RICHARD II - REVIEW OF ALMEIDA THEATRE PRODUCTION WITH SIMON RUSSELL BEALE

Reviewed by James Karas 

The play:                                           The Tragedy of King Richard the Second

Author:                                              William Shakespeare.

Number of characters

in text:                                               35

Number of characters in

Almeida Theatre production:            12

Number of actors

(who are on stage throughout):         8

Set:                                                    A grey box

Props:                                                half a dozen pails with water, blood and dirt

Playing time:                                     90 minutes with no intermission.

These are the facts of the production of Richard II directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins with Simon Russell Beale in the title role at the Almeida Theatre. They do not disclose the fact that it is an extraordinary production and an outstanding portrayal of the hapless King Richard by an actor who seems to have gotten under the skin of the character. 

Simon Russell Beale and cast. Photo: Marc Brenner 

Beale, dressed in a black t-shirt and black pants with an almost comical crown on his head, presents Richard in all his fundamental weakness, his vacuous arrogance and his insipidity.  Richard in his pathetic shallowness believes that he has been appointed king by God and no human power can remove him from that position.

Beale displays these attitudes and characteristics of Richard without bombast or pomposity. He is God’s chosen and cannot conceive how anyone can question his authority.

The inept king and incompetent leader who wears a hollow crown on an arrogant head is finally defeated by the capable Henry Bolingbroke who becomes Henry IV. Richard delivers a kind of dirge on his life in his final soliloquy which is delivered by Beale with incomparable poetic musicality.

Leo Bill as Bolingbroke provides the necessary contrast to Richard. He is a true leader, decisive, ambitious, efficient and ruthless. He has everything that Richard lacks including the smarts to show remorse at the death of the former king even though he wished it.

Joseph Mydell plays Gaunt and delivers the familiar “this royal throne of kings” speech without sounding like an old man who is about to die.    

 Simon Russell Beale and cast. Photo: Marc Brenner 

 Saskia Reeves plays Mowbray, Bushy, Green and the powerful Duchess of York while John Mackay plays her husband the Duke of York. Martins Imhangbe plays Bagot and the treacherous Duke of Aumerle while Natalie Klamar plays the Bishop of Carlisle. Robin Weaver plays the Earl of Northumberland.

As indicated the actors never leave the stage during the 90-minute duration of the performance and their presence provides a unified picture of the production that is engrossing. Outstanding performances from beginning to end.

The play has been dramaturged by Jeff James and the result with the eight actors on stage is a seamless and quick transition from one scene to the next without losing the central plotline or the strength of this outstanding production.

Hill-Gibbins gives us a Richard II pared down to its essence. He has drawn out the soul of the play and the results is Shakespeare and theatre at their best.

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Richard II by William Shakespeare continues until February 2, 2019 at the Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, London, England. https://almeida.co.uk

TWELFTH NIGHT – REVIEW OF SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Can you stage William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night for 10+ year olds and make it entertaining? The initial reply may be “good luck” but that holds only until you have seen what Southwark Playhouse does with the play. Southwark Playhouse is a tiny theatre in the Borough of Southwark in east London and they are planning to show Twelfth Night to some 1400 school children for free. They inform us in their programme that most of those young people will be going to the theatre for the first time. Applause, please.

They are doing Twelfth Night in a shortened version, an hour and a half, if you will, with half a dozen actors playing about a dozen roles. Unorthodox, exuberant, bizarre, call it what you want but this is a production for young newcomers and not for gray-haired veterans with pre-conceptions or worse.

 Let’s get started. Some of actors are playing music and making a hubbub in the playing area which is the size of a big bedroom. There are five women and one man, and they introduce themselves and explain how we can recognize them in their roles. Becky Barry tells us that she will play Viola when she is wearing a hat and her brother Sebastian when she is hatless.

Sapphire Joy plays Olivia (no cap) and Orsinia, hat on. That is not a typo. Orsino is Orsinia. Carolina Parker is Antonia the Sea Captain and Sir Toby Belch. Liv Spencer is Valentina and Maria. Luke Wilson, the sole male in the cast, is Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Malvolio. Aruhan Galieva is Feste and she is an instrumentalist and singer as well. As you can see there is some gender confusion but let’s leave that for now.

