Further Than The Furthest Thing - Review

Young Vic Theatre, London

*

Written by Zinnie Harris

Directed by Jennifer Tang

Jenna Russell

If ever Arts Council England require reasons to justify their axing of funds for London projects, they need look no further than the Young Vic’s current revival of Zinnie Harris’ 1999 play, Further Than The Furthest Thing. 

As an exploration of exploitation, the story is a tedious study in how a remote island community is destroyed by the evil wider world. Drawn from the 1960s history of Tristan da Cunha, this production could have been so much more. Indeed, the supporting essays in the programme make for an excellent read.

It turns out that the essays are better than the production itself, for what Harris and director Jennifer Tang offer is overblown and lengthy with disappointingly two-dimensional characters. The usually brilliant designer Soutra Gilmour offers up a set that inexplicably (and quite possibly expensively) spins on the Young Vic’s revolve at a pace that’s as lethargic as the narrative. If Harris’ script had been filleted as ruthlessly as the island’s harvested crawfish then it might, just might, have had the potential to be an hour-long radio play. That around a third of the audience vanished at the interval is one of life’s easier to solve mysteries.

Jenna Russell, as always, delivers a top-notch performance. It is only a shame that the material she has to work with is so trite and dire. Further Than The Furthest Thing ain’t far enough for this dismal disappointment.

Runs until 29th April

Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Guys & Dolls - Review

Bridge Theatre, London

****

Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser

Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows

Directed by Nicholas Hytner

Celinde Schoenmaker and Marisha Wallace

There comes a time in the life-cycle of a new build modern theatre on London’s South Bank, usually around six years after opening, that they put on their first musical, invariably settling on Guys and Dolls.

So it is right now at the Bridge Theatre with Nicholas Hytner’s production and so it was a couple of miles upstream at the National Theatre in 1982, when Richard Eyre put on the show that turned into the National’s first blockbuster hit. Six years is a theme here, for six years after Eyre’s moneyspinner opened he went on to become the venue’s artistic director and six years after he stood down from that role, Hytner took over. So clearly, Guys and Dolls is a great musical, much favoured by the nation’s great directors.

But do great musicals and great directors lead to great productions? 

Played immersively in the round and with New York-style neons rising and falling from the flies, Hytner’s Guys and Dolls sets out to be a distinctive interpretation of this classic show.  What is delivered however is a combination of the sensational but also the decidedly average that Hytner could have avoided. 

The female leads are both outstanding with Marisha Wallace as Miss Adelaide nailing the perpetual fiancée. In both spoken word and song, Wallace captures the frustrating, bittersweet predicament of Adelaide’s 14-year engagement. At her best in solo and duetted numbers Wallace is, as always, a joy to watch. Equally, Celinde Schoenmaker as Sarah Brown is another delight. Hers is a challenging character to pull off, the strait-laced Sergeant at the Save A Soul Mission falling for the roguish Sky Masterson. Schoenmaker however confidently captures Sarah’s complexities, and the vocal beauty of these two women singing together in Marry The Man Today proves to be the evening’s unexpected musical highlight.

The male leads are all competent but not memorable. Daniel Mays doesn’t quite get the New York shtick of Nathan Detroit and while Andrew Richardson smoulders as a very cool Sky Masterson, he fails to make the dramatic highs that his big number Luck Be A Lady requires. The programme notes suggest that neither Mays nor Richardson have significant experience in musical theatre and it shows.

Cedric Neal plays Nathan Detroit’s buddy Nicely-Nicely Johnson. Typically Guys and Dolls demands that the role is played as a groceries-gobbling, absent-minded slob albeit with a heart of gold, who in the prayer meeting at the show’s endgame metamorphoses into a show-stopping hero. Neal is a gifted performer, but struggles to convince as a slob. Big Jule (Cameron Johnson) calls him a “fat water buffalo” at the prayer meeting but in this production that description just does not ring true. If Hytner had thought to have had Nicely-Nicely Johnson’s brother Boris step up to the role, it may have proved a far more satisfying casting choice. 

