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issue 12, 2008

Prompt Corner

Sometimes quite basic matters of presentation and layout can cause unexpected headaches. You may have noticed that, often, when batches of shows are reviewed together by some critics and separately by others, Ruth lays out the separate reviews of the first play, then the joint pieces, and thence shades over into reviews of the second. This was recently the case, for instance, with the two quartets of RSC Histories at the Roundhouse. And that's all very well, but what happens when joint reviews straddle the divisions that mark each issue? Well, it can sometimes work. You'll see that in this issue, reviews of The Revengers Tragedy begin with the National Theatre production, shade into joint reviews and then to critiques of the Manchester revival. Consequently, I would be hard pressed to say exactly where the "London' section of this issue ends and the °Regions" section begins; but it makes sense as you read it. (Note also that the two productions even have different author credits, in line with the respective theatres' positions: the NT follows the current consensus that the play is by Thomas Middleton, whereas Manchester notes the change of opinion from attribution to Tourneur and coyty avoids actually coming down on one side or the other.)

And, following the closure of Gone With The Wind before we could report its end date, this issue records the closure of Dickens Unplugged before we could even reprint its reviews. I didn't see it myself and so can't pass an opinion, but Emma Smith's verdict in the Sunday Times strikes me as plausible: this kind of treatment, she says, was original first time out, when Adam Long and comrades did it to Shakespeare, but that was a while ago and now it's hackneyed thanks, in large part, to those very same guys.

Awkward

Differing perspectives crop up several times in the course of this issue. In his review of The Chalk Garden, Aleks Sierz dares to resist his colleagues' rush to laud the play's rediscovery and Enid Bagnold's idiosyncrasies of tone, continuing instead in the older orthodoxy that writing such as hers was washed away by Look Back In Anger and a good thing too. I have to say I reluctantly incline more towards Aleks's view. I'd like to be able to praise the play - as I can certainly praise Michael Grandage's production and virtually every performance in it (I think Aleks stints rather in this respect) - but the writing does strike me as really quite effortful, not at all the poised and polished cut gem that some claim. Not the least awkward aspect is its description as a comedy. It certainly contains a wealth of (self-consciously) witty lines, but its actual subject matter is markedly sober... without being so excessively strait-laced as to amount to parody or black comedy. If Bagnold cared about the events she depicted, she didn't do them the justice of gravity; if she didn't, that seems dubious in itself.

(To my mind, the greatest comedy surrounding The Chalk Garden is the aside in Tim Walker's review, in which he falls into the same trap as Jonathan Miller in deploring the casting of David Tennant as the RSC's next Hamlet, allegedly simply because he is a hot TV name. In fact Tennant has a long - for his age - and admired stage career including roles as Romeo and also as Jack Absolute in The Rivals for the RSC in 2000. This is a case where it is the self-appointed arbiters of high-cultural values who show themselves, in a delicious irony, to be the ignorant and narrow-minded ones.)

Irked

It is a cultural shift as a whole that disables Michael Frayn's Afterlife. Max Reinhardt, alas, is no longer intrinsically compelling enough for us to persist through a lengthy exploration of his life and psyche, with patterned allusions to and quotations from the mediaeval morality play Everyman. I was irked to hear the panel on BBC2's Newsnight Review (now the only mainstream British N programme prepared to take the arts seriously even for half an hour a week) all thoughtfully praise the concept and deliberation of Frayn's text - almost like opera, remarked one talking head - without deigning to notice that it simply doesn't work as drama. There's no drive to it.

However, the play did serve as the foundation for my own most unsettling moment of the fortnight... no mean achievement, in a period which also included Anthony Neilson's dark and disturbing Relocated. On the Tuesday night I watched Afterlife, with its scenes of David Schofield mingling at theatre director Reinhardt's parties before being revealed as, firstly, the subsequent Nazi Gauleiter of post-Anschluß Salzburg and, secondly, a surrogate of Death himself; on the Saturday night I went to a party thrown by theatre director Mike Bradwell to find, er, David Schofield mingling among the guests. Thankfully, neither jackboots nor scythe were produced as the evening progressed.

