Sub Menu

Other

 

issue 4, 2007

Prompt Corner

I recently interviewed David Lan about the Young Vic's reopening. He waxed enthusiastic (and relieved) about the success of the first two productions in the rebuilt main house, before adding, "But I'm aware that success is only disaster deferred, so the next one's going to be disaster, and that's mine!" Well, many a true word's spoken in jest, although "disaster' is a bit strong. But certainly, few reviewers have found much to say in favour of The Soldiers' Fortune. Lizzie Clachan's design shows off the flexibility of the new space, from a faux-proscenium arch to a pit stage right, but at the expense of making a playable space: the pros stage is too far back to connect with the audience, the bulk of the action makes no sense being played on a set of steps, and when the scene shifted to a Turkish bath on the semi-subterranean level I stopped trying to watch the action and instead observed a good third of the stalls audience trying to peer over or round all those steps to see even a tiny bit of what was going on. Thomas Otway wrote comedy with the skill of a man best remembered as a tragedian, and Lan's production tries to find a style that will accommodate text, modern expectations and that damned set, and fails. (One invalid criticism, however, is contained in Rhoda Koenig's Independent review. A couple of issues back I disagreed with her about the American accents used by the cast of Bash. That was a matter of opinion; on the subject of Kananu Kirimi's allegedly American accent here, I'm afraid Rhoda is simply wrong in fact. What she heard were the strong R's of a West of Scotland accent: Kirimi comes from that part of the Atlantic coast where the Skye road bridge touches the mainland.)

Pillock

However, I merely failed to be gripped by The Soldier's Fortune, whereas The Man Of Mode had made me actively furious. I didn't have space last issue to fulminate on Nicholas Hytner's production, so let me take this opportunity to do so now. Its updatings struck me as reinforcing the play's joke about modishness without being in on that joke: like Sir Fopling Flutter himself, the production cavorts around gorgeously, believing itself at the contemporary cutting edge, when it simply looks like a big pillock. Between that, the unintelligibility of many actors' delivery and my increasing boredom with being flashed assorted bits (the left-hand side of the auditorium is the place for genitalia fans to sit), I came closer to leaving at the interval than I have in many months.

Altogether more scrupulously managed is Richard Eyre's production of The Reporter round the comer in the Cottesloe. It's a beautifully assembled production, pitch perfect. Yet its refusal to overstate a single thing means also that it does not "sell" a play which perhaps could do with a little more push. As virtually every review mentions, James Mossman's suicide note said, "I can't bear it any more, though I don't know what 'it' is." I emerged from the theatre with no more idea what author Nicholas Wright's "it" is. I could have written 5000 words on various aspects of individual scenes: compare-and-contrast with today's current affairs reportage and political interviewing, or the portrayal of gay relationships, or Spiritualism, or heaven knows what-all. But they don't add up to a play. Wright's dramatic investigation of Mossman's death is as reserved as the protagonist it portrays. Indeed, it takes this reserve to unintentional extremes: nowhere in the play or the programme is the date of Mossman's death directly stated. Wright is candid that the play is at least as much speculation as it is biography, but nevertheless one might reasonably expect it to get around to some precision regarding its very raison d'être.

Dissenting

Many apologies to Simon Edge, whose Daily Express review of Boeing Boeing went astray during page layout; it will be printed next issue. It's all the more unfortunate since Simon's review is a dissenting voice from the almost universal gurgles of delight; the only other unsatisfied reviewer is Metro's Zena Alkayat (AA Gill, as ever, doesn't count). After the Express's unceremonious dumping of Sheridan Morley – partly to save money by having in-house hacks write the reviews, partly (according to Private Eye magazine) because Sheridan had the temerity not to love The Sound Of Music – Simon deserves a better welcome than to have one of his pieces mislaid. It's bad enough that, even though the paper now refers to him as its theatre critic and he certainly knows what he's talking about, his editor seems insist on sending Paul Callan to all the really juicy openings. Anyway, as regards the missing review, nostra culpa.

And since there are no formal awards to announce this issue, here are a few alternatives...

• Casual, flawlessly inserted barb of the fortnight – Nicholas de Jongh on Richard Schiff in Underneath The Lintel: "He speaks in what may be an attempt at a Dutch accent."
  
  
• Casual homophobia of the fortnight – Quentin Letts (who may, like the Brazilian football team with the Jules Rimet Trophy, have to be given the award in perpetuity) on The Reporter. "File this one under 'G' for 'Gay Suicide'."
  
