVATE PEACEFUL Return of Simon Reade adaptation from Michael Morpurgo |
Trafalgar Studio 2 |
28 Feb |
25 Mar |
233 |
RESURRECTION BLUES New play by Arthur Miller |
Old Vic |
2 Mar |
22 Apr |
242 |
THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY Revival of play by Thomas Middleton, in new adaptation by Meredith Oakes Southwark Playhouse |
10 Mar |
25 Mar |
|
269 |
SINATRA AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM New music/dance/film piece |
Palladium |
8 Mar |
|
257 |
TABOOS (WHEN HARRIET MET SALLY) New play by Carl Djerassi |
New End |
28 Feb |
2 Apr |
239 |
THE TEMPEST Revival of play by Shakespeare (Zecora Ura) |
Greenwich Playhouse |
9 Mar |
2 Apr |
268 |
TWO-WAY MIRROR Revival of double bill by Arthur Miller |
Courtyard at Covent Garden |
2 Mar |
2 Apr |
249 |
THE WINTERLING New play by Jez Butterworth |
Royal Court |
9 Mar |
8 Apr |
266 |
YEAR 10 Return of new play by Simon Vinnicombe |
BAC |
3 Mar |
19 Mar |
253 |
Regions |
|
|
|
|
BROKEN GLASS Revival of play by Arthur Miler |
Bolton, Octagon |
3 Mar |
25 Mar |
280 |
THE CRUCIBLE Revival of play by Arthur Miller |
Stratford, Royal Shakespeare |
1 Mar |
18 Mar |
273 |
FAUST parts 1 and 2 Revival of play(s) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in new adaptation by John Clifford Edinburgh, Royal Lyceum |
2 Mar |
8 April |
|
280 |
I, KEANO New musical by Arthur Mathews, Michael Nugent and Paul Woodfull |
Salford, Lowry |
28 Feb |
11 Mar |
276 |
THE LONG AND THE SHORT AND THE TALL Revival of the play by Willis Hall |
Sheffield, Lyceum |
1 Mar |
11 Mar |
277 |
ONE LAST CARD TRICK New play by Stewart Permutt |
Watford Palace |
2 Mar |
18 Mar |
279 |
PRINCE UNLEASHED New play by Robert Forrest |
Glasgow, Gilmorehill G12 |
9 Mar |
10 Mar |
283 |
SEE HOW THEY RUN Revival of play by Philip King |
Richmond / touring |
1 Mar |
4 Mar |
278 |
THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY Revival of adaptation by Phyllis Nagy from novel by Patricia Highsmith |
Dundee Rep |
8 Mar |
25 Mar |
282 |
THREE SISTERS Revival of play by Mustapha Matura from Anton Chekhov |
Birmingham Rep |
28 Feb |
4 Feb |
277 |
UP ON ROOF New play by Richard Bean |
Hull Truck |
3 Mar |
25 Mar |
279 |