Hi pals,
This is the most overdue post that has ever been, but it is FINALLY here! The final NT at Home reviews. It has been a while since they were on and we watched them, so I’m just writing up my scrambled notes and likewise with Mum, so bear with us! These last 3 were some of my favourites, some really powerful and moving work.
Just some quick notes on this god damn pandemic:
Please wear a mask, it does not decrease the oxygen you're getting (see this article). I know they are uncomfortable and pretty claustrophobic, trust me I know, I had a panic attack the other day because of mine. But every little helps, you are protecting, not just yourself but, everyone around you.
Wash your hands, regularly, and properly.
Keep social distancing. Please. And don’t have a party, just don’t.
And from Mum;
The people of the UK are individualistic, as are most people who live in the global West, and we’ve seen the worst of the selfishness that can accompany that in the last few months. Individualistic societies focus on the individual, and individuals are concerned largely about themselves. By comparison Eastern cultures are largely collectivist, where concerns over community are more important than the self. We have seen disappointingly strong evidence that individual wants are thought to be more important than the needs of the wider community; the fact people want to get together with friends, or don’t like wearing a face mask is perceived to be more important than the risk they are putting others under. The fact that they think if they get ‘it’, they’ll be OK, or in the case of some older people, that they don’t care if they do, comparing it to getting through WW2, completely fails to recognise the vulnerabilities of those around them. I don’t like wearing a mask – who does – but if there’s no evidence it makes things worse and even the slightest evidence it may help – I’ll do it. Civil liberty is fine if you are the only one at risk from not following the rules – that’s far from the case in the current climate. The only way we’ll control this evil virus is by following the rules – however inconvenient. We MUST, MUST stop thinking about ourselves and start thinking about the wider good.
Okay enough of that, lets talk theatre!
First up, Les Blancs (produced in April 2016, streamed on 2nd July 2020)
MUM: Set in Africa under colonial rule, there is unrest in the air. This production makes you question the apparently well-meaning interventions put in place by the imperialists. A son, returning for his father’s funeral, and now married to a white woman and with a young child, is frustrated by white supremacy in his country. Similarly, a visiting American journalist questions those in authority over their treatment of the local inhabitants.
The play is set at a ‘hospital’ manned by white medics. These are good people, who do have the welfare of the locals as their priority, but as the returning son notes – a similar facility in the West would be considered wholly inadequate. It is as if the imperialists are putting in token gestures to be seen to be ‘doing good’, with those working in the colonies struggling to operate in difficult circumstances – both physical and social. As unrest increases, the military – in the form of an arrogant, racist general – imposes curfews on the locals, and treats them as less than human. It takes little for him to pull out a gun and shoot an alleged ring-leader dead. Similarly, it becomes apparent that a mixed-race young man is the outcome of his rape of the mother of the returning son. The son, finds that it was his father leading the revolt and he becomes embroiled in the unrest, ultimately killing his brother who has become a priest – has ‘sold out’.
The set, music and lighting effectively conveyed the African setting, with just a single set representing the facility. Pacing ‘locals’ give a feeling of animation and a lone female, who paces the stage throughout, but plays no part in the story, gives an air of mystery and disquiet. This was a very well-judged piece of theatre. Not pleasant, but thought provoking and moving.
ELLIE: You may know Lorraine Hansberry for A Raisin in the Sun? This play, she never actually finished before she died of pancreatic cancer aged 34. It was pieced together from her drafts by her former husband and Joi Gresham, director of the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust. This play is powerful without being too preachy. It was really really good!
On the Olivier stage, the vast dusty space with nothing but the mission building in it paints the picture well. The house has no walls for the audience, a bit like the production of Streetcar at the Young Vic (reviewed earlier here), gave us a clear view of the goings on of the mission. The ‘locals’ and lone woman (Sheila Atim) help to paint the picture and the stark differenced between themselves and the white characters. Siân Phillips is predictably wonderful and compelling as Madame Nielsen. Danny Sapani as Tshembe Matoseh was delicate and powerful, the scene with Charlie Morris, the American journalist played by Elliot Cowan, is particularly stunning! The entire cast were a joy to watch.
