UK Theatre Network

Arthur Miller’s 1955 play A View from the Bridge, set in the impoverished world of New York dockers and longshoremen, has the same sense of timelessness as the Greek tragedies it references.  Yet the subplot about desperate illegal immigrants and their precarious twilight existence strikes an urgent contemporary note today.

Eddie Carbone is a simple and good-hearted manual labourer.  Thanks to his generosity and sense of responsibility his wife Beatrice has never had to work and together they have raised Beatrice’s orphaned niece Catherine as their own.  But as Catherine has grown up Eddie has become more over-protective and possessive of her, and Beatrice’s eagerness for Catherine to fly the nest is as much for her own sake as her niece’s.

Miller’s narrator is the neighbourhood lawyer Alfieri, a not-so-cool and dispassionate observer of the unfolding drama.  For him, legal practice walks hand in hand with the laws of nature: “The law is only a word for what has a right to happen”.  As Eddie’s natural affection for Catherine becomes something more sinister, the catalyst for his inevitable punishment arrives in the guise of Beatrice’s illegal immigrant cousins, Marco and Rodolpho.

Olivier award-winner Con O’Neill plays Eddie with a surprising amount of tolerance and humour – in fact humour is the overwhelming note of Sarah Frankcom’s production – but the moment in Act Two when Eddie crosses the line with his niece draws an audible gasp of horror from the audience.

Anna Francolini’s jealous Beatrice, who seems rather too smart and middle-class to be married to a docker, revels in the shrewish aspects of the role, while Leila Mimmack’s feisty Catherine seems to grow up in front of our eyes.  Ronan Raferty’s sparkling and mercurial Rodolpho has exactly the quality the playwright describes of being able to make people laugh just from his manner of speaking.

Ian Redford was in the Exchange’s production of Antigone a couple of seasons ago, and his Alfieri seems steeped in classical Greek tragedy from the outset, while some lively cameos (assorted neighbours, longshoremen and immigration officers) remind us of the 1950s Brooklyn setting.

James Cotterill’s simple and uncluttered design lets the action move swiftly and clearly, and Peter Rice’s sound design is particularly interesting when Eddie makes his fatal phone call.

The tumultuous applause at the end of the show clearly indicates that the Royal Exchange has another hit on its hands.

A View From The Bridge is on until Saturday 25 June 2011
Prices £9-£32
Evenings: Mon-Fri @ 7.30, Sat @ 8pm
Matinees: Wed @ 2.30, Sat @ 4pm
Box Office: 0161 833 9833
www.royalexchange.co.uk

In ancient Greece everybody would have been familiar with the story of Dionysus (also known as Bacchus).  Son of the king of Thebes’ daughter by the god Zeus, when Dionysus’ divinity was denied by the Thebans he visited a terrible revenge on their city.

Euripides’ tragedy is rife with dramatic irony as the god’s royal aunt, cousin and grandfather face choices, make the wrong decisions, and hurtle unaware towards their inevitable doom.

Braham Murray’s Royal Exchange production is excellent on so many levels, but let’s start with with Mike Poulton’s new translation, which rhymes flexibly and unobtrusively and is happy to use contemporary English alongside marvellous poetical coinages (such as the contemptuous dismissal of Dionysus as a “wonder monger” or a “godling”).

The acting is hugely enjoyable too, with powerful performances from the central characters.  Jotham Annan lends Dionysus great stage presence and is smooth, charming and self-possessed.  Sam Alexander as a very personable Pentheus makes such a compelling case for the king that you forget he’s a heretical tyrant.  They both deliver their long plot-heavy speeches with consummate ease and use the in-the-round space effortlessly.

A lighter note is injected by Wyllie Longmore’s pragmatic King Cadmus and Colin Prockter as his sidekick Tiresias, the blind prophet.  Their ridiculous bacchanalian rig-out of dried leaves and baubles belies their age and status, and their old-men-behaving-badly schtick provides a lovely comic interlude before the Eumenides come home to roost.

Throughout the play we cannot escape the brooding presence of the chorus, a group of Bacchants whose debauched frenzies have left them wild-haired, stripped to their underwear and covered in muddy handprints.  The eight talented dancers and singers revel in Mark Bruce’s vivid choreography and Akintayo Akinbode’s atmospheric live score.