Many scenes and lines have to be cut if the show is to be finished in an hour and a half with some singing and stage business to entertain us. We start with “if music be the food love” with Feste playing on the keyboard and move quickly to Olivia’s place where she is refusing to have anything to do with men. The young people and even the older attendees one hopes, can keep up with the fact that Olivia and Orsinia are played by the same actor and not raise an eyebrow when they find out that Orsinia is madly in love with Olivia.

Viola impersonating a man arrives at Orsinia’s palace and we can feel amorous electricity between them. And that is nothing compared to the erotic current flowing from Olivia to Viola a.k.a. Cesario.

Twin brother Sebastian arrives just in time to avert Olivia’s passion away from his sister to himself and learn the meaning of the word bliss. Some people who took Twelfth Night in high school and can still remember a few things may point out that Orsinia and Olivia, and Viola and Sebastian appear on stage at the same time. How do we handle that? Director Anna Girvan and Southwark Playhouse think out of the box. Grab a member from the audience and put a hat on her – presto, you have an Olivia and an Orsinia. What about Viola and brother Sebastian? How quickly can Galieva get in the same costume as Barry?

The production is fast-moving. There is dancing, singing, athletics (Malvolio is very good at pushups) and general mayhem on the stage. You remember the confrontation between Viola and Sir Andrew where the two are bamboozled into an almost-sword-fight? There is no need for swords in this production. One of them gets a guitar and the other one a saxophone and the almost-duel is fought like that.

The actors are highly competent, and Girvan maintains discipline in the delivery of Shakespeare’s lines while organizing shenanigans for the rest of the production.

As for the gender confusion, Olivia and Sebastian, Orsinia and Viola found love and bliss and lived happily ever after. Vigorous applause.

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Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare opened on January 19 and will play until February 9, 2019 at the Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD. http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/

TRUE WEST – REVIEW OF LONDON PRODUCTION OF SHEPARD’S PLAY

By James Karas

Sam Shepard’s True West is a play about vicious sibling rivalry but, as its title suggests, it also deals with the American obsession with westerns and consequently the American Dream, whatever that is.

Two brothers from a dysfunctional family meet in their mother’s house in southern California after many years of separation. Their mother is in Alaska and their father is a down and out bum.

At first glance, the brothers appear to be completely different. The bespectacled Austin (Kit Harington) is an Ivy League university educated writer working on a movie script. He is a scholarly and focused gentleman.

 From left: Kit Harington, Donald Sage Mackay and Johnny Flynn. Photo: Marc Brenner 

His brother Lee (Johnny Flynn) is a rough-hewn, vulgar, violent petty thief. He is so aggressive and menacing that we expect him or fear that he will strike Austin at any moment. In short, we have a drunken low-life and a civilized human being on the edge of the desert in California.

Saul (Donald Sage Mackay) comes to discuss Austin’s idea for a screenplay. The garrulous, uncouth and almost illiterate drunkard Lee intrudes into the conversation with a cockamamie idea about a western and Saul falls for it. Shepard ridicules the American idea of the western with its ludicrous plots.    

Austin loses his composure and becomes jealous and slowly violent at the thought that his Neanderthal brother has in effect replaced him. We see a complete transformation of the two siblings as one takes the place of the other and vice versa.

Their mother (Madeleine Potter) appears. She does not seem to have any effect on the violence that she sees in her children as they fight viciously.

Harington and Flynn do superb work as the two brothers. They must engage is some vigorous physical fighting and emotional highs as they move from one character extreme into the opposite.

Mackay and Potter as the producer (or is he just an agent?) and the mother are small roles that act as catalysts for the transformation and violence we see in the brothers as they change in front of our eyes.

Kit Harington and Johnny Flynn In 'True West.' Photo: Marc Brenner

The set by Jon Bausor consists of a kitchen, work area and sitting room in the first half which opens to show us the desert in the final scenes.

Director Matthew Dunster brings out the strengths of the play, especially the violent outbursts and destructive fight sequences. Flynn’s outbursts are scary. The end is ambiguous, but you may have a different opinion. No plot spoiler.

True West is not Shepard’s best play, but it is a highly respectable part of his work and the production is very much worth seeing.

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True West by Sam Shepard continues until February 23, 2019 at the Vaudeville Theatre, 404 Strand, London, England. https://www.nimaxtheatres.com/shows/true-west/

TARTUFFE - REVIEW OF CANADIAN STAGE REVIVAL OF 2017 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Canadian Stage has very wisely staged a revival of the 2017 Stratford Festival production of Moliere’s Tartuffe. For those who did not see it, a masterly and thoroughly enjoyable production awaits them. For those who saw it, they get a repeat delight.