Rear

Sometimes the issue is perspective in a fundamental, literal sense. Nicholas de Jongh notes in passing in his review of Contractions that the production "performed in a Royal Court rehearsal room gives some audience members a permanent rear view of [Julia[ Davis." Conversely, others of us had a similarly limited view of the other actor, Anna Madeley, whose character is the one that undergoes the psychological journey in the piece. To choose a mode of staging where up to a third of the audience can't actually see this performance seems to me to be a mark either of foolishness or knavery: foolishness if director Lyndsey Turner missed something so basic, knavery if she noticed but carried on with the staging regardless, thus showing contempt for the audience. It's a headache arising from quite a basic matter of presentation and layout.

Ian Shuttleworth | ian@theatrerecord. com

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At the Back

Can You Hear Me At The Old Vic?

The Society for Theatre Research is 60 this year. It was formed at a public meeting in the bomb-damaged Old Vic on 15 June 1948 by a bunch of luminaries from both the profession and the fledgling world of theatre research, summoned by the editors of Theatre Notebook, which from its foundation in 1945 had been devoted to this new field: in 1948 there was only one British University theatre department at Bristol. No less a reporter than George Devine wrote about the new society in Theatre Notebook for January 1949, commenting that °There is no limit to its possible scope and practical usefulness except that which may be imposed by the indifference of the very people in whose interests it has been founded', namely the theatre community.

Its achievements over its sixty-year lifespan include the setting up of the umbrella organisation, the International Federation for Theatre Research; the insertion into the act which abolished the censorship powers of the Lard Chamberlain's Office of a clause which ensured that the good Lord's more positive function, as a repository of the script for every play given public performance, be continued by the British Library; and the creation, after a twelve-year campaign, of a dedicated Theatre Museum on its own site. More recently it has campaigned to save that Museum, and its failure to date is due in part to that indifference against which Devine so presciently warned.

Highlight

The highlight so far of the Society's Diamond Jubilee celebrations was the weekend of June 21-22, with a conference, Directions In Theatre Research, held at the National Theatres Archive, in a room from which delegates could see the Old Vic, followed next day by a garden party in the grounds of Garrick's beautifully restored Thames-side temple to Shakespeare. The conference was an opportunity to take stock. Today, well over a hundred University theatre courses are on offer, and theatre research has developed from the pastime of a few enthusiasts to a major source of thoroughly researched books and papers on every aspect of the field. If the Theatre Museum and its huge collection has taken a step out of the limelight, the value placed by the profession itself on preservation of its records is evidenced by the NT's splendidly equipped new archive, and a similar set-up in Stratford serving the RSC. This very journal, which was set up to ensure continuity of production information for the researchers of the future is now complemented by many better-funded (if less complete) production databases that use the full potential of IT and the web - something Theatre Record still cannot afford.

Conservatoires

The conference's first session looked at the need for the "conservatoires°, vocational training establishments like RADA or LAMDA, to gain access to funding by offering degrees, while the Universities that validate those degrees are more and more offering acting degrees of their own. Speakers included Michael Gaunt, deviser of several "conservatoire" courses, Ross Prior, responsible for one of the new degree acting courses, and Sophie Nield, with experience of both aspects in Central School's wide-ranging programme. There was general agreement that there is no comparison between the ten-hours-a-day, five-days-a-week intensity of the conservatoires' courses and the handful of lectures and workshops offered in the academic departments, although it was also acknowledged that god-given talent might mean that great actors could emerge from shorter courses, or even no training at all: it is ironic that there are far fewer courses available in either sector for directors, who might be reckoned to need even more instruction - many of them gain experience by being hired to direct conservatoire productions. It was because of this lack that the Directors' Guild helped set up Birkbeck College's respected MFA in Directing.

Which brings up a question of nomenclature: it would be madness for the two groups offering actor training to compete - rather they should work together to resist the inevitable cuts which will affect them both, in an area of training which has to be labour intensive at any level, and emphasise the different but real value of each. It would seem a good idea if conservatoire courses, which require so much more instructor input (something which is already acknowledged in a system which, we learned, already allocates 60% or even 100% more funding to such courses), should be distinguished from more basic BA courses by being called Bachelor (or even Master, as with Birkbeck) of Fine Arts. That the very concept of the conservatoire is in danger is shown by recent events in Scotland, where advanced courses at both RSAMD and Queen Margaret are under threat.

