A Very Very Very Dark Matter - Review

Bridge Theatre, London


****


Written by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Matthew Dunster

Phil Daniels and Jim Broadbent

With a running time of just 90 minutes and Tom Waits as The Narrator, what’s not to like about A Very Very Very Dark Matter, the first seasonal show to be offered at London’s newest venue, the Bridge? In an alternative take on the typically seasonal, richly fruited and Victoriana-laced Christmas fairy tales, Martin McDonagh’s new play is set in Copenhagen and London, gorging itself on gothic grand-guignol and arguing a fantastic premise that both Denmark’s Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Dickens enjoyed a morbid fascination with African pygmy women.

McDonagh never misses an opportunity to let his politics get in the way of what might otherwise be a good story and so it is here, his narrative heavily laced with furrowed brow punditry upon the Congo’s complexities and exploitation. But don’t see this slightly troubled drama for its hobbled historical spiel on geo-politics. See it rather for McDonagh’s most fertile, febrile of imaginations putting on a theatrical treat that is played out by a magnificent cast.

Jim Broadbent is Andersen who, aside from a minor wig malfunction, puts in an assured turn portraying the weaver of legendary fairy tales as a racist, doddery misogynist who, in an intriguing conceit, was barely literate and whose stories were actually penned by Marjory, an African pygmy who he kept confined in a wooden box.  Broadbent’s timing and delivery is unsurpassed, but when he’s placed into a dining-table exchange with Phil Daniels’ exasperated Dickens - who has had to endure the unwelcome Dane as a house guest for five weeks - the exchanges are eye-wateringly brilliant. McDonagh captures the essence of The Two Ronnies, crossed with Derek and Clive - and in the hands of these two immaculate actors, there’s no finer double act in town.

The writer and his director Matthew Dunster offer up a sprinkling of nods towards Tarantino’s more wittier moments too, while alongside Broadbent and Daniels who both play scumbags of the highest order, there is standout work from Johnetta Eula'Mae Ackles as Marjory and a cleverly comic cameo from Elizabeth Berrington as Dickens’ much put upon wife Catherine. Anna Fleischle’s designs are as lavish as they are creepy, and for those who like their horror served bloody, the play does not disappoint.

Make no mistake, the evening’s imagery and language are the foulest, and whilst there may be a handful of talented kids in the cast, this is far from festive family fayre.

Worth catching though - much of this new writing is stunning.

Runs until 6th January 2019

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

King Lear (at Chichester) - Review

Minerva Theatre, Chichester

*****

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Jonathan Munby

Ian McKellen and Tamara Lawrance

King Lear at the Minerva Theatre is the jewel in the crown of Daniel Evans’ opening season as Chichester’s Artistic Director. Ian McKellen is every inch a king in Jonathan Munby’s production that is currently playing a short, sold out season. Staged unpretentiously in modern dress, the court of this King Lear bears the accoutrements of the 21st century, yet still respects and celebrates the beauty of the mediaeval verse.

At 78, McKellen brings a credibility of age that only underscores this definitive interpretation, bringing a masterful touch to Lear’s mental decline - “Oh let me not be mad” has rarely carried so much pathos. It is however the strength of the company around McKellen that adds the lustre to this, the finest of recent King Lear productions. 

Dervla Kirwan’s Goneril flinches as her father curses her with sterility, in a performance of understated excellence. Modestly dressed (in contrast to her sister), Goneril’s murderous malevolence is masterful. Kirsty Bushell’s Regan, by contrast, is a sometimes scantily clad, Louboutin toting, femme fatale. The zest with which she accompanies Patrick Robinson’s Cornwall in ripping out Gloucester’s (Danny Webb) eyes with a butcher’s hook could be straight out of a grindhouse movie, but is never once overplayed. (Bravo to fight director Kate Waters for work that is, as ever, bloody good!) 

And that lack of overplay is the essence of this show’s class. Damien Molony’s Edmund is a role that is too often played to as a calculating pantomime villain. Here, Molony’s soft Irish brogue offers an Edmund imbued with an embellished evil that again comes with a classy credibility.

Tamara Lawrance’s Cordelia creates a particularly distinctive magic with Lear in their Act 4 reconciliation. Her talent combined with McKellen’s aged genius offers a moment of tenderness that is, again, rarely achieved.

A highlight of the production - certainly for this reviewer - is to see Phil Daniels return to the role of Fool. Daniels last played the Fool at Exeter in 1980, a production that I had the privilege of seeing. He was 20 then and fresh out of the success of Franc Roddam’s Mod movie Quadrophenia, bringing a cheekily youthful mania to his nuncle-baiting. That boy has now grown up into a bespectacled, tank-top sporting man (think Ronnie Corbett, but taller) and in this coming of age, Daniels brings a level of nuance to the Fool that is rarely (if ever) seen. Daniels still sports his coxcomb magnificently, but now his mirth belies a profound and troubling worldly wisdom and in an inspired touch, Munby has him sing his (many) songs, self-accompanied on the ukulele. It's a music hall touch, juxtaposed onto a modern interpretation of a century's old play and it works perfectly.

Phil Daniels

The Fool’s exit from the play has long been a source of debate as Shakespeare famously leaves it vague in the text. Here however, Munby has had some fun, introducing his own little kicker just before the interval ice-creams.

And again, in one of the play’s smaller roles, Michael Matus delivers a pompously priggish Oswald, making more of the obsequious functionary than is typically encountered in the play.

