The Pillowman - Review

Duke of York's Theatre, London

****

Written by Martin McDonagh

Directed by Matthew Dunster

Lily Allen and Steve Pemberton

Martin McDonagh’s absurdist play is an exploration of the freedom of speech and the suppression of dissent. 

In a dystopian world where the writer Katurian (played by Lily Allen) and her brother Michal (Matthew Tennyson) have grown up in an abusive family and where Tupolski (Steve Pemberton) and Ariel (Paul Kaye), the two cops investigating a series of murders that appear to have been committed by the siblings are themselves damaged individuals, little is what it seems.

McDonagh messes with our minds as Katurian’s short stories blur in and out of reality, with much of the play’s narrative, both spoken and occasionally physically performed, proving horrifically graphic. 

Technically, the production’s staging is breathtaking. Allen is responsible for delivering a raft of mind-boggling monologues, proving magnificent in the role. Equally Pemberton, and Kaye in particular, are compelling policemen. Anna Fleischle’s designs hitched to Neil Austin’s lighting work and Dick Straker’s videos ingeniously blur our perceptions, contributing to the evening’s sense of profound disquiet and even moments of awkward humour.

McDonagh’s argument ultimately suggests that it is the authoritarian state that stifles ideas. While there is of course some credence to this, it is also important to note that in 2023 books are being burned and voices are being silenced, not by the authorities, but by the pile-on mobs of social media and self-appointed cultural apparatchiks who are determining what ideas are and are not, acceptable. Thus the question has to be posed: Is The Pillowman, a play first performed some twenty years ago, an already out of date cliché?

Not an easy night out by any means - but a striking and memorable piece of theatre.

Runs until 2nd September

Photo credit Johan Persson

Translations - Review

National Theatre, London

****

Written by Brian Friel

Directed by Ian Rickson

Colin Morgan

The National Theatre presents a gorgeous revival of Brian Friel’s Translations, a sweet play set in the wee parish of Baile Beag, Ireland, in 1830, just before the infamous potato famine and during the Anglicisation on the country. The plentiful foresight and the vibrant exploration of the beauty and challenges of language make it a play to catch this summer. Ian Rickson directs, with language quite rightly at the forefront, as Irish and English characters come to wordy blows with Colin Morgan’s Owen translating between the tongues. With most of the spoken Irish translated, it is left to the performers to make it abundantly clear just who has understood what, and to drive the play’s plentiful humour home. 

Owen, a worldly character for the time having lived six years in Dublin, returns home to a village that quite simply has not changed at all.  (Itself a sensation shared, quite possibly,  by every Londoner in the audience who heads “home” to rural parts every few months). He brings with him two British military cartographers, the uptight Captain Lancey (Rufus Wright) and the more fanciful Lieutenant George Yolland (Adetomiwa Edun). Yolland is the typical Englishman abroad - incapable of handling his drink and immediately setting his sights on the local female talent, going on to create an unlikely corner of a love triangle with Owen’s lame brother Manus (a gentle portrayal from Seamus O’Hara) and the impressively ambitious Maire, played by Judith Roddy. With eyes on a boat across the Atlantic, Maire's wish is to escape calloused hands at the next harvest.

The two officers have come to survey the land for the six-inch-to-the-mile map being drawn up, and in so doing to Anglicise the renaming of local landmarks and disrupting the blissful peace of the locale. The brothers’ father is the drunken scholar and teacher Hugh, portrayed gruffly by Ciarán Hinds, who spends most of the play trading Greek poetry and myths with Dermot Crowley’s Jimmy Jack Cassie who steals the show with a tearful confession towards the end of the second act.

Translations’ designs are by Rae Smith, herself theatre’s go-to rural scenescape guru of the moment, having only just created the shattered idyll for the Bridge Theatre’s Nightfall a mile or so down the Thames. Smith's designs clearly evoke the countryside's delightful chaos, suggesting  world that is akin to intruding upon a remote local pub in the middle of nowhere. A place where there are in-jokes and relationships only born out of  those who’ve known each other throughout their lives. Uplit lighting by National regular Neil Austin and violin filled morose sound by Ian Dickinson complete the eerie, mist-filled staging. 

