Archive for October, 2009


Theatricalia

In theatre on October 25, 2009 at 2:32 pm

Launched on Friday, Theatricalia aims to be a kind of IMDB for the theatre, providing details of current and historical productions and cast and crew. This isn’t the first such effort (there’s the Internet Broadway Database, the Internet Theatre Database, etc, etc.) but there are a few things which mark Theatricalia out from the crowd.

First, even at launch it is fairly comprehensive, including all productions by the RSC, the National Theatre and Birmingham Rep. All of this adds up to over fifty thousand individuals in nearly twenty thousand productions, so there’s plenty of information in there even before the site gets going.

Second, it has an intuitive system to add new productions and individuals. By way of a test, I added details of Katie Mitchell’s new Pains of Youth at the NT – you can see the results here. Typing in a few details from the programme was straightforward, it quickly picked up names which it knew and invited me to add names it didn’t, linked automatically to previous productions of the same play, etc, etc. Basically, it just works and means that even casual theatregoers might be tempted to add in a few details from their programmes.

Third, it has a clean and elegant look (in marked contrast to most of the other offerings), creates an RSS feed for each performer and play (so you can pick up on new productions, if you so wish), etc, etc. Basically, it’s all pretty slick.

,

Review – Pains of Youth, National Theatre

In london, review, theatre on October 25, 2009 at 1:21 pm

The plot of Pains of Youth is not entirely straightforward: Desiree wants Marie; Petrell wants Marie but doesn’t want her mothering him, so ends up with Irene; Freder really wants Desiree, but ends up toying with Lucy instead; Lucy doesn’t know what she wants, but quickly realises that she wants everybody; Desiree realises that she secretly wants what Lucy wants; Irene is so cold she probably wants Alt, but ends up with Petrell, but probably only to put one over Marie; Alt doesn’t want anything to do with this bunch of psychos and is never going to come round to dinner again.

Having seen a student production in Edinburgh, I’d largely dismissed Pains of Youth as an effort in self-seriousness, in which everybody talks in a terribly grown up way about how difficult is is to be young, a sort of Dawson’s Creek set in a university in Vienna in the 1920s or a Huis Clos in which the doors aren’t locked but everybody inexplicably stays in the room torturing themselves anyway. The key message I took away from it was that it was important to choose your university flatmates carefully.

Katie Mitchell’s production of Martin Crimp’s sharp new text is a revelation. Each of the characters may be written as Freudian stereotypes, but here they leap off the page as (almost) fully fleshed human beings. Geoffrey Streatfeild (probably best known for his work as Henry V in the RSC Histories) gets a double first for his nuanced and charming, even if not sympathetic, portrayal of the hateful Freder. Top marks also to Lydia Wilson (fresh out of RADA) as the predatory, vulnerable and damaged Desiree. Cara Horgan is under-used as Irene, but utterly convinces for the short period she is on stage.

The design, perhaps unsurprisingly given it’s mainly a psychological drama, is functional rather than particularly inventive, but there are a few nice touches: the harsh fluorescent lights in the wardrobes and the sterile set changes bring to mind an operating theatre or a lab in which the characters are being experimented on. The use of sound and music also deserves special mention, since it is one of the rare instances in which it actively contributes rather than detracts from the action (Cf. every production of Chekov I’ve ever seen, in which it is obvious that they’re in a garden, because there are trees on stage and everybody keeps on going on about how nice the garden is, but the director still INSISTS on playing chirping, dialogue-smothering bird sounds throughout THE ENTIRE scene).

This is everything you could hope for from a production of this play: crisp new language and sharp acting from a superb cast coupled with thoughtful and intelligent direction and design.

Pains of Youth is currently in preview at the Cottesloe Theatre. Opens on Thursday 29th October and runs until 21 January 2010. Tickets from the National Theatre including free/£5 for under 25s as part of A Night Less Ordinary.