Fringe

The second session looked at research into an area which could be said to be as old as the Society, since the term "Fringe" came into being with the first Edinburgh Festival in 1948. In fact the problem of researching non-mainstream theatre, as shown by the first speaker, Colin Chambers, author of a history of the left-wing Unity Theatre, has always been with us. With fellow-panellists Trevor Griffiths and Susan Croft offering similar examples, he showed how difficult it was to reassemble material on companies that might keep poor records, and how dangerous it could be to rely on the oral evidence of participants. Research into the alternative scene was important, as it was often the training ground of people who went on to become major figures, and who might gloss over these humble beginnings. In the course of discussion it emerged that many of the new breed of theatre researchers were producing dissertations on alternative and live art groups, and that while PhD . theses were catalogued and kept, if seldom consulted, there was no such way of accessing even a subject index of MA dissertations. This problem needs to be addressed.

Future

The final group of speakers - Jim Davis, Tony Dunn, Jane Pritchard and Michael Read - looked at where research might go in the next sixty years. Both they and the wider conference came up with a host of proposals and ideas, some of which could make the basis for future STR campaigns. To float just a few of them:

• How do we encourage companies to preserve their archives (though Jane Pritchard would discourage too meticulous a policy, drawing the line at laundry lists)? Could we get one of the self-storage firms, for instance, to sponsor some Big Yellow Boxes where material that might otherwise be lost could be dumped to await future research and cataloguing?

• How do we ensure that research results are original and readable, unimpeded by jargon and excessive footnoting - the latter so often a proof of unoriginality?

• How do we get researchers to look at more than easy contemporary topics? Is reconstruction of past performances of value anyway? Have we lost our "collective memory'?

• Since a theatre performance involves much more than writing, shouldn't the results of research be more than written? What is the place of video recording, oral recollection and staged reconstruction in this most oral and visual area? (In a university sector where many graduates are increasingly incapable of writing English, the primacy of drama in fostering articulacy rather than literacy is of increasing importance.)

• When the number of applicants for places on University drama courses is well above average, and the rejection rate for conservatoires astronomical (Central has 3000 applicants for 35 places), why is the sector not using its undoubted popularity to demand more recognition and better funding?

And finally, a heartening thought: with the information revolution, sheer enthusiasts like those who started STR now have the means to do their research no less thoroughly than their academic colleagues.

