Prompt Corner
Issue 4, 2009
Gosh, it’s a season of controversy and no mistake. Following hard on various outbursts about people liking anti-Semitic plays, liking anti-Muslim plays, liking gay plays, now comes one about... er, liking a play by a colleague. A number of bloggers have decided that the positive reviews given to Nicholas de Jongh’s Plague Over England are due to friendship, freemasonry or some other flavour of solidarity. In one case, Guardian blog author John M Morrison suggested that we might have been unduly swayed by the positive reaction of the biased opening-night audience... though why reviewers whose job is not to be influenced by such partiality should succumb on this occasion and not on others, he didn’t explain.
Now, it’s true that a number of these comment-posters have seen the play and really not liked it, and it’s true also that I wasn’t exactly wild about it myself, but I’d really need to see some compelling evidence to make me buy into a theory of conspiracy rather than cock-up. As it is, people seem to be asking not, “Why are these opinions and those so different?”, but rather, “Why are those people so wrong?”
Discipline
And it seems to me that above all that kind of working backwards in order to justify a conclusion is not a critical approach to take, and so it’s really very unlikely to yield any meaningful results about why critics write what they do. Because interrogating one’s own response is part and parcel of the work of any reviewer worth their salt: not just reporting the event and their response/evaluation, but trying to understand the mechanisms and causes, and where possible to communicate those. It’s the routine discipline of organising our thoughts and feelings in an articulate, synoptic way and on such a scale that makes a difference.
Take Michael Billington's Plague review – poor Michael, having become the personification of the old guard and with everything he writes now jumped on. But look at what he actually says here: "De Jongh realises that plays work best when private and public worlds intersect [...] the play is almost too neatly symmetrical [...] one or two of the fast-flowing gags[...] have seen better days [...] De Jongh captures, with vividness the contradictions of the 50s. On the one hand, the climate of repressiveness; on the other, a louchely subversive sub-culture [...] expert re-creation of an unlovely period in English life". All those remarks seem to me to be to a significant degree analytical and/or exegetic rather than simply subjective responses. I don't think the actual reviews bear out the claim that people were responding or operating in a different way to this play than they usually do.
Disturbing
Meanwhile, the other disputes rumble on. Elsewhere online you can find one scheduled panellist on one of the National Theatre’s England People Very Nice discussions explaining their withdrawal, apparently because the protesters won’t be accorded equal status and time. Well, what about the same status for the rest of us? Freedom of speech is not the right to say as much, wherever and whenever one wants, nor is the denial of such unlimited licence censorship.
The anti-semitism-of-Gaza-plays allegations continue, too – see the Go To Gaza reviews in this issue. I find John Nathan’s review quite disturbing. He writes that “for the second time in as many weeks, I have opted to dispense with the star-rating system we use for indicating the quality of a production” – which makes clear (or perhaps glosses) what had not been so at the time, that he did not award Seven Jewish Children a zero-star rating. John continues that this is because “for the second time in as many weeks, my job as a theatre critic has shifted from primarily judging whether a play is any good, to whether it is anti-Semitic”. No, it hasn’t: what has shifted is the way you have approached the job in these cases. I’m aware that I risk sounding anti-Semitic myself here, but I don’t see a lot of difference between John taking this tack as regards these plays and, say, Quentin Letts judging a play in terms of the Daily Mail’ssocial and political agenda rather than on the interaction between the drama and the critical individual. I rather think it’s a dereliction of the job, and one that devalues it for all of us. Sorry, but there it is.
Disingenuous
And, of course, there’s the issue dealt with in the Quote of the Fortnight opposite. I think Helen Hawkins and Christopher Hart are both being disingenuous. Chris followed the remarks quoted by saying, "Clearly, I need to send myself off on a diversity-awareness weekend" in a way that makes it sound PC-Nazi (if the battle has been won, it has been won by the use of such stormtroopers, seems to be the subtext) and more reprehensible than his own response. Helen acknowledges something of the kind with her own parenthetical remark, “I won’t claim he is a staunch supporter of diversity awareness weekends”. The overall effect is that of “kidding on the square”, couching genuinely held sentiments in superficially humorous terms as a pre-emptive defence, so that anyone taking issue with them may simply appear humourless. For what it’s worth, the comments section following Mark Shenton’s blog entry quoted opposite also include remarks by me about the sudden silence of Tim Walker regarding the homosexual themes of Plague Over England in his positive review of it, by Tim about my remarks and... well, these things have a way of continuing...