How is it done?

Let’s look at Chis Abrahams’s directing. He does not so much direct the production as choreograph it. He sets a brisk pace right from the start and he never lets it falter. Proper intonation and expression are essential but Abraham wants more than that. He requires physical agility, body contortions and movements that produce laughter over and above what is expected. His attention to detail does not allow any opportunity for laughter to escape him. This is simply masterly directing. 

Members of the company. Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann

He has a lot of help from a seriously talented cast.

Tom Rooney as Tartuffe is a man of boundless phony piety and seething lust for sex and wealth. He is such an extraordinary manipulator that he can tell the truth about himself, show remorse at swatting a flea and be caught trying to seduce Orgon’s wife without shaking the latter’s conviction of his piety. And Rooney is funny as he spouts godliness and swills wine.

Graham Abbey’s Orgon is an over-excited dupe who is willing to give his daughter, his wife and his property to the charlatan. Abraham has Abbey run, rant, do pushups and become frantic, all in successful attempts at evoking laughter.

Akosua Amo-Adem as the servant Dorine grabs our attention and laughter from her first appearance and never lets off. She is smart, she is mouthy and she is hilarious. Again, Abraham creates additional comedy by choreographing body language by Amo-Adem that is simply hilarious.

The love interest and youthful vigour are provided by Mercedes Morris as Mariane, Johnathan Sousa as her betrothed Valere and Emilio Vieira as her brother Damis. Michael Blake as Elmire’s brother Cleante is the logical counterbalance to Orgon.

Rod Beattie has the minor role of Monsieur Loyal, the sheriff who delivers the writ of possession for Orgon’s house. His lines are those of a process server but Beattie manages to get a few laughs even from them.

Maev Beatie as Elmire and Tom Rooney as Tartuffe. Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann

Maev Beaty is simply superb as Elmire, the exasperated wife of the fool Orgon. She is highly alluring right from her first entrance and we soon realize that Tartuffe is lusting after her. She needs to rebuff him and then attract him in order to entrap him. The entrapment scene is perhaps the funniest scene in the play as she dodges Tartuffe and maintains his aroused interest in her.

Abraham uses Ranjit Bolt’s fluid 2002 rhyming verse translation of Tartuffe. Rhyming couplets can stick to actors’ tongues and sound awkward to the audience. In this case the translation propels the delivery of the couplets rather than hindering them. The pace is set by Rosemary Dunsmore as Mme. Pernelle in the opening scene. Like most of the characters, she has some long speeches but Dunsmore delivers her lines at a good clip and we are delighted to hear her.

Abraham could not resist adding a good number of references to current events and phrases from fake news, to make our country great again, to #blessed, to unfollow me, to vegan to lock him up.

The production is done in modern dress and set in present-day France judging by the music in the opening scene. The set by Julie Fox consists of a modern living room with a bar area and stairs leading to an upper floor.

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Tartuffe by Moliere in a translation by Ranjit Bolt played from January 13 to 27, 2019 at the Bluma Appel Theatre, St Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front St E, Toronto, ON M5E 1B4. www.canadianstage.com

NINE NIGHT – REVIEW OF NEW PLAY BY NATASHA GORDON AT TRAFALGAR STUDIOS

Reviewed by James Karas

Nine Night is a first play by Natasha Gordon and it is simply a gem. It has well-developed characters in a plot that is funny, human and dramatic. The action climaxes in a heart wrenching scene that you only see in superb productions.

The play is about the death and aftermath of Gloria, a Jamaican woman, in England. Her family gather in her house and Nine Night refers to traditional rituals associated with the funerals of Jamaicans.  The nine days of mourning include music, drinking, eating and welcoming mourners.

 

Oliver Alvin-Wilson, Natasha Gordon, Rebekah Murrell, Karl Collins and Cecilia Noble. 

Photo: © Helen Murray

We never see Gloria but we do meet seven members of her family. Her cousin Maggie (Cecilia Noble) and her husband Vince (Karl Collins), both in their seventies, arrive. Aunt Maggie is from the old school. She is opinionated, crotchety and simply hilarious. Cecilia Noble’s performance is simply stellar as she waddles around the stage and speaks in a Jamaican accent so thick that she was very difficult to understand. It made little difference because the richness of her intonation left no doubt about what she was saying, and she was both dramatic and funny.

