Savage - Review

Above the Arts Theatre, London


****

Written and directed by Claudio Macor

Claudio Macor's Savage is a brave play examining yet another facet of the depravity that was Hitler's regime, where along with other minorities in Nazi occupied Europe, homosexuals were rounded up and sent to the concentration camps. Savage however sets out to explore and expose the persecution of the continent's gays, focusing on the work of the real life Danish doctor Carl Vaernet, a Copenhagen GP who evoked an horrific hypothesis that by injecting monkey testosterone into the testicles of gay men, that they could be cured of their homosexuality.

Macor weaves a fictional if troubling tale around his carefully researched argument. His gay protagonist Nikolai Bergsen is shattered by the experiments practised upon him, as elsewhere a vicious SS General is forced to hide his own homosexuality, as a kindly nurse and a coterie of companions facilitate the narrative. Interestingly, Macor reserves perhaps some of his sharpest criticism for the British war crimes investigators who after the war interrogated Vaernet with more than a degree of friendly bias - this being of course the era when homosexuality remained a crime in Britain and gays could be sentence to chemical castration. 

There are occasional moments of simplification in Macor's tale - perhaps understandable given its broad canvas that stretches to Argentina to where Vaernet, along with countless other Nazi criminals fled. But throughout, the story combined with a collection of excellent performances, make for compelling theatre.

Alexander Huetson puts in a brave turn as Bergsen, showing us a terrified agony and anguish, alongside a complex, deep yet ultimately damaged love for Nic Kyle's Zack Travis. Macor takes an unconventional stance with the General - played convincingly by Bradley Clarkson. It makes for a reasonable argument to portray an evil man as himself troubled by his hidden sexuality - but *spoiler alert* is it right that the General's suicide should evoke our sympathy, just because he's gay and facing the same conventions of deceit and cover up that those who he is persecuting must endure? By all means recognise (and dare one say it, condemn even) the man's hypocrisy. But inviting us to care for his demise is perhaps a conceit too far.

Gary Fannin's Vaernet is an intelligent if slightly caricatured portrayal, though ever since Gregory Peck played the notorious Dr Mengele in the 1978 movie The Boys From Brazil his evil Nazi doctor has been a tough act to top.

Amongst the darkness though Macor injects a brilliant shaft of humanity in Nurse Paulsen, played with an enchanting sensitivity by Emily Lynne. Her care and compassion towards Bergsen reminding us of the importance of love and kindness in seeking to heal the ravages of hatred.

Savage, itself inspired by the campaigning journalism of Peter Tatchell, confronts us with a glimpse of humanity at its darkest. Even more concerning is that this history of some 75 years ago is repeating itself today, in lands just beyond our own continent, where minorities are massacred for their belief or sexuality. Sadly, Macor's play makes for desperately essential theatre.

Runs until 23rd July

Murderer

Gatehouse Theatre, London

***

Written by Anthony Shaffer
Directed by Tim Frost

That the audience take their seats to Eye Level, the theme of vintage TV cop show Van Der Valk and later exit to Morecambe and Wise’s Bring Me Sunshine, suggests that Tim Frost's staging of Anthony Shaffer’s Murderer is rooted firmly in the kitsch cultural whirpool that was the 1970’s.

Intended as a comedy thriller (Shaffer had already penned Sleuth and The Wicker Man), the play is a curious combination of farce and suspense that is centered around Dorset painter Norman Bartholomew. With a morbid fascination for famous murderers of old, Bartholomew is up to his neck in a steamy but clichéd affair and dreams of the perfect way to murder his wife.

The performances in this 4-hander are often outstanding. Bradley Clarkson is Bartholomew and that the first twenty minutes of act one are dialogue free is a tribute to his remarkable craft. We witness him apparently drug, murder and dismember a victim, set to background music that along with wonderful hair, costume and mannerisms, date the production perfectly. Also on form is Andrew Ashford as village policeman Sgt Stenning, getting the balance just right between would-be sleuth and bungling parish bobby. When Stenning consumes, on stage and for real, two pints of booze in a moment that echoes the West End’s current hit Urinetown, he develops an urgent need to pee. The audience know all along that there’s a body in the bath and there follows a performance of sublime comic timing between the copper, busting to go and hopping from foot to foot and the agitated Bartholomew, anxious to have the PC relieve himself anywhere but the bathroom. Elsewhere, Zoe Teverson convinces as the much put-upon Mrs Bartholomew, whilst Abby Forknall plays a scantily clad victim with aplomb.