Ian Shuttleworth | ian@theatrerecord.com
Can You Hear Me At The Back?
A good set of Olivier awards this year, at least for the mature actor, the Donmar and RSC, and the National Theatre of Scotland. It’s a sad reflection on the musicals scene, however, that only two new offerings were up for nomination, neither of them the originally scored Marguerite, both instead relying on back catalogue more than new numbers for their success – I wonder how Zorro and the winner, Jersey Boys, would have fared in competition with the candidates for Best Musical Revival. Tell me, is there any point at all in nominating the fiftieth-anniversary remake of West Side Story for an award? About as much point, I suppose, as recognising Pina Bausch’s two 1970s shows Café Müller and Rite Of Spring as Best New Dance Production.
For my first sight of Jersey Boys I had to go to Toronto, just as my only experience of Cats was in the same city many years before. At the time, or soon after, I remember trumpeting the Ontario capital as the next big musical Mecca, with the Mirvishes and Garth Drabinsky in exciting creative competition and wonderful old houses like the Elgin and Winter Garden coming out of decades of mothballs. And for a while it seemed possible, as the rivals vied not only to import shows but also to produce new ones of their own, among them the classic Ragtime. Drabinsky’s spectacular fall from grace put an end to all that – his case comes up shortly. But now there is a suggestion of renewed vitality in the Toronto musical scene, as a new player appears in the shape of one Aubrey Dan.
Packing them in
Mr Dan has the advantage of almost inexhaustible funds at his disposal even in these difficult times. One of his first moves was to reopen what had become the Ford Centre, a huge suburban complex with a Broadway-style main house where Ragtime was launched a decade ago. Dark ever since, the theatre positively gleams again as the Toronto Centre for the Arts, where Jersey Boys is now packing them in. Its spacious foyers beckon Torontonians to experience a Good Night Out – you can even book a meal in its upmarket restaurant. Jersey Boys proved ideal fare on its own, with its all-Canadian replacement cast performing splendidly on the theatre’s big stage, and no problems of either sound or vision for those of us seated near the back of its shallow but wide auditorium. Whether the new cast was coached by the show’s original director, Canada’s own Des McAnuff, I do not know, but as he enters his first season as sole artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival he’s certainly able to drop in easily enough for a quick check. Meanwhile, Mr Dan is putting the iconic Canadian musical, Anne Of Green Gables, into the lovely Elgin as his next show. We should wish him luck.
Standing ovations
Downtown at Tarragon, one of the city’s leading new writing houses, I found the latest hit, a co-production between them, the devising company, Theatrefront, the Neptune Theatre in Halifax and Johannesburg’s Market Theatre. Four years in the making, Ubuntu still needs work to be a complete success, but it was already receiving standing ovations in its present form. What is at heart an almost Dickensian (even G&S) story of separated siblings is given the benefit of a whole range of Canadian and South African trimmings, from Lepage-like, sometimes dreamily choreographed encounters in labs and libraries to spirited African dance and drumming. The multi-racial cast (is it still correct to use that term?) perform very well together, and one is always gripped by the story’s unfolding, but it needs a bit more shaping and cutting before it achieves its full potential. I shan’t be surprised if we see it at the Traverse on the Fringe before long.
