A Night at the Theatre

[aeolium]

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or on the R3 Arts thread (which includes drama) but I thought it would be an idea to have a thread complementing those on live concert and opera performances devoted to theatre: a thread in which people could comment on their theatrical experiences (and which would include watching live cinecasts of NT productions for instance). I'll start with my trip to the NT yesterday to see The Captain of Koepenick.

The Captain of Koepenick/Zuckmayer/NT/30/1/13

This play by Carl Zuckmayer was written in 1930 and was based on the true story of a down-and-out ex-con, Wilhelm Voigt, who in 1906 to escape arrest disguised himself in the uniform of a Prussian military captain and relying on the power of his uniform alone commandeered a troupe of Prussian guards and occupied the town hall of Koepenick. Voigt really wanted an identity pass but the town hall did not issue these documents so he took all the money in the treasury and escaped, leaving the soldiers guarding the officials. When he was arrested and the story came out there was a wave of public sympathy for his action, and the Kaiser, pleased with this demonstration of the German military's capacity for obedience, halved his sentence.

This play was put on at the NT over 40 years ago with Paul Scofield in the title role and a translation by John Mortimer, which cut the play considerably and made some revisions. This production uses a new translation by Ron Hutchinson and though I don't know the German original it seems (from various summaries and Zuckmayer's preface to the Mortimer translation) a more faithful adaptation. The set for the first act uses an expressionist backdrop of a lighted city a la Caligari. The play revolves mainly around Voight's exploits, his desperate attempts to secure an authorised identity as required by Prussian law and his final escapade, but the captain's uniform plays an increasingly important part. There is an obvious influence of Gogol's Government Inspector, but also perhaps of Kafka's nameless man ignored by an indifferent bureaucracy. Zuckmayer himself described it as a German fairy-tale, yet also a gentle satire (some contemporary critics thought it too gentle). The humour is also gentle, based on word play, irony and a sense of the ludicrous but with an underlying seriousness. There is a tragicomedy in the way in which all Voigt's efforts including his deception are devoted to asserting his identity, which he finally obtains in return for giving himself up.

This was a fine production of a great play, with Anthony Sher excellent as Voigt and many other good performances.

(apologies for lack of umlauts - posting this on a borrowed laptop)

[french frank]

Bit of nostalgia - I remember seeing the play on BBC television some years ago. Could it have been this one, from 1958?

[Mandryka]

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or on the R3 Arts thread (which includes drama) but I thought it would be an idea to have a thread complementing those on live concert and opera performances devoted to theatre: a thread in which people could comment on their theatrical experiences (and which would include watching live cinecasts of NT productions for instance). I'll start with my trip to the NT yesterday to see The Captain of Koepenick.

The Captain of Koepenick/Zuckmayer/NT/30/1/13

This play by Carl Zuckmayer was written in 1930 and was based on the true story of a down-and-out ex-con, Wilhelm Voigt, who in 1906 to escape arrest disguised himself in the uniform of a Prussian military captain and relying on the power of his uniform alone commandeered a troupe of Prussian guards and occupied the town hall of Koepenick. Voigt really wanted an identity pass but the town hall did not issue these documents so he took all the money in the treasury and escaped, leaving the soldiers guarding the officials. When he was arrested and the story came out there was a wave of public sympathy for his action, and the Kaiser, pleased with this demonstration of the German military's capacity for obedience, halved his sentence.

This play was put on at the NT over 40 years ago with Paul Scofield in the title role and a translation by John Mortimer, which cut the play considerably and made some revisions. This production uses a new translation by Ron Hutchinson and though I don't know the German original it seems (from various summaries and Zuckmayer's preface to the Mortimer translation) a more faithful adaptation. The set for the first act uses an expressionist backdrop of a lighted city a la Caligari. The play revolves mainly around Voight's exploits, his desperate attempts to secure an authorised identity as required by Prussian law and his final escapade, but the captain's uniform plays an increasingly important part. There is an obvious influence of Gogol's Government Inspector, but also perhaps of Kafka's nameless man ignored by an indifferent bureaucracy. Zuckmayer himself described it as a German fairy-tale, yet also a gentle satire (some contemporary critics thought it too gentle). The humour is also gentle, based on word play, irony and a sense of the ludicrous but with an underlying seriousness. There is a tragicomedy in the way in which all Voigt's efforts including his deception are devoted to asserting his identity, which he finally obtains in return for giving himself up.

This was a fine production of a great play, with Anthony Sher excellent as Voigt and many other good performances.

(apologies for lack of umlauts - posting this on a borrowed laptop)

I would be interested in seeing this play, but not with Anthony Sher - an actor whose performances tend toward the ostentatious - in the central role.

A friend of mine saw Scofield in the same part in 1971: he felt the play was a bit of single joke stretched too far.

Hopefully, I'll be going to see the new WE production of Quartermaine's Terms at some point - despite my misgivings over Rowan Atkinson in the title role, he seems to have had (almost) uniformly excellent reviews. It is one of my favourite plays.

[gurnemanz]

I would be interested in seeing this play, but not with Anthony Sher - an actor whose performances tend toward the ostentatious - in the central role.

