A Murder is Announced – New Theatre, Cardiff

An adaption of one of Agatha Christie’s classic novels, A Murder is Announced is a tale full of mistaken identities and hidden back stories.

When an advert appears in the local newspaper for the village of Chipping Cleghorn stating that a murder will take place at 6.30pm at Little Paddocks, the home of Letitia Blacklock, there is naturally a lot of intrigue. When everyone has gathered in the lounge at the appointed time, the lights are fused and shots are heard in the darkness. Inspector Craddock and Sergeant Mellors arrive to solve the mystery. It appears that there are a lot of newcomers in the village, including Miss Marple.

Sarah Thomas was engaging as Miss Marple, with a strong supporting cast. I also particularly liked Karen Drury as Dora Bunner, ‘Bunny’, Letitia Blacklock’s old friend. The set was just one living room which effectively conveyed the 1950s setting.

I haven’t read the book of A Murder is Announced but I thought this was an entertaining production by the Middle Ground Theatre Company, and the play included plenty of classic Christie twists and red herrings.

Cyrano de Bergerac – Playhouse Theatre

Far from being a traditional production, this new version of Cyrano de Bergerac by Martin Crimp at the Playhouse Theatre, directed by Jamie Lloyd, changes duels into rap battles.

Cyrano de Bergerac is a successful soldier and wordsmith, but due to his lack of self-esteem because of his enormous nose he is unable to confess his love for Roxane. Instead, he agrees to help a fellow soldier, Christian, to seduce Roxane and thereby express his love through another person.

James McAvoy was funny, charismatic and very moving as Cyrano, leading a diverse cast of talented performers. Tom Edden was an effective sexual predator as De Guiche and Anita-Joy Uwajeh was full of spark as Roxane, despite not always being a likeable character. I liked the way that the production showed how both her and Cyrano were treated differently because of their appearance; Cyrano because of his nose, and Roxane because of her beauty. She is very much a woman in a man’s world, and not always taken seriously because of her looks.

The stage was mostly bare, with just some steps, chairs and a mirror being used, and the actors used a mixture of hand and radio mics. This was used very effectively after the battle when a group of soldiers removed their radio mics in unison to convey their deaths – simple but it worked extremely well. McAvoy did not wear a prosthetic nose, but I didn’t feel that he needed to; Cyrano’s lack of self-confidence was evident without it.

Having read some reviews mentioning the use of rap, I wasn’t sure beforehand whether I would enjoy this production or the new version of the play. However, I couldn’t have been more wrong, The writing was innovative, modern and funny and the production itself was compelling, with plenty of humour and some heartbreak.

King John – The Swan Theatre

It may not be Shakespeare’s best known play, but this RSC production of King John at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon is memorable for several reasons.

King John has just been crowned, but the French king would rather have John’s nephew, Arthur, on the British throne. Just when they manage to solve their differences, John refuses to listen to advice from one of the Pope’s Cardinals regarding who should be chosen as the Archbishop of Canterbury, and war breaks out.

Although it could be read as a somewhat dry play, which may be why it isn’t performed very often, this production, set in a mid 20th century alternative reality, found and placed plenty of humour in the play, including a food fight, a boxing match and a couple of dance numbers. There were very strong performances by the two gender blind characters, namely Rosie Sheehy as a bold King John and Katherine Pearce as the Cardinal. I particularly liked the Cardinal’s sassiness!

Despite not feeling like the scene where Arthur’s body was found worked very well, this was an enjoyable performance with a good mixture of humour, emotion and violence.

 

On Bear Ridge – Sherman Theatre

Ed Thomas’ new play, which has opened first at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff before transferring to the Royal Court in London, is a dystopian tale which explores the themes of memory and grief in a changing world.

On Bear Ridge Mountain, John Daniel (Rhys Ifans) and his wife Noni (Rakie Ayola) live in their former butcher shop, which has long ceased trading. With them is young Ifan William (Sion Daniel Young), a friend of their son’s Twm Shenkin and their former slaughterer. Suddenly, a stranger arrives, a soldier who they call The Captain (Jason Hughes), and they share stories about the world which has changed around them.

The performances were outstanding, with Rhys Ifans finding all the funny moments in the script and Rakie Ayola warm and touching as Noni. The depiction of their grief was very moving at times. Cai Dyfan’s set showed us Bear Ridge Stores, with its walls being lifted one by one during the play to reveal the bleak snow-topped mountain outside.

The ambiguity regarding the time period and setting of the play, as well as exact details of what exactly had happened in this world, meant that the themes of cultures being destroyed, war (with planes flying overhead) and feeling lost in a changing world could be applied to several situations. Some of the language in the script was particularly beautiful, with lines such as

‘How did you get so old?