And there are tiny gems in Loesser’s Runyon-esque dialogue that Hytner has steamrollered. Sky Masterson’s exclamation of “Cider!” after Nathan suckers him into taking Sarah to dinner, together with Lt Brannigan’s (Cornelius Clarke) wry wish that “I hope there’s nothing in heredity” are both tossed away with no attention paid to the lines’ comic potential. Loesser was a genius, with every word both of his lyrics and of Abe Burrows' libretto painstakingly crafted. Hytner and his cast need to pay more attention to the detail.

This may not be one of the great Guys and Dolls, but with Tom Brady’s 14-piece orchestra up in the circle, it does make for a night of fun theatre. Go and see it, for it’s a probable 12 to 7 that you’ll come out grinning.

Runs until 2nd September

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

The Merchant of Venice 1936 - Review

Watford Palace Theatre, Watford

****

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Brigid Larmour

Tracy-Ann Oberman and cast members

To read my interview with Tracy-Ann Oberman click here

For the second time in six months, the dramatic whirlwind that is Tracy-Ann Oberman has seen a play open that has not only been her brainchild, but has boldly and bravely put antisemitism firmly centre-stage. Her first foray into this field was at the Royal Court in September in what turned out to be a flawed piece of modern writing. This time however, by setting The Merchant of Venice to a backdrop of British fascism in the 1930s, Oberman has hitched the wagons of her creative firepower behind probably the greatest ever writer of English literature and the result is impressive.

The Merchant of Venice 1936 is an exciting interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s most troubling comedies and set against the era of Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists, one sees how easily the Jew-hatred of the Venetians can be translated across the continent to the British Isles. Pause longer, to consider the real impact of Jew-hatred in Europe that blazed in furnaces at that time and the reflection becomes even more chilling.

In a gender swapped Shylock, Oberman transforms the Jewish moneylender into a thickly accented matriarch. An immigrant from eastern Europe, her Shylock is drawn from her great-grandmother who hailed from Belarus and with an opening scene that includes lighting the sabbath candles and blessing a glass of kosher wine (dozens of which are shared with the audience in an opening mise-en-scene) Oberman makes a bold statement that this production of The Merchant of Venice will be firmly rooted in Shylock’s Jewish heritage and the hatred that she and her community endured then and to this day.

Oberman makes fine work, not just of Shylock’s complex motives, but also of some of the most cracking monologues in the canon. Hearing a woman complain of being spat upon, kicked and mocked takes the play’s already present antisemitism and fuels it with a deeply disturbing misogyny. That the homosexual love between Antonio and Bassanio is so strongly signalled in Brigid Larmour’s direction, only adds a troubling depth to the woman-hatred that this Shylock suffers.

The supporting cast are all sound, with standout work from Raymond Coulthard as the fascist Antonio and Hannah Morrish as an icily Mitford-esque Portia. Indeed, when Jessica (Graine Dromgoole) finds herself having eloped to Portia’s Belmont, the diffidence with which she is treated by her hostess together with her coterie, offers a subtle further take on the immigrant Jew as an outsider, never to be truly adopted into their country of residence however hard they may try to assimilate.

Erran Baron Cohen has composed an intelligent musical  soundtrack to the play – part schmaltzy Jewish melodies that reflect the scenes in Shylock’s home contrasted with ingeniously Cole Porter-esque tunes that reflect the profound antisemitism of the champagne-quaffing patricians. Liz Cooke's design work on set and costume offers up an effective transition between London’s East End poverty and Belmont’s beauty, while her fascists are elegantly clad in black, as Oberman’s Shylock sports a stunning fur trimmed coat.

If there’s a flaw it’s that perhaps the finale’s segue into the 1936 Battle Of Cable Street is an overly abrupt jolt that follows hard on the gentility of Belmont. Equally there’s a disappointing use of the Union Flag draped around the shoulders of a fascist thug. While the flag may well have been adopted by some uglier aspects of society, it has also been a symbol to immigrants as they stepped off the boat, especially those fleeing persecution, of a land that represented hope and opportunity. 