A friend of mine saw Scofield in the same part in 1971: he felt the play was a bit of single joke stretched too far.

We are going tomorrow evening. I know what you mean about Sher. I did not much like his last NT appearance, Travelling Light, but have appreciated other things he has done (RSC Macbeth, Winter's Tale). I am interested in the play, having done it during A Level (not sure if it was a set book) and I went on to study German. I enjoyed the NT Scofield version at the Old Vic, not at the time noticing the heavy cuts referred to above, and haven't seen it since.

[Mandryka]

We are going tomorrow evening. I know what you mean about Sher. I did not much like his last NT appearance, Travelling Light, but have appreciated other things he has done (RSC Macbeth, Winter's Tale). I am interested in the play, having done it during A Level (not sure if it was a set book) and I went on to study German. I enjoyed the NT Scofield version at the Old Vic, not at the time noticing the heavy cuts referred to above, and haven't seen it since.

Going a bit OT, but I was pleasantly surprised by Sher's performance was Mahler in Ronald Harwood's short-lived Aldwych play, Mahler's Conversion. Easily the best thing I've seen him do.

[clive heath]

To the theatre for Alan Bennett's "People", many of whom ( middle-aged, middle-class dross, you'll remember ) were in the audience and loving it, some were even NT volunteers (I asked, they were enjoying it far too much ). I don't know if you saw Penelope and Paul gushing over the doing-up of Avebury Manor on the box last year, well, the lePrevost character ( the NT rep ) was nowhere near as OTT as the Avebury plan, e.g. the public bouncing on 4-posters, phew. I liked the two old dears and their random singing and I recalled that "Downtown" made an unlikely appearance in "Lost in Austen" sung by Jemimah Rooper, was it?, as a 60's girl at a 19th century musical evening with the Bennetts ( no, those Bennetts, dear) et al.. More middle-class tosh. I dare say that some of the audience were at the RA the day before gawping at Manet's dawbs as they/we do and maybe at that oh-so-dated "Gerontius" at the RFH. As I left the Fortune theatre after seeing "Beyond the Fringe" a few weeks after it had opened, I bought tickets for a few more weeks later and in the second show we had only got to "....is an hairy man" in the Sermon and some guy got up and ostentatiously left, muttering. I reckon he'd only bought the ticket to protest in this way. At least he had bought the ticket. That said, I was pretty exasperated by the Maggie Smith vehicle, a van. But the rest, "40 Years On", "History Boys" etc, lovely stuff, tell your Mum.

[Belgrove]

The RSC's A Life of Galileo is well worth seeing at the intimate Swan Theatre Stratford in a new translation by Mark Ravenhill. A large ensemble cast is lead by Ian McDiarmid, who plays Galileo as a sensuous intellectual at odds with the consensual dogmas of the time. But he is no cipher, rather a rounded man of the world with earthly appetites, conceits and foibles. The Church's predicament for maintaining civil order, even morale, in the face of changing facts is also sympathetically portrayed, an example of Orwellian Doublethink. The play's subject matter is timeless despite the historical setting. Copenhagen is the only other play I can recall that uses the stuff of science, without distortion or false simile, to mirror the human predicament.

The production does not, in my view, eclipse the great production at the National with Simon Russell Beal, which was less busy and instilled the brooding threat of the Church's authority with greater power. But the central role is one of the finest in the theatrical canon, and McDiarmid does it proud. He visibly ages before our eyes, a remarkable vision. The penultimate scene, when he has been physically diminished through years of house arrest (shades of Aung San Suu Kyi) but manages to smuggle his secretly written Two New Sciences beyond the Church's jurisdiction, is simultaneously sad and uplifting.

[amateur51]

The RSC's A Life of Galileo is well worth seeing at the intimate Swan Theatre Stratford in a new translation by Mark Ravenhill. A large ensemble cast is lead by Ian McDiarmid, who plays Galileo as a sensuous intellectual at odds with the consensual dogmas of the time. But he is no cipher, rather a rounded man of the world with earthly appetites, conceits and foibles. The Church's predicament for maintaining civil order, even morale, in the face of changing facts is also sympathetically portrayed, an example of Orwellian Doublethink. The play's subject matter is timeless despite the historical setting. Copenhagen is the only other play I can recall that uses the stuff of science, without distortion or false simile, to mirror the human predicament.

The production does not, in my view, eclipse the great production at the National with Simon Russell Beal, which was less busy and instilled the brooding threat of the Church's authority with greater power. But the central role is one of the finest in the theatrical canon, and McDiarmid does it proud. He visibly ages before our eyes, a remarkable vision. The penultimate scene, when he has been physically diminished through years of house arrest (shades of Aung San Suu Kyi) but manages to smuggle his secretly written Two New Sciences beyond the Church's jurisdiction, is simultaneously sad and uplifting.

Many thanks for your review Belgrove. I've seen Galileo in two productions so far, the Simon Russell Beale/RNT that you mention and, years before, Richard Griffiths at the Almeida in Islington, London N1. I'm very keen to see the Ian McDiarmid production and I hope that it comes to London. Your review has whetted my appetite, for which many thanks

[gurnemanz]

We have seen two NT Galileos - about 30 years apart and both excellent: John Dexter's production in the then newly built NT with Michael Gambon and the more recent Russell Beale.