Time fell asleep in the snow and never told us’

being particularly memorable.

Despite strong performances and engaging themes, unfortunately for me the ending of the play came rather suddenly and was a little anti-climactic. Having said that, there was plenty to enjoy and take from this play and it is well worth a watch.

The Taming of the Shrew – Royal Shakespeare Theatre

1590s. England is a matriarchy. These five words sum up fantastically how director Justin Audibert turned this problematic play by Shakespeare on its head, with great results.

As suggested by making England a matriarchy, the genders in this RSC production of The Taming of the Shrew were all swapped, so Baptista Minola, a gentlewoman, wants to marry her sons to the highest bidder, but insists that her younger son, Bianco, may not marry before his older brother, Katherine, the eponymous shrew. Petruchia, a friend of one of Bianco’s many suitors, vows to woo Katherine for his dowry and for the challenge of overcoming his fearsome reputation.

There were many standout performances in this production. Claire Price was a feisty Petruchia who still managed to be likeable despite her cruelty towards Katherine. There was plenty of humour amongst Bianco’s suitors, particularly Sophie Stanton as Gremia gliding across the stage. I also enjoyed James Cooney’s hair flicking and flirtation as Bianco.

The costumes, designed by Hannah Clark, were beautiful. I particularly liked the costumes that combined traditional ‘male’ and ‘female’ costumes from the 16th century, such as Petruchia and Katherine’s wedding outfits

It is still a troublesome play – the cruelty was still evident even when it was a woman abusing a man. However, I think gender swapping is the only way the play can ‘work’ successfully in modern times. Some of the line changes created a lot of humour, such as

I am ashamed that men are so simple

while others, such as

Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth

didn’t always work. I also felt that Joseph Arkley as Katherine was a fairly timid shrew. Apart from one instance of trying to cut off Bianco’s hair, it didn’t seem that a lot of taming was required. Nevertheless, these are minor quibbles. This was a fantastic production and not to be missed on tour or at the Barbican.

As You Like It – Royal Shakespeare Theatre

If you have tickets to see Kimberley Sykes’ production of As You Like It with the RSC this year, be aware that you may become part of the action.

As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, with romance, humour, mistaken identities, a fool and of course the famous seven ages of man speech.

The main strengths of this production for me were the performances. David Ajao was a likeable Orlando and Lucy Phelps a feisty Rosalind. We saw the understudy for Touchstone, Leo Wan, who was fantastic. As is common in contemporary productions, the genders of some characters had been changed. Sophie Stanton played Jacques, and it was such a shame that her quietness as part of the melancholy of the character meant that it was difficult to hear her at times. However, changing Silvius to Silvia didn’t make sense in the context of the play, because Phoebe’s discovery that Ganymede is in fact Rosalind shouldn’t put her off, if she was then willing to marry a woman, namely Silvia. There are other characters whose gender could have been changed that would have had a bigger and better impact.

The set used was very bare, with the audience being included, as Orlando gave members some of his poems to Rosalind to hold. The bareness worked well for the most part but it did seem strange for me to then bring on an enormous puppet as Hymen in the wedding scenes, when everything else had been so simple. I also wasn’t keen on the transition from life in the court to the forest of Arden, with backstage being revealed, a wardrobe being wheeled on, the house lights on and the actors changing on stage.

Despite the strong performances, the great chemistry between the cast and the humorous pantomime elements and audience interaction, this production just didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

Measure for Measure – RSC Live

The Duke of Vienna decides to leave, and chooses Angelo as his deputy to run the city in his absence. Angelo decides to clamp down on the loose morality of the city, including closing the brothels and sentencing a young man named Claudio to death, because he has got the girl who intends to marry pregnant. Claudio’s friend, Lucio, visits Claudio’s sister, Isabella, a novice nun, and she decides to try and persuade Angelo to change his mind. He tells her that he’ll let Claudio free in exchange for sex.

There are so many themes in this play which resonate with our lives today, including corrupt power, hypocrisy and the Me Too movement. It was quite shocking to hear Claudio utter ‘Who will believe thee?’ to Isabella when she says that she will tell people of his offer. It’s incredible that a line from a 400 year old play can still be so poignant today.

Although there are plenty of relatable themes, it is the ending which makes this play problematic. After the Duke’s return and his exposure of Claudio’r hypocrisy, Claudio is forgiven by his wife and the Duke announces that he will marry Isabella. She says nothing. It was interesting that during the feature shown during the interval about previous productions, it was mentioned that when Juliet Stevenson played Isabella, she tried to find moments in the play where a potential romance between Isabella and the Duke could be hinted, which would give the play a happier ending. In this production however, Isabella was simply passed from being the subject of one man’s power to another.