That was not all. The deeply humane Aunt Maggie breaks into an old Negro spiritual near the end of the play that provides an amazing denouement to the play. I won’t give you more details lest I spoil it for you.                                               

Gloria had three children. Robert (Oliver Alvin-Wilson) is a businessman who is looking for money for his ventures even during his mother’s funeral. He is married to a white woman, Sophie (Hattie Ladbury) and he knows how hurtful bigotry can be. When he met Sophie’s mother, she looked at him as if her were an animal.

The voice of reason and the unifying force of the family is Lorraine (played by the author) who must deal with her daughter Anita (Adele James) who went for a degree instead of having children, according to Uncle Vince. She reminds him that she got both. She is the future of Jamaicans in England.

Gloria’s daughter Trudy (Michelle Greenidge) is a pivotal character in the play and she brings the fate of some immigrants into focus. Gloria left Trudy with her grandmother in Jamaica and that created permanent wounds in Trudy’s and Gloria’s psyche. Through her life and especially during her last days on earth, Gloria yearned and ached for the daughter that she left behind. She had Robert and Lorraine with another man. The pain and the longing as described seem to have been indescribably raw for Gloria.      

 Natasha Gordon, Karl Collins, Michelle Greenidge, Cecilia Noble. 

Photo: © Helen Murray

Trudy describes her own pain at being abandoned with her grandmother. Lorraine insists that their mother never truly abandoned Trudy and supported her financially and sent for her to come to England. Trudy screams “never” in a piercing voice that expresses the immeasurable agony of a child abandoned by her mother. It left me stunned and is one of the most heart-wrenching climactic scenes that I have seen in recent memory.

I have nothing but unstinting praise for director Roy Alexander Weise and the entire cast. Gorden has given us a snapshot of the life of Jamaican immigrants in England and a marvelous play that contains humour and drama that add up to a great night at the theatre.

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Nine Night by Natasha Gordon had its world premiere on August 30, 2018 at the Dorfman Theatre in a production by the National Theatre. On December 1, 2018 it transferred to and continues until February 23, 2019 at Trafalgar Studios, 14 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2DY http://www.trafalgar-studios.co.uk/

THE CANE – REVIEW OF PLAY BY MARK RAVENHILL AT ROYAL COURT THEATRE

James Karas

The Cane in Mark Ravenhill’s new play refers to what turns out to be the most important and lethal instrument in the hands of a teacher. We quickly realize that Edward, who is retiring after 45 years of teaching, at one time used to cane some of his students. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was going to be a play about a pedophile who abused his authority over children and sexually assaulted them. In other words, the specialty of some Catholic priests. I was wrong.

Edward (Alun Armstrong) and his wife Maureen (Maggie Steed) are waiting for his celebratory retirement but there is a large number of students and former students protesting outside their house. A brick is thrown through their window and their daughter Anna (Nicola Walker) arrives and tries to unravel the reason for the protests and the rock through the window. 

Nicola Walker, Alun Armstrong in The Cane. © Johan Persson

It will take until the end of the play for us to determine the reason for the rock-throwing and more importantly to examine fully the three characters and their lives. We will witness a taut, well-structured and compelling dramatic work and riveting performances by the three actors. The Cane is a play that moves mostly backwards to give us revelations from the past and then leaps forward into an unexpected but shocking end.

Ravenhill has developed the three characters meticulously and their actions are completely understandable. Armstrong’s bravura performance as Edward gives us the portrait of a bully who is devoted to following the rules. If the rules call for a misbehaving youngster to be caned five times on the hand or his buttocks, Edward will do it with Prussian precision. He will then enter it on a ledger, insure that the permission of the child’s parents is included and even explain to the victim that he is doing it only to correct his behavior and not out of any malice. Everything is done according to the rules.

Anna is his only daughter and all evidence points to an inept parent who showed more regard for the cane that he used to punish boys than for his child. She grew up hating her parents intensely and left axe marks on the walls from a particularly bad fit when she screamed that she wanted to kill her father.

Steed’s Maureen is an apathetic woman who is bullied and humiliated by her husband. They never discussed having a child, but she became pregnant. The rearing of Anna was a disaster leaving her parents with nothing but hatred for her. They have had nothing to do with her for years.