White boxes
Spare a thought for Yannis Houvardas, a fine director brought in more than a year ago to run the National Theatre of Greece in its restored theatre. The main house is still not ready, and this year’s season is once again opening in a clutch of theatres around the city instead of the flagship. Mr Houvardas is understandably rather fed up at the time taken up by his unexpected role as site manager. The season’s highlight, a recreation by the Israeli-trained director Jossi Wieler of his Munich production of Claudel’s Partage de Midi, is playing in a temporary space in the Piraeus that is usually devoted to productions in the Athens Festival. Seen in London in 1951 and again in 1968, both times in Jean-Louis Barrault’s original 1948 production, Claudel’s mystical verse play is more admired than performed. In its first Greek version it benefits from Anja Rabes’ Munich sets, austere white boxes that subtly change in the play’s three acts from ocean liner to Hong Kong cemetery to ruined house. I can make no sensible comment on the Greek text and how much it succeeded in conveying Claudel’s flighty verse, or its message of religious redemption, but the work of the play’s four actors left no doubt of their quality, especially that of Amalia Moutousi as Ysé, the woman around whom three lovers revolve. Although her playing of Wieler’s sexually charged scenes would have shocked M Claudel, they had a delicate intensity far removed from the bodice-ripping of much contemporary stage lovemaking, and far more effective at conveying the power of both love and lust. The product of one of these liaisons is a child, whom she kills. Her blank-faced, matter-of-fact admission of this act is in terrifying contrast to the subtle coquetry of her flirting – and indeed to the increasingly violent encounters of her men.
Moment of happiness
The National’s smaller studio theatre, the New Stage, is already open, and provides an elegant space for an interesting experimental take on Faust by a whole bevy of young directors, who also perform in it. It is not too difficult to see some of the joins in what became a five-part exercise, put together over a long rehearsal period, but there is considerable stylistic unity in this understated account of Goethe’s own very disjointed epic, in which five different actors take on the role of a Faust whose pact is with a single Mephistopheles (except for the moment when he transforms into five tempting female figures). Under it, if Faust experiences even a single moment of happiness, then he will forfeit his soul. [Cf. Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Ed.] The production is an engaging mix of intense drama and jokey postmodern commentary, well served by Eva Manidaki’s back wall of filing shelves, stacked with Faust’s research notes, on which the actors crouch when not engaged on stage. Yet by restricting itself to the Gretchen story at the expense of Goethe’s later excursions into the classical world of Helen of Troy, it deprives itself of spectacle. The final moment, when Faust and Mephisto simply walk off stage together, is curiously unresolved, though it seems to suggest that these days a pact with the devil is normal enough for us to take its consequences with no heaven-bound regrets. Meanwhile, on Athens’ commercial stages, the mega-rich conglomerate that runs nine of them is taking its lead from London to stage a revival of the Oliviers’ Best Musical Revival, La Cage Aux Folles, which opened on the night I saw Faust – with 26,000 tickets already sold.
Ian Herbert | ian@herbertknott.com
London |
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ANANSI AND THE MAGIC MIRROR New play by Geoff Aymer (Talawa) |
Hackney Empire |
23 Feb |
7 Mar |
182 |
BERLIN New monologue by David Hare (NT) |
Lyttelton |
12 Feb |
20 Mar |
167 |
DRUNK ENOUGH TO SAY I LOVE YOU? Revival of play by Caryl Churchill |
Arch 468 |
24 Feb |
22 Mar |
179 |
GO TO GAZA, DRINK THE SEA New play by Justin Butcher & Ahmed Masoud (Passion Pit Th / Zeitgeist Th) |