  
• Opening paragraph designed to give a moment of panic to any proofreader not following the content closely enough: Brian Logan's review of This Is A Chair. Brian, don't do that to me!

Ian Shuttleworth | ian@theatrerecord.com

Back to top

At the Back

No "At the Back" this issue

Back to top

Contents / Reviews

Reviewed in issue 4 - 2007
London
BOEING-BOEING Revival of play by Marc Camoletti	Comedy	15 Feb		178
DIANA OF DOBSON'S Revival of play by Cicely Hamilton	Orange Tree	16 Feb	17 Mar	183
FERDYDURKE Revival of play by Witold Gombrowicz (Teatr Provisorium)	Bloomsbury	13 Feb	17 Feb	172
GHOSTS Revival of play by Henrik Ibsen	Pentameters	20 Feb	10 Mar	193
THE GLASS MENAGERIE Revival of play by Tennessee Williams	Apollo	13 Feb		168
I LIKE MINE WITH A KISS New play by Georgia Fitch	Bush	16 Feb	17 Mar	185
JIMEOIN Comedy show	Soho	22 Feb	3 Mar	186
JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN Revival of play by Henrik Ibsen in new adaptation by David Eldridge	Donmar Warehouse	20 Feb	14 Apr	189
KEELER New play by Gill Adams, adapted from the autobiography of Christine Keeler	Upstairs at the Gatehouse	14 Feb	18 Mar	193
LOVE CHILD New play by Joanna Murray-Smith	Finborough	22 Feb	17 Mar	199
ON RAFTERY'S HILL Revival of play by Marina Carr (StageSpell TC)	Rosemary Branch	21 Feb	11 Mar	200
PECCADILLO CIRCUS Transfer of verbatim piece by Lizzie Roper	Trafalgar Studio 2	15 Feb	3 Mar	204
PROOF Revival of play by David Auburn (Birmingham Stage Co)	Arts	19 Feb	17 Mar	187
RAMAYANA New adaptation by David Farr	Lyric Hammersmith	14 Feb	10 Mar	173
THE REPORTER New play by Nicholas Wright (NT)	Cottesloe	21 Feb	2 Jun	194
SHIP OF FOOLS New play by Andrew Bovell	Theatre 503	20 Feb	10 Mar	200
THE SOLDIERS' FORTUNE Revival of play by Thomas Otway	Young Vic	22 Feb	31 Mar	201
STARS IN THE MORNING SKY Revival of play by Alexander Galin	Union SE1	15 Feb	3 Mar	184
STRASSMAN Ventriloquism show	Pleasance	13 Feb	4 Mar	177
THANKFULLY THERE IS MOONLIGHT! UK première of 1961 play by Sttau Monteiro	Greenwich Playhouse	15 Feb	11 Mar	188
THIS IS A CHAIR Revival of play by Caryl Churchill (The Boudoir Noir)	White Bear	20 Feb	11 Mar	167
UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL New play by Glen Berger	Duchess	12 Feb	14 Apr	164
Regions
ACQUA NERO New play by Meredydd Barker (Sgript Cymru)	Cardiff, Chapter Arts Centre	23 Feb	17 Mar	211
ARCADIA Revival of play by Tom Stoppard	Mold, Clwyd Theatr Cymru	13 Feb	3 Mar	210
THE BEVELLERS Revival of play by Roddy McMillan	Glasgow, Citizens	13 Feb	3 Mar	212
DOUBLE DEATH New play by Simon Williams	Reading, Mill at Sonning	20 Feb	31 Mar	211
ENJOY Revival of play by Alan Bennett	Watford Palace	12 Feb	3 Mar	209
FRENCH WITHOUT TEARS Revival of play by Terence Rattigan (English Touring Th)	Guildford, Yvonne Arnaud / touring	16 Feb	17 Feb	212
MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION Revival of play by Bernard Shaw	Edinburgh, Royal Lyceum	17 Feb	10 Mar	214
NOTHING LIKE THE SUN: THE SONNET PROJECT Musical works based on Shakespeare's Sonnets	Stratford, Courtyard / touring	24 Feb	25 Feb	209
RICHARD III – AN ARAB TRAGEDY Revival of play by Shakespeare, adapted by Sulayman al-Bassam	Stratford, Swan	13 Feb	17 Feb	207
THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE Revival of play by Jim Cartwright (Visible Fictions TC)	Paisley Arts Centre I touring	16 Feb	17 Feb	214
WHITER THAN SNOW New play by Mike Kenny (Birmingham Rep/Graeae)	Birmingham Rep, Door	19 Feb	24 Feb	210

Back to top