Louise Ann Wilson’s design clears the stage of any of the predicable clutter of shrines, tombs and architectural features, and Chris Davey’s thrilling other-worldly lighting would strike fear into any mortal. 

Director Braham Murray has created a production that feels utterly modern and fresh and is a genuinely great all-round achievement.

 

 

The Bacchae is on until Saturday 4 December 2010

Prices: £9-£30

Evenings: Mon-Fri @ 7.30, Sat @ 8pm [no performance Tues 23 Nov]

Matinees: Weds @ 2.30pm, Sats @ 4pm and Tues 23 Nov @ 2.30pm

Box Office: 0161 833 9833

www.royalexchange.co.uk

Brace yourself for the sultry atmosphere of summer in New Orleans as Bolton Octagon stages Tennessee Williams’s modern classic about sexual power play between the faded remnants of America’s effete southern aristocracy and a new wave of unromantic European immigrants.

 Blanche and her younger sister Stella are all that remain of the once wealthy DuBois family.  Stella left home ten years ago and has embraced a new life in a poor inner-city area as the wife of rough, working-class Stanley Kowalski.  But Blanche stayed loyal to her gentrified roots, and after a long separation of both time and space she arrives unexpectedly and incongruously on Stella’s rickety doorstep.

 Blanche’s self-centred behaviour and superficially refined ways rub up against Stanley’s extremes of vulgarity and machismo, and Stella’s loyalty to her past and present is constantly put to the test.  Aside from the domestic conflict, the play’s fascination lies in the gradual revelation of Blanche’s tragic past and the multi-faceted nature of her character.

 Director David Thacker’s focus on the characters is strangely unambiguous - the audience sees Blanche with Stanley’s harsh realistic gaze rather than through her own rose-coloured spectacles because Clare Foster’s Blanche is not ethereal and whispy but harsh and strident from the word off.  Amy Nuttall as her sister Stella is the most sympathetic character on stage, torn between the needy Blanche and her demanding husband, but Keiran Hill, although physically imposing, is too clean cut and plain nice to make Stanley into the archetypal he-man. 

 This production feels closer to the sharply defined realism of Arthur Miller than the woozy and feverish impressionism of Tennessee Williams.  Partly this is due to the challenge of staging these dream-like dramas in-the-round, as with the Royal Exchange’s production of The Glass Menagerie.  The playwright describes layers of rooms coming in and out of focus, their walls sometimes alive with reflections, lights and shadows - the design of the long-running Woman in Black is a brilliant example of how this can work - while Ciaran Bagnall’s set design can only offer us a floor plan and fixed furniture (although costume designer Mary Horan’s lavish frocks, furs and finery are to die for).  Even Carol Sloman’s music struggles to create any atmosphere.  In the end it is the sheer power of the story that carries the evening.

 A Streetcar Named Desire is on at Bolton Octagon until Saturday 9 October 2010

Tickets: from £9.50

Eves: Mon-Sat @ 7.30pm

Matinees: Fri 17 Sep; Sat 2 & Wed 6 Oct @ 2pm  

Box Office: 01204 520661

www.octagonbolton.co.uk

 

Tim Steed and Aislin McGuckin in The Duchess of Malfi

In a collaboration with Stage on Screen the Greenwich Theatre presents two new in-house productions – Volpone and The Duchess of Malfi. The collaboration was launched in 2009 with the intent to restore Greenwich Theatre to its position as one of London’s significant producing theatres, and in turn to create high quality multi-camera DVD recordings available to educational institutions and theatres lovers alike. The creative team of last year’s Doctor Faustus and The School for Scandal have been reunited – director Elizabeth Freestone, designer Neil Irish, lighting designer Wayne Dowdeswell and sound designer Adrienne Quartly, joined by TV director Chris Cowey for the DVD recordings. Volpone and The Duchess of Malfi have been cross-cast.

 Volpone by Ben Jonson

 Conscience is a beggar’s virtue

 Volpone pretends to be mortally ill in the hope of extracting wealth from his supposed friends on the expectation of legacies; the legacy-hunters all seek to be named Volpone’s heir in order to gain his treasure, and  they offer him precious gifts to achieve that honour. Practically everyone is acting a part, consciously and with intent to deceive. In his manipulation of dramatic situation, Jonson brilliantly exploits the possibilities of multi-layered irony: an extra dimension is given to the scenes in which Mosca intrigues with the suitors by the fact that Volpone himself is on stage, apparently incapable of knowing what is going on, but actually – as both we and Mosca know – perfectly aware of it all. A love plot is attached to this legacy-hunt, involving Corvino’s wife Delia and Corbaccio’s son Bonario. In a parallel plot, Sir Politic Would-be and his wife are deceived by Peregrine, a young Englishman on a Continental tour.