 Maggie Steed and Anna Walker. Photo: John Persson

Anna is a smart and successful teacher in the Academy schools which, according to her, are connected to life and practical reality. She is raising her own children after her marriage failed. She displays a keen mind and complete self-control as she digs deeply into her father’s history as a teacher, a disciplinarian and a hateful person.

The facts come out slowly and methodically, but our attention never flags for a second. The number of protesters outside the house grows and Edward is finally forced to produce the cane that he used decades ago when caning was permitted. He wrapped the cane in a blanket and stored it in the attic of his house with care and almost affection one may say. If only he had shown the same regard for his daughter.

The set by Chloe Lamford consists of an almost unfurnished large room with some steps leading to the other rooms of the house and an opening to the attic. A painting of a charging elephant is visible on the back wall.

Director Vicky Featherstone shows masterly control of the action. She is so meticulous in maintaining the perfect pace that there is not a sing line or movement that does not keep our attention rivetted.

A thrilling performance of a marvelous play and a compelling night at the theatre.

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The Cane by Mark Ravenhill continues until January 26, 2019 at the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS.  www.royalcourttheatre.com  

TIMON OF ATHENS RETURNS TO GREECE IN ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY PRODUCTION

James Karas

For those who think that the Royal Shakespeare Company decamps from Stratford-upon-Avon at the end of its summer season and moves to London, they should think and look again. The RSC has fall and winter productions in both cities. In a quick visit I was able to catch Timon of Athens and Tartuffe in one day after a pleasant train ride from London.

Timon of Athens is in a class of its own as a play and scholars have determined that it is in fact a collaborative play by Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton written around 1607.

Timon is a wealthy Athenian who is almost pathologically generous and flamboyant. He entertains lavishly and gives gifts to just about everyone with staggering disregard for his financial position. He is surrounded by moochers and sycophants until his creditors demand payment.  

Timon's "friends" enjoying her generosity. Photo: Simon Annand  © RSC

He is not worried because he is sure that the people who enjoyed his largesse will come to his rescue but not one of them does. He goes bankrupt and becomes bitter and misanthropic. He moves out of Athens where he lives alone and curses humanity with unequalled vitriol.

The story of Timon is known from ancient sources especially from Plutarch but the information is limited. Timon may be from Athens but this may well be the first production that places him in Modern Greece. Unfortunately, the play’s creaky plot becomes a parable for the recent financial boom and bust of Greece that garnered much unpleasant and unflattering publicity.

Director Simon Godwin and designer Soutra Gilmour place Timon squarely in post-economic collapse Greece where his personal profligacy and the national spending binge resulted in personal and national financial ruin for Timon and Greece respectively.

Timon and most of the characters are played by women. Kathryn Hunter plays Timon.  She has a sultry, low-pitched voice and is quite exuberant during her spending spree. Her mooching guests wear expensive clothes, many of them emphasizing gold tones. The eccentric philosopher Apemantus (Nia Gwynne) and the revolutionary Alcibiades (Debbie Korley) are the exceptions.

Hunter does a fine job in the first half of the play when she enjoys her wealth and the adulation brought by her generosity. But when she loses everything and is seen digging outside of Athens, she does not exude the full force of her misanthropic fulminations and hatred. More power is required in delivering those lines.

 Kathryn Hunter as Timon and her creditors. Photo: Simon Annand  © RSC

Gwynne does a good job as the cynical Apemantus as does Korley as Alcibiades but most of the other characters are more types than well-developed human beings. Patrick Drury is the sympathetic and competent steward who counsels Timon wisely before his downfall and stands by him afterwards.

We hear a bouzouki and a band play and faux Greek music, and members of the cast do some (unconvincing) Greek dancing. There is a singer that sings a few bars of a Greek song as well as Alcibiades and his followers breaking into “Na paro to toufeki mou,” a cry against the Turkish occupation of old that was also sung by student protesters during the military dictatorship.

Timon of Athens is a seriously uneven play and every production is a bonus. The Greek angle taken by Godwin is highly interesting and with Brexit high on the agenda of British politics and Grexit not quite forgotten, there is an added political curiosity. The two collaborators of 1607 still deserve our attention.  

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Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton continues until February 22, 2019 at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, England.  https://www.rsc.org.uk/