As always with the RSC, this was a high value production and the story was told incredibly clearly. Antony Byrne was charismatic as the Duke and Lucy Phelps was moving as Isabella. I also particularly liked Joseph Arkley as Lucio, who brought some light hearted moments to the play.

I knew nothing of this play beforehand and I’m glad that I got to see such a fantastic production through RSC Live.

Present Laughter – Old Vic

Actor Gary Essendine is preparing to go on an overseas tour, but his life about to spiral out of control as his various relationships attempt to gain his attention, and the situation descends into a farce.

This production of the Noel Coward play swapped the genders of two characters, as there are hints in the original script that Gary is bisexual and this swap made this obvious. I thought this worked really well, and apart from the fact that the play was first written in the late 1930s when it would have been far more difficult if not impossible to have an openly bisexual character in a play, I don’t think I would have noticed the change had I not read about it beforehand.

Andrew Scott was fantastic as the self-obsessed and overly dramatic Gary, managing to be both hilarious and also convey the loneliness of fame and the character’s neediness (as pointed out by Matthew Warchus, the play’s director, in the programme, Gary’s surname ‘Essendine’ is an anagram of ‘neediness’). I also enjoyed the ongoing theme regarding when Gary was ‘acting’ and when he was being himself – other characters never seemed to believe him when he insisted that he wasn’t acting.

All the cast worked together fantastically, but apart from Scott the stand outs for me were Sophie Thompson as Monica, Gary’s secretary and Luke Thallon as Roland Maule, an admirer of Gary’s.

I really enjoyed this and judging from the laughter throughout the performance, so did the rest of the audience. Well worth a watch before the end of the run or seeing the NT Live broadcast in November.

Victoria – Northern Ballet – New Theatre, Cardiff

To note 200 years since Queen Victoria’s birth, Northern Ballet’s latest production is a biopic of some key moments in her life. The production uses Victoria’s youngest daughter, Beatrice, who famously destroyed parts of her mother’s diaries, as a plot device to introduce flashbacks.

The first half focuses on Victoria’s relationship with John Brown after Prince Albert’s death, and on Beatrice’s marriage to Prince Henry of Battenburg. As a younger version of Beatrice dances with the Prince, the older version who is reading the diary comes to join them as she remembers their courtship.

The second half portrays Victoria’s early life, being told she is now the Queen, meeting Albert and having their numerous children. I did feel that showing the cycle of Victoria having her children became slightly repetitive, but I did like the offspring pointing to their future dynasties on a map of Europe during a lesson.

As ever with Northern Ballet, the performers are good actors as well as dancers and they convey the characters’ emotions very effectively.

Betrayal – Harold Pinter Theatre

Based on Harold Pinter’s own extramarital affair with Joan Bakewell, Betrayal tells the story of Emma who is having an affair with Jerry, her husband Robert’s best friend.

The narrative of the affair is told backwards – the play opens with Emma (Zawe Ashton) and Jerry (Charlie Cox) meeting for a drink a couple of years after the end of their affair, and then various scenes during the course of their seven year long affair follow, until their initial betrayal. Although most of the scenes only include two characters, Jamie Lloyd as director never lets us forget who is being betrayed by having the third actor on the stage at all times. This is even more effective in one scene with Jerry and Emma where Robert (Tom Hiddleston) is sat cradling his and Emma’s daughter.

The set for this production is very simple – three moving pastel coloured walls, two chairs and a revolving stage. Although this maybe wasn’t effective in showing Emma’s desire to furnish the flat that she and Jerry used for their trysts, and to make it a kind of home, overall I felt the simplicity worked very well, and meant that the audience could focus on the performances.

Speaking of the performances, all three actors are fantastic. Zawe Ashton is tender as Emma and is completely believable as someone who is in love with two people. Hiddleston is initially brusque as Robert, but his heartbreak when he learns of Emma and Jerry’s affair is evident as his eyes fill with tears. He then also shows his comedic side as he aggressively stabs his melon during a restaurant scene with Jerry, barely managing to contain his anger at his friend. All three use Pinter’s infamous pauses to great effect, demonstrating the simmering tension between the three characters, which was at times almost unbearable.

The only other Pinter play I’ve seen is No Man’s Land, and although I enjoyed the performances in that one, I didn’t ‘get’ the play at all. Betrayal for me is a much stronger play, and much more accessible.