 Director Elizabeth Freestone sets the action in early twentieth century Venice. Her joyful and highly amusing production features Richard Bremmer as the sly fox Volpone who loves deceit even more than his riches and Mark Hadfield as the useful parasite Mosca. There are outstanding performances throughout. Tim Treloar is intriguing as the self-important advocate Voltore and Tim Steed gives a wonderful performance as the spice merchant Corvino who will even prostitute his wife to become Volpone’s heir. Maxwell Hutcheon is the decrepit Corbaccio who attempts to talk Mosca into poisoning Volpone with a deadly brew to accelerate his demise. The colourful production is designed by Neil Irish.  

 Fri 26 March 7.30pm, Mon 29 March 7.30pm, Tue 30 March 1.30 pm, We 31 March 1.30pm, Wed 7 April 7.30pm, Thu 8 April 1.30pm – filmed and 7.30pm – filmed, Sat 10 April 7.30pm

The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster

 A politician is the devil's quilted anvil; He fashions all sins on him, and the blows are never heard.

Generally considered to be Webster’s masterpiece, The Duchess of Malfi tells the story of a young widow who marries against the wishes of her powerful brothers who covet her estate, thereby setting off a storm of revenge. Critics and reviewers have loved or hated the play, with equal fervour. The Jacobean revenge tragedy has a high body count and violates taboos but the intensity of Webster’s dramatic situations and the high quality of his writing redeems him from mere sensationalism, and places this play in the first rank of dramatic
writing.

Director Elizabeth Freestone sets the action in fascist Italy against the backdrop of an escalating European war. Unbeknownst to her brothers the Duchess falls in love with her steward Antonio, and they marry secretly.  The two lovers live happily for a time and the Duchess gives birth to three children, but their marriage s eventually discovered and ther life turns into a bloody nightmare. Aislin McGuckin plays the Duchess wth sensitivity and dignified strength. Tim Steed is impressive as the sexually obsessed and eventually mad Ferdinand, and Mark Hadfield convinces as the corrupt Cardinal. Tim Treloar plays the Malcontent Bosola with quiet intensity.  

Sat 27 March 1.30pm and 7.30pm, Tue 30 March 7.30pm, Wed 31 March 7.30pm, Thu 1 April 1.30pm, Tue 6 April 7.30pm, Fri 9 April 1.30pm – filmed, 7.30pm – filmed, Sat 10 April 1.30pm

Eves     £17.50, £15,        Mats     £15, £12.50

Concessions     £2.50 off

Greenwich Theatre Box Office 020 8858 7755

www.greenwichtheatre.org,uk

 

 

 

Arthur Miller’s 1947 masterpiece All My Sons begins as a family drama, turns into a detective story, and ends as a Greek tragedy.

We’re in the back yard of a typical middle-American home a couple of years after the Second World War.  For the prosperous householder and paterfamilias, Joe Keller, the conflict was merely an opportunity to grow his small manufacturing business into a little gold-mine supplying engine parts for the army’s aeroplanes.  For his sons Chris and Larry, who piloted those planes, the war was about making the kind of self-sacrifice that would build a better world.  Now Chris is suffering an existentialist angst, realising that for most of his countrymen the war had no meaning and nothing has changed; while Larry is missing presumed dead, his plane having disappeared off the Chinese coast three years before. 

The uneasy status quo is shaken with the arrival of their former neighbour, Ann, Larry’s one-time girlfriend and now Chris’s intended bride; but his mother Kate opposes what would amount to the final acknowledgement of her other son’s death.  Over three acts and less than 24 hours the play peels back the half-buried war-time scandal surrounding the family firm and its link with Ann’s father and Larry’s accident.

David Thacker, the Octagon’s incoming artistic director, has chosen to open the new regime in Bolton with his specialist subject, Arthur Miller.  Thacker’s personal relationship with the playwright is well-documented, and his record for producing Miller’s plays in this country is second to none - indeed my own first exposure to professional theatre was his production of A View from the Bridge at The Young Vic, a space very similar to the Octagon. 