It is rare to find a show so good-natured and yet ominous and academic, all at the same time. Come for the raucous humour by the comedy pairings of Aoife Duffin’s Bridget and Laurence Kinlan’s Doalty. Stay for the dramatic, dirty colonialism and the lesson in the pros and cons of multilingualism. Beautiful and daring, go see it.

Runs until 11th August

Reviewed by Heather Deacon

Photo credit: Catherine Ashmore

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Review

Palace Theatre, London


*****

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany
Written by Jack Thorne
Directed by John Tiffany

Jamie Parker

Translating Harry Potter from page to stage is a task so immense that it almost requires wizardry itself. In her books J.K. Rowling has written with such detail that the reader can picture the action as vividly as the imagination will allow. Similarly and alongside, in the movies' post production suites clever editing combined with digital technology has brought almost anything to life. So, could a stage presentation of the latest episode(s) of the Harry Potter series match the buzz of the books or the hype and hysteria that has surrounded the much loved movies? 

The answer is most definitely Yes.

The success of Harry Potter and The Cursed Child lies not just with its excellent cast, but rather with its creative team and writers. From the outset, both parts of this gargantuan production constantly reference and revisit the series' previous books, yet all the while pulling off a magnificent coup by moving forward with a spellbinding script that actually demands no prior Potter knowledge at all.

Notwithstanding that any Harry Potter story is going to demand spectacular trickery, the real magic here lies with the basics, with Steven Hoggett’s movement direction proving as slick as any of the on-stage illusions. Hoggett’s choreography - alongside Imogen Heap's music - not only sets the scenes but also captures the atmosphere of locations such as Hogwarts School where the majority of the play is set. 

John Tiffany seamlessly stitches together state of the art effects alongside traditional top-notch stagecraft. While all the expected illusions and gimmicks are here, everything goes one step further than expected. Flying, floating and transforming all take place before the eyes of the audience, at times even filling the auditorium, but the sucker punch is delivered on stage by the cast. Carving out intimate moments on stage, Tiffany allows us to meet the characters - some more familiar than others - but each nonetheless given time to establish their relationships with each other. 

Amongst hard core fans in the audience some revelations may cause gasps of shock and surprise but again, previous knowledge is far from a necessity. Picking up the Potter legacy nineteen years from where the story left off, Jamie Parker's Harry, Norma Dumezweni as Hermione and Paul Thornley's Ron are all adults now. Jack Thorne's writing ensures that each of the three bring their character's classic traits and tributes from the books to their own performance, while more than putting their own stamp firmly on their respective roles.

Parker’s take on the relationship between Harry Potter and his two sons is particularly moving. Tom Milligan plays James Potter the mad, eccentric big brother to Albus Potter played by Sam Clemmett. The play sets off with the two brothers on their way to Hogwarts. James settles in well and is proud of his father’s name at the school. Albus' time at Hogwarts is more challenging and through the various twists and turns of his struggles, the relationship between father and son becomes even more strained. Parker and Clemmett rise to the roles with raw and emotive performances from both actors. 

Building a set that comes close to some of the great Rowling tableaux was never going to be easy but Christine Jones' tall gothic arches create the Potter world perfectly. Bookcases swivel to become mazes, as staircases twist and turn transforming settings, all enhanced by Neil Austin's ingenious lighting designs.

When the Potter books were first published there was acclaim for J.K. Rowling, not just for having penned a damn good yarn, but for having almost single-handedly reintroduced reading to a generation. And as this review is published, bookstore queues are stretching around the block for the play's script, released today as the 8th title in the series. It would be wonderful if when the play transfers globally, as it surely will, that it may also take introduce the inspirational experience of live dramatic theatre to a new generation too. 

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is a spectacular play - and it should remain a source of much pride to Sonia Friedman, Rowling and the show's entire cast and crew that such epic theatre has been developed and premiered in London's West End.