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s production is fine, informative theatre. The Merchant of Venice 1936 offers up not just classic verse, but also a history lesson on this country in the early 20th century. Well worth seeing.

To read my interview with Tracy-Ann Oberman click here

Runs to 11th March and then tours

To book for Watford Palace Theatre, click here

 Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Oklahoma! - Review

Wyndhams Theatre, London

***

Music by Richard Rodgers

Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs

Directed by Daniel Fish

Patrick Vaill

"You’re doing fine Oklahoma!” goes the title song but truth be told, the transfer across the Thames from the Young Vic to the Wyndhams has not proved an easy passage.

Daniel Fish’s production (originally reviewed to acclaim last year) was a groundbreaking interpretation which when set in the Young Vic’s versatile space, stunned with its bold and innovative take on the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. Moved to the Wyndham’s proscenium confines however and Fish’s wizardry evaporates into mist, much like the billowing cloud of haze that fills the West End auditorium for the Dream Ballet that opens Act Two.

The cast is almost the same troupe as played at The Cut last year. The notable absentee is Marisha Wallace whose Ado Annie was accurately tipped for Olivier recognition - she is missed.

Huw Evans’ band remains magnificent - a nine piece strings, accordion and percussion combo that give the memorable melodies a vigorous interpretation - equally, the singing is perfect across the cast. But it remains Patrick Vaill as the complex loner Jud Fry who steals the show. His Lonely Room is the evening’s vocal highlight and only Vaill truly manages to stamp a distinctive artistic impression on this West End transfer.

The ending of this show is gruesome - with a special effect that worked in Waterloo but is clumsy here. Stage management need to address the hole located centre stage, that’s clearly bloodstained from previous performances and which fires the gore into the cast.

Marie-Astrid Mence energetically dances the Dream Ballet. Again, this was enchanting at the Young Vic but on the Wyndhams’ stage, the cascade of cowboy boots that fall upon her from the rafters seems little more than the work of pretentious cobblers.

Booking until 2nd September

Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Shirley Valentine - Review

Duke of York's Theatre, London

*****

Written by Willy Russell

Directed by Matthew Dunster

Sheridan Smith

There’s a fusion of genius at the Duke of York’s Theatre where Willy Russell’s wit meets Sheridan Smith’s knockout performance as Shirley Valentine.

This two-hour one-hander, magnificently created on the West End, Broadway and on screen by Pauline Collins is now truly handed on to the next generation in Smith’s interpretation.

Her Shirley is landlocked to a life of chips and egg and a neighbour who if you’ve been to paradise, has got a season ticket there. A  happy turn of fate however sees Shirley go on to discover her emotional emancipation on a Greek island, with Smith delivering one of the greatest performances to be found in London right now.

Only last week this website championed Russell’s brilliance in the touring production of Blood Brothers. Lest there be any doubt, Shirley Valentine, a study of a Merseyside mum escaping mid-life mediocrity, is up there in the pantheon of great British writing. Russell sees the essence of everywoman in his script, captured without pretension or pomposity. His is wry perceptive observation that sparkles with humour. Yet scratch the surface of the play's countless written gems and you'll find an equally dark pool of pathos.

Sheridan Smith reclaims her title as one of the most talented performers of her age. Matthew Dunster has coaxed her performance into a perfectly timed comedy, punctured with points of poignancy and all with barely a pause for breath. Smith holds the audience in the palm of her hand throughout.

Paul Wills designs ingeniously capture Liverpool’s suburbia that after the interval, merge into an Ionian idyl. Equally Lucy Carter’s enchanting lighting, particularly in the second act, serves well to create the Mediterranean magic of Shirley’s journey of self-discovery. 

Don’t miss it!

Runs until 3rd June

Photo credit: John Wilson