The Deep Blue Sea (produced in June 2016, streamed on 9th July 2020)
Hi, just Ellie for this one.
I ADORED this production, and this may well have become a favourite play. (Though nothing could overtake The Father by Florian Zeller, there’s a film coming in 2021 with Anthony Hopkins and I am so excited!) You can tell how much I loved this production by the lack of notes I took. But here are my 3 notes, elaborated on a bit.
'Very cool, good set’ ‘Screen walls! V clever’ – The set was phenomenal, an entire apartment building on the Lyttelton Theatre stage! As my vague note says, the walls were actually all screen so you could see who was walking up the stairs, what people were doing in other apartments, and in Hester Collyer’s flat, you could see into her bedroom. It was all very effective, and I love being able to see characters existing in their spaces without that being the focal of the story at that point.
‘She’s very good – Narcissa Malfoy’ – not only is Helen McCrory (who played Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter series) an absolute powerhouse but the woman she’s portraying (Hester Collyer) is incredible! Hester has left a marriage to live with Freddie, played by the beautiful Tom Burke, she loves him deeply and violently, something he cannot reciprocate which causes her a lot of pain. She is a character who is overflowing! Helen McCrory was commanding, compelling and captivating, an absolute pleasure to watch.
‘I love this play’ – Terrence Rattigan’s script is incredible. The text feels natural and true. I can’t wait to read this play over and over and over.
Amadeus (produced in October 2016, streamed on 16th July 2020)
MUM: I don’t know much about Mozart as a person, but was he really like that? We all know he was a child genius and can guess that as a result he was perhaps spoilt, protected from ‘normal life’ and missed anything approaching childhood as we would know it. The blurb for this production describes Mozart as a ‘rowdy, young prodigy’ and yes, he was certainly rowdy, but in an infantile way that was also expressed through the way he was voiced and what he said. I found this uncomfortable and confusing. He would chase women and talk inappropriately having ‘no filter’ as we might say now. Perhaps, as is common for young genius’s, he was on the autistic spectrum, not knowing when to stop – he references his father telling him to stop, but in his father’s absence he has no ‘brake’.
His musical reputation precedes him when he arrives at court, and he is the victim of the jealousy of the incumbent Court Composer. This latter conspires to undermine Mozart and to block his success. Mozart receives some commissions, but few private students – his rowdy reputation being alluded to as the reason. He and his wife – a serving girl he seduces and then impetuously asks to marry him – live in poverty – the implication being he is therefore cut off from his father and any financial support. The Court composer manipulates Mozart’s wife, who seeks his help to promote Mozart, suggesting that help would be linked to sexual favours, although when these, in desperation, are eventually offered he does not go through with it. Mozart dies young as a rather pathetic creature.
Although I was engaged by this production, it disturbed me. To see someone so revered presented as such a pathetic individual was difficult – even if it did represent reality – something I guess I will never know. In some cases, I felt the acting lacked conviction and in others that it caricatured the individual being portrayed in a way that did not sit comfortably. The set worked well, parts of the stage dropping to become the orchestra pit, and in general the minimum of artefacts represented the different settings effectively.
ELLIE: As Mum says, the character of Mozart is irritating but not to a point that Adam Gillen becomes unwatchable. The main thing I think I took away from this production was the spectacle of it, so much life, colour and magic on stage was exciting. The spectacle shadowed the acting for me, but I enjoyed this production, however long it felt.
Well there you go! We finally got there and got those last reviews out. Sorry for the delay, you’ve already read all my excuses. I’m definitely not going to make any promises about being better from now on because I know me… and it’s unlikely I’ll see that promise through, that being said I will try.
Thank you for reading, as always links to cast and creative lists are at the bottom of this post.
See you next time (whenever that may be…)
Ellie and Anita x
Cast and Creatives Lists:
Les Blancs - https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/sites/default/files/national-theatre-at-home-les-blancs-cast-list.pdf