Upcoming at the RSC

In london, preview, stratford, theatre on October 24, 2009 at 1:16 pm

There’s a bunch of new stuff coming up from the RSC, and a few old favourites.  In no particular order:

  • Twelfth Night comes to the Hampstead Theatre this winter courtesy of the unstoppable Gregory Doran. Solid casting include Richard Wilson as Malvolio, James Fleet (who you will remember from Four Weddings, or perhaps The Observer if you’re a bit more of a geek), Nancy Carroll (who was charming in Arcadia this summer) and Alexandra Gilbreath who (as wikipedia notes) ”is possibly best known to ITV audiences for being the original ‘Sun Hill Serial Killer’ Pat Kitson on The Bill”). Duke of Yorks Theatre from 19 December to 27 February.
  • Dunsinane at the Hampstead Theatre looks interesting, a new commission from David Greig. 10 February to 6 March.
  • If you can bear the trip to Stratford, then Greg Hicks tries out King Lear, directed by David Farr
  • Rupert Goold (who seems to be just everywhere at the moment, what with ENRON and Turandot), directs Sam Troughton (Brutus in the recent Julius Caesar but most celebrated, in my book at least, for his work on Alien Vs Predator) and Mariah Gale (Mr Tennant’s Ophelia) as Romeo and Juliet.  In rep at Stratford from 12 March to 27 August.
  • Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Winter’s Tale return to rep between July and September
  • Michael Boyd takes on Antony and Cleopatra, with Darrell D’Silva and Kathryn Hunter. In rep at Stratford 10 April to 28 August
  • Gregory Doran directs a new adaptation of Morte D’Arthur, in rep 11 June to 28 August
  • And last, and definitely least, Days of Significance is still clunking its way awkwardly around the provinces almost two years after beginning its life in Stratford

All in all, a pretty solid set of things to get your teeth into, and a nice mix of London and Stratford. Personally speaking, I think only Julius Caesar (which I missed last time around) and Morte D’Arthur are going to compel me to endure two and a half hours in the company of Chiltern Railways, but Antony and Cleopatra also looks interesting, as does King Lear.

Public booking for all of this opens on 18 November or now if you’re a member. Don’t forget that youngsters can get £5 tickets if they get in quick or free tickets on Tuesdays until February as part of A Night Less Ordinary.

,

Review – ENRON, Royal Court

In london, review, theatre on October 11, 2009 at 12:28 pm

ENRON

There’s plenty of blame to go around in the story of ENRON, and it would be easy for Lucy Prebble’s play to descend into a hysteria of finger pointing and indignation. But it doesn’t. The production doesn’t pull it’s punches, but it does present Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Andy Fastow – the protagonists of the largest corporate bankruptcy in American history – as humans, flawed undoubtedly through greed or wilful ignorance, but complex, intelligent, charismatic and sympathetic none the less.

The brilliance at the heart of this production is its willingness to confront complexity. It examines an arcane corner of finance but resists the temptation to simplify or dumb down for the sake of the audience; and that’s why it feels so real and so honest. Prebble doesn’t paint any villains or monsters (although she does allow plenty of them emerge on their own) and resists the temptation to draw sweeping conclusions (although plenty of them become obvious without her having to). In the hands of David Hare this would have turned into two snoring hours of lecture populated by pantomime cardboard characters useful for bouncing his own political views off (oh, wait, actually, it already has) but Prebble’s work is far more nuanced and interesting than this: none of the characters are parodies, their behaviour feels real and that is why there is genuine power in the message that comes from this show.

The production itself is superb, beautifully directed by Rupert Goold.  Dinosaurs roam the stage, traders battle with light-sabres and Arthur Andersen is represented by a ventriloquist’s dummy, but none of this stylised pieces of stage-craft feel like gimmicks. The combination of a script which feels real and a production which doesn’t have to works wonderfully.

ENRON is one of the most beautifully directed and conceived productions I can remember. A wonderfully intelligent and uncompromising play, superbly inventive and interesting direction and strong performances. Worth a trip to the West End.