Parth Thakerar – Amal, Vera Chok – Bo, Lucy Robinson – Ursula,
Rosie Hilal – Julia, Olivia Vinall – Hilary, Damien Molony - Spike in The Hard
Problem
Reviewed by James
Karas
Tom Stoppard has provided more mental gymnastics and burned more
cerebral calories than many playwrights put together. Since 1966 when Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern Are Dead was produced, he has never failed to
fascinate, entertain and intellectually challenge. The Hard Problem, his
latest play, does all of those things and the mental exertions leave you
exhausted, entertained and somewhat in the dark.
When the lights go on in the small Dorfman Theatre at the National
Theatre in London, you see a jumble of cables overhead. They are lit in various
circular shapes and they look like the nerves of the human brain. There are
also vertical wires which are lit in a kaleidoscope of colours.
The mental exertion required by the play reminded me of the physical demands
on the body of a reasonably healthy individual who has not run a few kilometers
on a treadmill or used machines that promise to change his glutes, biceps,
triceps, abs and other parts of his anatomy that he does not know that he has
into muscular bundles of Herculean proportions.
A very attractive young woman named Hilary (Olivia Vinall) and a
handsome young man named Spike (Daniel Molony) are discussing the subject of
goodness or being good instead of hopping into the bed that is readily
available.
She thinks that there is such a thing as good, altruism and doing an act
of decency for its own sake. He argues that all of that is merely an
evolutionary development that is simply self-serving. Good exists as a result
of a cost-benefit analysis.
Now this is like getting on a treadmill and running at a leisurely pace.
You understand and feel that it is doing something good for – all that panting
and sweating – and your monthly donation to the gym seems justified.
Things get tougher. Hilary, the brilliant psychologist, prays to God and
wants to do a study on something like Nature-Nurture Convergence in Egoistic
and Altruistic something-or-other. What? You have gone to a machine that
requires strength beyond your ability to muster and try to exercise something
that you don’t even know you have and you move quickly away.
Hilary wants to be accepted by the Krohl Institute for Brain Science. Spike
describes what the Institute does and you only understand the part about
organic vegetables and free Pilates. Spike throws even mother love into the
utility bin. What is left, if you understood Spike’s high fallutin’ lingo, is
just a bunch of nerves or wires or whatever the brain is made up of that work
like a fancy machine!?
By now you are drenched in perspiration, your heart is pounding and you
are not sure what benefit you are deriving from all those fancy and exhausting
exercises. Nevertheless, you want to continue in the hopes that bulging muscles
are within reach.
But as far as Stoppard is concerned that is just the beginning. The hard
question of what we are is partly belief or faith - belief that we are
creatures that have evolved over millions of years into what we are and partly faith
that there may be more than evolution or at the very least more than we can
explain. Oh God or goodness!
Stoppard does not dwell on intellectual arguments alone. Hilary gave up
her daughter for adoption when she gave birth to her at age 15. She is haunted
by her memory and her prayers for a miracle are connected to her child.
Stoppard takes a few shots at the financial industry which is obsessed
with numbers and logarithms and the use of which made Jerry Krohl (Anthony
Calf), the financier of the Institute, a “squillionaire”. There are other
scientists like Leo (Jonathan Cloy), Ursula (Lucy Robinson) and mathematicians
Amal (Parth Takerar) and Bo (Vera Chok). The play is humanized by a domestic
scene with Jerry and his daughter as well as the presence of Julia (Rosie
Hilal) a school friend of Hilary’s and, unlike the intellectual superstars, a
Pilates instructor.
Nicholas Hytner’s directing fits the tone of the play which is to say
brilliant. Bob Crowley’s design is Spartan. A bed and a desk in the opening
scene, a stark office, a kitchen table and a hotel bed make up the rest of the
sets.
I saw The Hard Problem in a movie house in Toronto and it worked very
well. The small stage transferred well onto the screen and we could have done
even with fewer camera angles. The close-ups were of some utility but the
Dorfman is such a small theatre that the benefit was limited.
The benefits of going to the gym or seeing plays by Stoppard deserve
further consideration. With the former, you risk injury but may get the
concomitant benefit of better health and longer life. If so you should consider
the mental gymnastics provided by Stoppard as a possible aide to improving the
health of the uppermost segment of the anatomy which may rarely be doing
vigorous pushups.
_____
The Hard Problem by Tom Stoppard
opened on January 28, 2015 and continues at the Dorfman Theatre, National
Theatre, South Bank,
London, England. http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/ It was shown on April 16, 2015 at
the Cineplex VIP Don Mills Shops at Don Mills, 12 Marie Labatte Road, Toronto
Ontario M3C 0H9 and other theatres. It will be shown again on May 16, 2015 at
various theatres. http://www.cineplex.com/Events/NationalTheatre
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