Issue 18, 2009
Prompt Corner
When we review plays, what should we write about? I have several times argued that a reviewer’s job is not to any significant degree to advise readers on whether or not to go to a particular production, but rather to inform them about it, so that if they are among the few who are in a position to visit the production, they then have the wherewithal to make up their own minds about it, and of they don’t have that chance, their interest in being informed about it is satisfied. But what should we actually include by way of information?
Elephant
In particular – and especially with regard to new plays – how much of the plot and relationships shown onstage should we recount? On one level, the answer is simple: enough for us to do our job. To take the example which has suggested this column, it would be absurd to write about Simon Stephens’ Punk Rock without saying that it is about a group of Manchester public-school sixth-formers who pressure each other in various ways, and that it focuses principally on the stress and disintegration of William which ultimately takes an extreme manifestation. But do we, or should we, mention the Elephant in the room, namely that William shoots several of his classmates in an event reminiscent of those at Columbine High School and elsewhere? Benedict Nightingale, in his review, believes not; other differ. In this instance, we have some guidance in that Stephens has been happy to talk in as many words about the climax to his play in various pieces of pre-publicity for it.
Nevertheless, there are people who object forcefully to, as they see it, having the story spoiled for them. Evidently, for them the theatrical experience is principally a narrative one: they want to go on a journey with characters without knowing the route or destination of that journey. In which case, they must have felt dreadfully put out to be told that Hamlet dies at the end, that the three sisters never get to Moscow or that Godot never arrives. These are hardly, in most people’s view, secrets crucial to a proper enjoyment of the plays in question. Although, mind you, every night for more than half a century the audience has been asked at the end of The Mousetrap not to reveal whodunit, yet there can hardly be an interested person alive who doesn’t already know that it was the— aha, you see, some taboos do have power after all!
Opportunistic
There’s a serious point in there as well, namely that it has been argued that giving away plot details is disrespectful to the writer. well, apart from examples such as that of Simon Stephens apparently disrespecting himself here, it seems required to point out once more that, as reviewers, our primary respect has to be for our readers, and for informing them as aforementioned. Ultimately, then, all a reviewer can do is try to assess how advantageous it is to make explicit mention of some narrative or expository point in order to write informatively about the production, whether a viewer’s enjoyment would be significantly diminished by knowing it in advance, and to what extent one factor outweighs the other.
Punk Rock, though, has a second “should we mention it?” dimension. It opened, coincidentally, within days of the commencement of the trial of two teenage boys for conspiring to commit just such a massacre at their own high school in the Manchester area. The play is not opportunistic in respect of this trial, but might it look as if we were being so in mentioning it? Some reviewers have alluded to the trial with more or les specificity. Speaking for myself, I hedged: I included an explicit reference in my Financial Times review but suggested it might be a candidate for cutting on grounds of length, and in the event, my review ran in a shorter form without that detail.
Supplementing
Reviewing is, obviously, a matter of making one judgement call after another, both in terms of evaluating a production itself and in terms of the approach one takes to that evaluation. Take Sam Holcroft’s Vanya at the Gate Theatre. Some reviewers have taken Holcroft to task for selling Chekhov short by flattening some of his complexities of character and, for instance, making Astrov plainly a self-regarding hypocrite. But this is, I think, to miss the point somewhat. It seems a trifle unreasonable to criticise her play for lacking the depth and nuance of Chekhov; after all, which play doesn’t? It seems to me (and here my own evaluation is reflected in the wording I chose to use in the production details given on p917) that this is very much an “inspired by” work, to be judged on its own terms, rather than “an adaptation of” to be measured against the original. Holcroft takes the central quartet of Uncle Vanya, retains the skeleton of character, relationships and events, and proceeds to tell the same story in her own way and to her own ends. Designer Tom Scutt may be over-interpreting when he claims that “All [the characters] are troubled labourers in some way”, but his slowly revolving shed-cum-packing-case set effectively concentrates their interaction within a space even more confined than the Gate’s stage normally is. This is a scrupulous production of a considered play which does not attempt to supersede Chekhov, but rather succeeds in supplementing it.