Booking until December 2017

Review by Joe Sharpe

Photo credit Manuel Harlan

Macbeth

Manchester International Festival, Manchester, and via NT Live on July 20 ( see below)

*****

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford

Kenneth Branagh

In this baking summer heat, a de-consecrated church in Manchester has been converted into a veritable cauldron. No eye of newt or fenny snake fillet  in this pot though. Rather the most inspired and infernal combination of an almost medieval venue, floored with mud, drenched with (real) rain, equipped with basically brutal steel and wood scenery, yet also endowed with state of the art theatre-craft. Wrap this combination up in some of Shakespeare's most beautiful prose, have it performed by actor-director Kenneth Branagh's company, and the result is theatrical enchantment.

Branagh's impact upon this production is profound. The poetry of Macbeth is legendary, and the actor's considered interpretation of its rhythm and context reveals new depths to Macbeth's tortured soul. Branagh has a demonstrated love for and understanding of Shakespeare that is almost unique amongst his generation and rarely has each classic monologue or soliloquy from both Macbeth and his Lady been so longed for by the audience. Simply put, the acting talent within this Manchester International Festival offering is a privilege to witness. 

Alex Kingston

It is the cast of this play that are the jewels in Branagh's crown. Alex Kingston's Lady Macbeth is a masterclass in manipulative matrimony, sliding before our eyes into bleak suicidal madness. Her sleepwalking scene, free of all gimmicks and trickery harrows as the actress gives fresh depth and interpretation to this most complex of Shakespeare's women. John Shrapnel's Duncan defines majesty. Ray Fearon's Macduff is as menacing when he avenges his family's slaughter, as he is heartbreaking when told of their deaths and in the sweetest of cameos, Rosalie Craig's devotedly maternal Lady Macduff claws at our base emotions as we see her witness her son's murder. Norman Bowman's Scottish brogue makes his Ross a vocal treat, whilst Charlie Cameron, Laura Elsworthy and Anjana Vasan's Witches give these Shakespearean women a ghoulishly freakish twist that alarms as much as delights.

The venue is an inspired choice. Performed in the traverse, the beautifully restored building lends itself magnificently to suggesting a feudal kingdom, far removed from the modern day. Timbers groan, and when the portly Scottish Jimmy Yuill's Banquo is slaughtered, crashing into the wall (in front of this reviewer's row A seat), his dying, clutching grasps as he succumbed were haunting. Christopher Oram's costumes of the era add to the work's chronology and the magnificent swordplay literally sees sparks fly as the heavy steel blades collide under fight director Terry King's design.

It is a credit to the production that the cast are undetectably mic'd. The clarity is perfect throughout as Christopher Shutt's sound crew manage Patrick Doyle's beautiful music, along with the delivery of the spoken word, perfectly. Lit by Neil Austin, some effects are breathtaking. That a dagger can be suggested on the floor by a bright light shining through a chink in a timber wall is a neat touch - but when daylight suddenly illuminates the stage, streaming through the building's magnificent rose-window  and supplied as it turns out, by a massive floodlight set atop a cherry-picker OUTSIDE the church, one has to gasp at the ingenuity that can deploy modern technology to deliver such a beautifully conceived yet sweetly simple vision.

Alexander Vlahos as Malcolm, battles in the muddy, bloody rain

Rob Ashford co-directs and where this giant of Broadway and the West End's strengths can lie in conceiving the movement and choreography of the text, so Branagh is a world class authority on the Bard and an accomplished movie director. The union of these creative talents is far greater than the sum of their parts. They have imbued the story with a sense of authentic spectacle usually associated with gimmickry rather than the artistic brilliance that this production represents. They give a depth to the play that focuses on the simple raw beauty of the visual image as well as the splendid verse. The result is a rare, precious and undeniably definitive production.

Runs until July 21

Making the Unmissable unmissable, those wonderful people at NTLive will be broadcasting Macbeth live to cinemas across the country and also globally, on July 20 2013. The broadcast production values of the NTLive series are world class, bringing outstanding theatre to within not only the geographical reach, but also the budget, of all.

NTLive booking details can be found here.