But whilst costumes and fabulous performance seal the illusion of the 40 year time shift, unfortunately so too does Shaffer’s writing. Writing in the programme, Frost hopefully suggests that we can “love the characters’ idiosyncracies”. It's a tall request. The plot, whilst conjuring up occasional moments of genuine surprise, stretches credibility to breaking point, with the tale largely revolving around a dated and disgracefully misogynist conceit that treats the apparent on-stage murders of three women as light entertainment. There’s a line towards the play’s end, “mediocrity my darling has no...status”. Shaffer could well have been writing about his own work.

A nod to Philip Lindley’s set which is of the usual Gatehouse classy standard with Kirsty Gillmore’s sound design going a long way to scene and atmosphere creation. But Murderer is very much a period piece, probably best enjoyed by those with a fondness for the style and attitudes of an England from 40 years ago.

Runs until 20th April 2014

The Tailor Made Man

Arts Theatre, London

****

Book by Amy Rosenthal and Claudio Macor

Music by Duncan Walsh Atkins and Adam Megiddo

Lyrics by Adam Megiddo

Directed by Claudio Macor



Faye Tozer with members of the company



The Tailor Made Man, a musical adapted from Claudio Macor’s 1995 play of the same name, is a beautifully performed tale of an ugly side to Hollywood. The show explores the little known relationship between talent-spotted movie star William Haines and his lover Jimmy Shields.  Set in early 20th century Tinseltown, an era that has already proved to be such a rich seam of human interest material for dramatists, with Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard and Jerry Herman’s Mack & Mabel to name but two, Macor instead chooses to focus on how Haines was airbrushed from movie history following his arrest for casual gay sex with a sailor. It’s a left-of-field approach to a West End musical, that is well suited to the almost chamber-style intimacy that London’s compact Arts Theatre lends to the staging of this, the show’s inaugural production.

This little known but true story of love set against a backdrop of prejudice and injustice marks an endeavour of labour and dedication from Macor. In an era where West End shows are often inspired by jukebox and film/TV spinoffs, the raw creative energy behind this show is inspirational. Atkins and Meggido's songs are sound and sometimes excellent, with a particularly hauting reprising melody, We Got Time, that is a sensitive composition in words and music sung by the two male leads, Dylan Turner as Haines and Bradley Clarkson as Shields.  As studio boss Louis B. Mayer, the Canadian colossus of a stage presence that is Mike McShane simply steals every scene he has. McShane is also given an almost Vaudevillian number, Family, in which his character's love for apple-pie family values sets him up nicely to be later exposed as a hypocrite. Michael Cotton’s Victor Darro, a friend of both lovers, performs a powerful and moving number, This Love Of Yours, in which his unspoken love for one (and possibly both) of the men is revealed. And in a casting choice that may have been made with ticket sales in mind, Faye Tozer as Marion Davies a Hollywood starlet of the time and confidante of both men, "steps" away from her pop music aura to deliver a stunning performance. From her dazzling blonde wig to her Swanson-esque gowns, Tozer is every inch the Hollywood screen goddess.

The book is a collaboration between Macor and Amy Rosenthal and as a story it carries some uncomfortable flaws. Haines and Shields suffer a horrific homophobic beating following an afternoon on the beach, but when the show’s narrative, in a modern day interview with an elderly Shields, explores whether or not that beating was prompted by Shields’ molestation of a young boy (an alleged crime for which the charges were actually dropped), the writers choose to leave a question mark hanging over Shields’ descriptions of his actions that day. And in a pivotal exchange between Haines and Mayer, where Shields is sacked for what was then judged to be his scandalous homosexual promiscuity and he then retorts by accusing Mayer of groping and abusing young actresses, one is left pondering, did Mayer sack Haines due to prejudiced homophobia, or was he sacked because he had exposed his boss’ perverted philanderings? Neither a beating nor an unfair dismissal can ever be justified, but over both these events, the writers leave an ambivalence that does not help the story’s narrative. And without question, the show’s second act is a far more gripping piece of theatre than the first.

Macor’s direction is intelligent and simple, on a stage that is cleverly lit and tellingly adorned with the reverse side carpentry of  film-studio façade panels from movie sets, suggesting how much of Hollywood is simply shallow appearance lacking substance. Nathan M Wright’s choreography is imaginative but requires polish and this accomplished creative needs to drill his company harder in the ensemble numbers.

The Tailor Made Man is bold and brave, tackling Hollywood's outwardly homophobic attitudes of the time. Only here for a few weeks, the ugly face of the movie business that the show depicts may not surprise. This story though, of two people in love, is carefully crafted, beautifully and sensitively told and is well worth catching.

Runs to April 6 2013