Although I’ve seen the Octagon in-the-round before, the playing area has never felt so close and immediate.  The tiny stage is denuded bar the most basic of props (in the way of a handful of tables and chairs), but in Patrick Connellan’s stunning design the floor is transparent colourless glass which reveals a forest of wooden joists buried in sand, representing the shaky foundations of the Keller home.

George Irving returns to the Octagon after his blinding performance in Shining City two years ago.  He remains faithful to Miller’s description of Joe Keller as “stolid”, but although superficially impassive and unemotional, below the surface there fizzes a James Cagney-esque nervous energy which eventually explodes to shattering effect.   

Margot Leicester, who was so brilliant as the grieving mother in A Conversation at the Royal Exchange, gives a wonderful performance here as a mother in denial about her grief, clucking and fussing around the neighbours in an apparently unselfconscious manner, but constantly on her guard.

Oscar Pearce (Chris) and Vanessa Kirby (Ann) are a fine pairing as the sad but wise young lovers, and Mark Letheren has a great turn as Ann’s flaky brother George, in the typical Elisha Cook Jr role of a little man in a too-big suit.

The four lead members of the cast are returning next month in David Thacker’s Lancashire-set production of Ibsen’s Ghosts, again with Patrick Connellan designing, so it will be fascinating to watch this talented team take on another classic domestic tragedy.

 

All My Sons is on at Bolton Octagon until Saturday 24 October 2009

Tickets: from £9.00

Evenings: Mon-Sat at 7.30pm

Matinees: Friday 2, Saturday 3, Monday 5, Wednesday 7 October and Sat 17 Oct @ 2pm

Box Office: 01204 520661

www.octagonbolton.co.uk

 

Other Octagon events exploring All My Sons:

 

5 October, 5.30-7pm - Les Smith talks to David Thacker about his relationship and work with Arthur Miller (tickets free).

 

14 October, 10am-1pm - David Thacker leads cast members in an investigation of the play (£5).

 

17 October, 10am-1pm - Christopher Bigsby, academic and biographer of Arthur Miller, discusses the playwright (£5).

 

24 October, 2-6pm - Caryl Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children will be performed alongside an extract from All My Sons followed by a discussion (tickets free - donations to Medical Aid Gaza).

 

 

Macbeth

Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

2 March 2009

 

Matthew Dunster’s production of Macbeth is like the young, feral brother of the modern-dress Henry V seen at the Exchange a couple of years back.  Apart from contemporary uniforms and weaponry there’s a plethora of mobile phones, laptops, PDAs, iPods, playstations, and those all-important hand-held video cameras for capturing digital footage of the endless atrocities and war crimes.

The evening begins innocently enough as three little girls watch TV in their bedroom.  The party’s about to break up – “When shall we three meet again?” – when a gang of soldiers bursts in and rapes them. 

This is the start of the bloodiest night at the theatre I can remember, with the stage literally bathed in gore.  The little girls return as the abused and traumatised Weird Sisters who cajole and tempt Macbeth (one of the party of marauding soldiers) into a spiral of terrible slaughter.  Nicholas Gleaves’ “northern everyman” Macbeth is no match for them, not even in partnership with his ruthless Lady, the glamorous Hilary Maclean.

There are outbursts of music, dance, graphic violence (obviously), and live performance spliced with multimedia.  Paul Wills’ design is visually terrific and slick enough to stand the fast-paced scene changes, while Philip Gladwell’s atmospheric lighting plays a vital role in itself.  But sometimes the endless gimmicks get in the way of the action, and when the director “riffs” with the dialogue it becomes harder to understand, especially for anyone who is unfamiliar with the story.

Matthew Dunster has gone to great lengths to re-imagine Macbeth and make it relevant, creating the kind of young and funky show that students will love (anyone 25 or under gets in for £4 on Mondays). 

If you have a strong stomach this is a thought-provoking take on a classic.

 

Macbeth is on until Saturday 11 April 2009

Prices: £8.50-£29.00

Evenings: Mon-Fri @ 7.30pm, Sat @ 8pm

Matinees: Wed @ 2.30pm, Sat @ 4pm

Box Office: 0161 833 9833

www.royalexchange.co.uk