This is also a King Lear that having freed itself from the constraints of racial and gender specific casting loses none of the play’s impact in the process. Indeed the modernity of Munby’s staging lends itself to a bonfire of traditional casting stereotypes. Most distinctive amongst these translations is Sinead Cusack’s Countess of Kent, in place of that county’s traditional Duke. Cusack brings a steely kindliness to the role which opens up a different and rather enchanting take upon the loving devotion she shows towards Lear. 

Notwithstanding the contemporary staging, Munby spares us any heavy-handed spin on the ancient yarn, allowing us space to draw our own contemporary political comparisons. 

“See better, Lear” is how Kent admonishes his King in Act 1. I doubt there'll be a better Lear to see, and for some time. 

Runs until 28th October (sold out)

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

Les Miserables - Review

Queens Theatre, London 


*****

PROLOGUE 

It has been a while since I'd last seen Les Miserables in the West End, but every now and then a show’s casting proves so irresistible that it cries out to be seen again. 

Firstly, there is the wonderful Carrie Hope-Fletcher's take on Eponine. Having seen Carrie perform at a couple of concert events I had long hankered after catching her acclaimed interpretation first hand. And then there’s Rachelle Ann Go’s Fantine. I’d adored her Movie In My Mind in Miss Saigon, but on hearing Rachelle sing I Dreamed A Dream at Hugh Maynard’s Hippodrome gig a few months ago, she simply set spines tingling.  

However, both of those yearnings were eclipsed by the announcement, earlier this year, that Phil Daniels was to play musical theatre’s ultimate scum-meister, taking over as M. Thenardier. 

Virtually a national treasure, Daniels etched himself into the nation’s psyche in the 70s and 80s. Along with a youthful Ray Winstone he offered a brutal perspective on British borstal life in Alan Clarke’s controversial movie, Scum – if you haven’t seen that picture, download it and find out why Winstone has been known forever since as The Daddy. And from then on, including The Who's iconic Quadrophenia and later film and stage performances, Daniels’ work has been nothing sort of exceptional. 

And so it was, that with this cast, Les Mis moved back on to my “unmissable” list…

REVIEW

Author/Dramatist ALAIN BOUBLIL
Book & Music CLAUDE-MICHEL SCHÖNBERG
Lyricist HERBERT KRETZMER
Adaptation & Direction TREVOR NUNN
Adaptation & Direction JOHN CAIRD

Les Miserables has long impressed me, not just for having such a stirring libretto, but also for the cheekily economic creativity of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schoenberg that was able to hang quite so many different songs on just a handful of (oft repeated) melodies! Herbert Kretzmer deserves handsome credit for the lyrics. Kretzmer has compressed Victor Hugo's panoramic vision of 19th century France into 3 hours of sung-through genius, with a wit and nuance perfectly tailored to the modern idiom.

On the night of this review Adam Bayjou was standing in for Peter Lockyer as the eponymous ex-con Jean Valjean. Youthful but nonetheless assured, Bayjou mastered the gravitas of driving the show, stirring and inspirational as needed and touching souls with an exquisite Bring Him Home.

Hunting him across the years is Jeremy Secomb's Javert. Secomb, with the full built frame of a cop, pound for pound probably outweighs the more diminutive Bayjou whose lifting of both cart and carcass through the show as required defies probability. Secomb though brings just the right amount of dour, booted, gravitas to the lugubrious lawman including a thrilling delivery of Stars. And as Javert grapples with Valjean's divine mercy that he simply cannot comprehend, this talented actor displays a truly tortured soul. 

There can never be a great deal to write about Fantine, perhaps one of theatre's most underwritten leading ladies, but Rachelle Ann Go carries the pride of the Philippines with her as she re-defines the role, making I Dreamed A Dream truly her own.

Carrie Hope-Fletcher's Eponine must surely have proved an inspired casting over the last couple of years. She embodies her character's sincerity with beauty, coquettish charm and a voice of amazingly youthful power. And as her coat falls open to reveal that bloodstained blouse, even seeing the show for the umpteenth time one can't hold back the tears. For Hope-Fletcher her Les Mis time is running out and one looks forward to see how her talents will next be deployed.

Perhaps the toughest roles in the show are those of Cosette and Marius - their love is sincere, but where Eponine is endowed with a tragically romantic death, these youngsters see their finale wedding overshadowed first by the Thenardiers' thievery and then Valjean's demise. Tough gigs indeed, but Zoe Doano, as ever, defines enchanting as she falls for her handsome student, filling the role with a passionate credibility and a celestial voice. And if Rob Houchen's Marius is a slightly understated gem, at least it’s well polished.

And then there's Katie Secombe and Phil Daniels as the ghastly Thenardiers. The pair's timing, acting and song are a masterclass in bitter-sweet grotesque. Blessed with comedy in her genes Secombe's Mme T is every inch a Lady Macbeth of her time, keeping her performance just the right side of pantomime. Daniels simply lives up to expectations. With his park life voice that’s been dredged from somewhere east of Tilbury, Daniels defines the red-nosed brigand perfectly. It will take some double act to match this monstrous couple.

Above all, the credit for Les Mis' continued excellence has to lie with its producer. Cameron Mackintosh may have elevated this particular show to the level of a global franchise - but he's never sacrificed a moment of its quality, Amidst John Napier’s ever revolving designs, the show’s details remain finely honed. And whether it is (simply by way of example) Adam Pearce's immaculate multi-role ensemble work, or Alex Parker's pinpoint musical direction, Les Miserables remains an example of world class excellence.

Now booking into 2016