Ian Shuttleworth | ian@theatrerecord.comAt The Back
At the Back does not appear this issue
Reviewed Issue 18, 2009
London
| Production | Venue | Opened |
Closed |
Page |
| ALAN CUMMING: I BOUGHT A BLUE CAR TODAY Musical cabaret | Vaudeville | 2 Sep |
6 Sep |
914 |
| CATWALK CONFIDENTIAL New play by Robyn Peterson | Arts | 9 Sep |
3 Oct |
937 |
| CLOUD NINE Revival of play by Caryl Churchill (Fandango) | Union SE1 | 3 Sep |
26 Sep |
927 |
| COLDER THAN HERE Revival of play by Laura Wade (The Singular Ensemble) | Courtyard | 2 Sep |
19 Sep |
924 |
| DOIG! THE MUSICAL(with no singing no dancing and very little music) New play by Greg Freeman (Basic Th) | Tabard | 2 Sep |
19 Sep |
918 |
| ED BYRNE: DIFFERENT CLASS Comedy show | Vaudeville | 7 Sep |
3 Oct |
927 |
| FATHERS INSIDE New play by Philip Osment (National Youth Th) | Soho | 1 Sep |
12 Sep |
913 |
| THE GREAT BRITISH SOAP OPERA New musical by Pippa Cleary and Jake Brunger (Take Note Th) | Jermyn Street | 8 Sep |
19 Sep |
938 |
| Grimeborn festival Opera festival; see reviews pages for full details | Arcola | 24 Aug |
5 Sep |
912 |
| HOW TO COOK A COUNTRY New play by David Dinnell (Accelerator TC) | Riverside | 7 Sep |
20 Sep |
930 |
| I'LL LEAVE IT TO YOU Revival of play by Noël Coward (Logos TC) | Pentameters | 27 Aug |
12 Sep |
936 |
| JANE AUSTEN’S GUIDE TO PORNOGRAPHY Play by Stephen Dawson (Out Cast Th) | Theatre 503 | 2 Sep |
12 Sep |
918 |
| KATRINA New play by Jonathan Holmes (The Jericho House) | Bargehouse | 4 Sep |
26 Sep |
925 |
| LOLITA New play by Richard Nelson from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov (NT) | Lyttelton | 7 Sep |
21 Sep |
928 |
| A NEW WORLD New play by Trevor Griffiths | Globe | 3 Sep |
9 Oct |
919 |
| PUNK ROCK New play by Simon Stephens (Lyric Hamm. / Manchester Royal Exchange) | Lyric Hammersmith | 8 Sep |
26 Sep |
932 |
| THE RING OF TRUTH Revival of play by Wynyard Browne | Orange Tree | 4 Sep |
3 Oct |
931 |
| SKUNK New play by Zawe Ashton inspired by Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (National Youth Th) | Soho | 3 Sep |
12 Sep |
929 |
| TOO TRUE TO BE GOOD Revival of play by George Bernard Shaw (Bitter Pill Prods) | Finborough | 3 Sep |
26 Sep |
916 |
| VANYA New play by Sam Holcroft inspired by the play by Anton Chekhov | Gate | 2 Sep |
26 Sep |
917 |
| VIRTUALLY IN LOVE New play by Nic Penrake (Venus Flytrap Prods) | White Bear | 1 Sep |
20 Sep |
927 |
| ZAMBEZI EXPRESS New musical by Saimon Mbazo Phiri | Riverside | 9 Sep |
27 Sep |
930 |
Regions |
||||
| BLITHE SPIRIT Revival of play by Noël Coward | Nottingham Playhouse | 8 Sep |
26 Sep |
943 |
| THE CHERRY ORCHARD Revival of play by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Stuart Paterson | Dundee Rep | 1 Sep |
19 Sep |
949 |
| HE’S MUCH TO BLAME Revival of play by Thomas Holcroft | Bury St Edmunds, Theatre Royal | 4 Sep |
19 Sep |
943 |
| HOT MIKADO Revival of adaptation by Rob Bowman from operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan | Newbury, Watermill | 7 Sep |
19 Sep |
944 |
| THE LIFE OF STUFF Revival of play by Simon Donald | Pitlochry Festival | 19 Aug |
14 Oct |
947 |
| THE MISER Revival of play by Molière in version by Braham Murray and Robert Cogo-Fawcett | Manchester, Royal Exchange | 7 Sep |
3 Oct |
944 |
| NO OBVIOUS TRAUMA New piece by Unpacked | Glasgow, Tron | 9 Sep |
12 Sep |
950 |
| PORRIDGE New play by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais from their television series (Calibre Prods) | Coventry, Belgrade / touring | 9 Sep |
12 Sep |
945 |
| QUADROPHENIA New adaptation by Jeff Young et al. from rock opera by Pete Townshend | Brighton, Theatre Royal / touring | 1 Sep |
5 Sep |
941 |
| THE SILVER DARLINGS New adaptation by Peter Arnott from novel by Neil M Gunn | Aberdeen, His Majesty’s | 28 Aug |
5 Sep |
948 |
| SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD Revival of play by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona | Scarborough, Stephen Joseph | 9 Sep |
26 Sep |
947 |
| THEY ONLY COME AT NIGHT: RESURRECTION New play by Matthew David Scott & Richard Warburton | Salford, Lowry | 3 Sep |
12 Sep |
943 |