Theatro Technis |
19 Feb |
14 Mar |
180 |
GREENWASH New play by David Lewis |
Orange Tree |
13 Feb |
21 Mar |
168 |
RICHARD HERRING: THE HEADMASTER'S SON New comedy show |
Leicester Square |
17 Feb |
28 Feb |
181 |
HOW IT ENDED New play by Emily Watson Howes (You Need Me) |
Arcola |
25 Feb |
14 Mar |
190 |
JEKYLL AND HYDE New adaptation by James MacLaren from Robert Louis Stevenson (3in4 Prods) |
Union |
13 Feb |
28 Feb |
179 |
LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS Revival of play by Neil Simon (Rapture TC) |
Greenwich |
24 Feb |
28 Feb |
187 |
THE MAIDS Revival of play by Jean Genet (Phizzical Prods) |
Watermans |
25 Feb |
7 Mar |
187 |
ON THE WATERFRONT Revival of adaptation by Budd Schulberg & Stan Silverman from screenplay |
T R Haymarket |
12 Feb |
25 Apr |
164 |
ONCE A CATHOLIC Revival of play by Mary O’Malley (Lost TC) |
Upstairs / Gatehouse |
19 Feb |
7 Mar |
182 |
PLAGUE OVER ENGLAND Transfer of play by Nicholas de Jongh |
Duchess |
23 Feb |
16 May |
183 |
RESIDENT ALIEN Revival of play by Tim Fountain |
New End |
10 Feb |
5 Apr |
174 |
SATURDAY NIGHT Revival of musical by Stephen Sondheim (Primavera Prods) |
Jermyn Street |
13 Feb |
14 Mar |
170 |
SPREADING HER THINLY New play by Tracy Forsythe (Whose Shoes) |
Etcetera |
24 Feb |
15 Mar |
181 |
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW Revival of play by Shakespeare (RSC) |
Novello |
17 Feb |
7 Mar |
175 |
THIS ISN'T ROMANCE New play by In-Sook Chappell |
Soho |
17 Feb |
7 Mar |
173 |
TOYER New adaptation from novel by Gardner McKay |
Arts |
25 Feb |
11 Apr |
188 |
WHEN DO WE START FIGHTING? New play by Charlie Shand (The Kamichi Plan) |
Courtyard |
3 Feb |
1 Mar |
181 |
WHERE THERE’S A WILL Revival of play by Georges Feydeau adap. Nicki Frei (English Touring Th) |
Rose, Kingston / touring |
12 Feb |
14 Feb |
169 |
WRECKS New play by Neil LaBute |
Bush |
13 Feb |
28 Mar |
171 |
Regions |
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DO I MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU OR AM I JUST PASSING BY? Revival of play by Gerard McInulty |
Glasgow, Tron |
12 Feb |
14 Feb |
204 |
EDUCATING RITA revival of play by Willy Russell |
Glasgow, Citizens |
13 Feb |
7 Mar |
204 |
HARVEST Revival of play by Richard Bean (Royal Court Liverpool) |
Oxford Playhouse / touring |
3 Feb |
7 Feb |
196 |
JULIUS CAESAR Revival of play by Shakespeare (SATTF) |
Bristol, Tobacco Factory |
18 Feb |
21 Mar |
197 |
THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL New musical adaptation from Hans Christian Andersen (The Tiger Lillies) |
Coventry, Warwick Arts Centre |
17 Feb |
18 Feb |
202 |
LLOYD GEORGE KNEW MY FATHER Revival of play by William Douglas Home |
Bath, Theatre Royal / touring |
23 Feb |
28 Feb |
202 |
THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP Revival of play by Charles Ludlam |
Edinburgh, Royal Lyceum |
21 Feb |
14 Mar |
206 |
NIGHT DUTY / DESK JOB Revival of play by Mark Russell / New play by Paul Bishop (Siege Perilous) |
Edinburgh, GRV |
15 Feb |
18 Feb |
205 |
NOISES OFF Revival of play by Michael Frayn |
Mold, Clwyd Theatr Cymru |
24 Feb |
14 Mar |
203 |
OTHELLO Revival of play by Shakespeare (Northern Broadsides) |
Leeds, WYP Quarry / touring |
18 Feb |
14 Mar |
197 |
RETURN TO AKENFIELD New adaptation by Ivan Cutting, Naomi Jones and Craig Taylor (Eastern Angles) Lowestoft, Seagull / touring |
25 Feb |
26 Feb |
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203 |
ROCK ’N’ ROLL Revival of play by Tom Stoppard |
Manchester, Library |
13 Feb |
14 Mar |
196 |
SONG OF SONGS UK première of play by Sonia Hughes (Weeding Cane) |
Manchester, Contact |
12 Feb |
21 Feb |
195 |
THE TEMPEST Revival of play by Shakespeare (RSC / Baxter Theatre Centre) |
Stratford upon Avon, Courtyard |
18 Feb |
14 Mar |
191 |
THESE FOUR STREETS New play by Naylah Ahmed, Sonali Bhattacharyya, Jennifer Farmer et al. |
Birmingham Rep, Door |
12 Feb |
28 Feb |
195 |
YEAR OF THE HORSE New piece with text / images by Harry Horse (Burnt Goods) |
Glasgow, Tron |
20 Feb |
28 Feb |
205 |