Ian Herbert | ian@herbertknott.com

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Contents / Reviews

Reviewed in issue 12, 2008
London
AFTERLIFE New play by Michael Frayn	Lytlelton	10 Jun		674
THE CHALK GARDEN Revival of play by Enid Bagnold	Donmar	11 Jun	2 Aug	679
CONTRACTIONS New play by Mike Bartlett	Royal Court	4 Jun	14 Jun	661
DICKENS UNPLUGGED New musical by Adam Long based on the works of Charles Dickens	Comedy	9 Jun	29 Jun	668
DOV AND ALI New play by Anna Ziegler	Theatre 503	12 Jun	5 Jul	691
FAST LABOUR New play by Steve Waters (Hampstead/ WYP)	Hampstead	3 Jun	21 Jun	655
GOLDA'S BALCONY New play by Tovah Feldschuh	Shaw	10 Jun	28 Jun	688
THE HARDER THEY COME Transfer of revival of musical by Perry Henzell, based on his film	Playhouse	9 Jun		683
HYSTERIA New piece by Grupo XIX de Teatro (BITE08)	Great Hall, Bart's Hosp	4 Jun	14 Jun	667
LAST TRAIN TO NIBROC Revival of play by Arlene Hutton (Directors Showcase)	Orange Tree	6 Jun	21 Jun	657
LIPSTICK AND LOLLIPOPS New play by Charlie Swinboume (Deafnitely Th)	Drill Hall	10 Jun	21 Jun	673
LOVE New musical by Gist Om Garóarsson (Vesturport)	Lyric Hammersmith	3 Jun	21 Jun	658
MANY ROADS TO PARADISE New play by Stewart Permutt	Finborough	13 Jun	5 Jul	688
THE PENDULUM New play by Alexander Fiske-Harrison	Jermyn Street	5 Jun	28 Jun	687
THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE HEART New play by Simon Wu based on story by Eileen Zhang (Corax Prods) Etcetera	5 Jun	22 Jun		663
PROSE AND CONS New plays by various writers (UnionlKoestler Trust)	Union SE1	6 Jun	21 Jun	663
RELOCATED New play by Anthony Neilson	Royal Court Upstairs	13 Jun	5 Jul	689
THE REVENGERS TRAGEDY Revival of play ascribed to Thomas Middleton (NT)	Olivier	4 Jun		694
ROMEO AND JULIET Revival of play by Shakespeare	Open Air	9 Jun	2 Aug	671
SAIL AWAY Revival of musical by Noël Coward (Lost Musicals)	Lilian Baylis	15 Jun	13 Jul	685
SATURDAY NIGHT New play by Zoe Simon (Skin & Bone)	White Bear	3 Jun	22 Jun	678
...SISTERS New piece by Chris Goode, based on Anton Chekhov (Gate/Headlong)	Gate	11 Jun	5 Jul	684
THE SIX WIVES OF TIMOTHY LEARY Return of play by Philip de Gouveia	Riverside	5 Jun	26 Jun	693
STORY OF A RABBIT London première of piece by Hoipolloi	Pit	11 Jun	21 Jun	685
TARTUFFE Revival of play by Molière in version by Roger McGough (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse)	Rose, Kingston	5 Jun	14 Jun	664
TOPLESS MUM New play by Ron Hutchinson (Tobacco Factory)	Tricycle	2 Jun	28 Jun	653
TWELFTH NIGHT Revival of play by Shakespeare	Open Air	13 Jun	30 Jul	692
THE UGLY ONE Return of play by Marius von Mayenburg	Royal Court	12 Jun	28 Jun	686
Regions
ARCADIA Revival of play by Tom Stoppard	Pitlochry Festival	12 Jun	18 Oct	707
THE BOWMANS / BLACK COMEDY Revivals of Galton & Simpson teleplay / Peter Shaffer play	Newbury, Watermill	2 Jun	5 Jul	698
CROWN MATRIMONIAL Revival of play by Royce Rylon	Guildford, Yvonne Amaud / touring	4 Jun	14 Jun	702
DR KORCZAK'S EXAMPLE Revival of play by David Greig	Manchester, R Exchange Studio	5 Jun	21 Jun	702
HABEAS CORPUS revival of play by Alan Bennett	Pitlochry Festival	11 Jun	15 Oct	706
IF I WERE YOU Revival of play by Alan Ayckboum	Manchester, Library	3 un	21 Jun	702
IPH... Revival of adaptation by Colin Teevan from 1phigeneia At Aulisby Euripides	Colchester, Mercury	2 Jun	14 Jun	701
THE LIKELY LADS New play by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais based on their TV series	Durham, Gala	11 Jun	21 Jun	704
ONCE UPON A TIME IN WIGAN – LIVE! Revival of play by Mick Martin	Bolton, Octagon	5 Jun	28 Jun	703
OUR HOUSE Revival of musical with book by Tim Firth and songs by Madness	Birmingham Rep	3 Jun	21 Jun	701
LES PARENTS TERRIBLES Revival of play by Jean Cocteau in version by Jeremy Sams	Dundee Rep	11 Jun	21 Jun	708
QUARTERMAINE'S TERMS Revival of play by Simon Gray	Bath, Theatre Royal / touring	9 Jun	14 Jun	703
THE REVENGERS TRAGEDY Revival of play variously ascribed to Thomas Middleton or Cyril Tourneur	Manchester, Royal Exchange	2 Jun	28 Jun	697
SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER Revival of play by Oliver Goldsmith	Pitlochry Festival	11 Jun	16 Oct	706
SWINDLE AND DEATH New play by Peter Arnott (Mull TC)	Glasgow, Tron / touring	11 Jun	14 Jun	709
WILD HONEY Revival of play (Platonov) by Anton Chekhov in version by Michael Frayn	Pitlochry Festival	10 Jun	13 Oct	705

 

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