[Belgrove]

The RSC's As You Like It was the first time I have seen this play, and the first time of attending the reconfigured main theatre at Stratford, which is like the Swan writ large, being in the round with two tiers of vertical galleries and stalls arranged around the thrust stage. An inclusive, Globe-like and flexible space, and a vast improvement on what was there before, with its boxy seating anchored to the proscenium stage and deaf-spots.

The production is enjoyable and stylishly done, the chilled-out inhabitants of Arden's forest, for example, seeming to have wandered in via the Glastonbury festival. Alex Waldmann's Orlando can certainly deal out a decent fore-arm smash in the wrestling ring, and is as convincingly bemused as the preposterous plot allows in all the cross-dressing capers. Pippa Nixon's Rosalind is rather wonderful and equally convincing in all the daft things asked of her/him. It's a huge role, but I came away wondering precisely what all that effort is for. Blackadder's Bob episode steals the plot, condenses it into half an hour and makes it funny. Of all the roles, I found David Fielder's Adam the truest and most affecting as Orlando's retainer.

Am I missing something or is As You Like It a feeble play? The hippies are living blissfully in the woods, but are all to willing to return to the fleshpots when the bad Duke conveniently recants and retires to a monastery, this all being related by a third brother who pitches up at the last moment (where did he come from?) There is the tediously unfunny Touchstone and what does Jaques add other than the 'All the world's a stage' speech, which is parachuted in and could be transferred into any of the histories or tragedies with greater relevance and effect. So much of this play seems half-baked. Can someone please inform where my thinking is wrong?

But for all these grouches about the play's lack of substance, it was nevertheless a hugely enjoyable evening which flashed past, and that must count as a recommendation.

Othello at the National next, now there's a work with a bit more to it...

[aeolium]

Thanks for the review, Belgrove.

It's ages since I heard (much less saw) As You Like It, but I don't recall the characterisation or language being particularly memorable. I can't say I care for any of the comedies much; I find there is sharper wit, as opposed to bawdy or the comedy of humiliation, in Richard III or Hamlet.

I'm looking forward to seeing the NT Live relay of Macbeth from the Manchester International Festival next month.

[Belgrove]

Busy day on Saturday. Rugby test in the morning, Gloriana in the evening, and the National's Othello in between.

Can this really be the finest Shakespeare I have seen in the theatre? I think so, it was an overwhelming emotional roller-coaster.

Nick Hytner has updated this to the present with Cyprus doubling for a Camp Bastion-like army base, with harsh strip lighting and concrete blast walls. It brings an immediacy that is entirely natural and unforced. Adrian Lester's Othello is terrifying: in his gravitas and power in the early stages of the play and his jealousy and violence as it progresses. No cod roaring and breast-beating, his anguish is palpable and distressing to behold. Rory Kinnear's Iago is a bit of a wide boy, with Estuary English slipping through his attempts at a more cultivated facade. His jealously has its roots in class. His mannerisms and asides makes his the funniest and most villainous of Shakespeare's villains. Olivia Vinall is the doomed Desdemona, and if anything is cast into shadow by these two gigantic and charismatic performances. The rest of the cast is exemplary.

I think it is sold out for the rest of the run, but if ever a production is worth queueing for day returns, this is it. The performance of Gloriana in the evening simply could not compete.

[aeolium]

It sounds good, Belgrove - thanks.

If it proves impossible to get tickets, there is a NT Live broadcast to cinemas on IIRC 26 September.

I have sometimes combined the spectacle of sport and art in a single day - a tiring business. A good few years back I went to a day's cricket at the Oval (Ashes Test), rushed via tube to the RAH for a Prom (in the arena) and then dashed for a late train back to Salisbury. I couldn't do that kind of thing now.

[amateur51]

Many thanks Belgrove and aeolium!

I shall be going to the cinema broadcast of 'Othello' on 26 September - what a treat in prospect.

i was fortunate enough to see Adrian Lester in a play about Ira Aldridge, a nineteenth-century African-American actor who played Othello at Drury Lane to great acclaim on the one hand and foul racism on the other. This was in a remarkable play 'Red Velvet' at my local indie theatre/cinema The Tricycle in Kilburn.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/9615019/Red-Velvet-Tricycle-Theatre-London-review.html

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/culture/red-velvet/421626.article

We got a taste of Lester's power and rage in the role at the Tricycle and I can't wait to see the real thing.

[Belgrove]

Thanks for the heads-up for the NT cinema relay aeolium, it's now in the diary. I heard good things about Red Velvet Ams, but unfortunately was unable to attend. I think we are presently in something of a golden age of theatre.

Yes sport and art can make happy bed-fellows. A splendid Saturday at Lord's (England v W Indies) was followed by Pelleas & Mellisande at Covent Garden. I suspected that my judgement as to its excellence was impaired by the excitement and rum punches during the day, but it was the real thing.

O'Neale's Strange Interlude at the NT precedes the 1st day of the Ashes at Lord's, and the fourth day (if it lasts that long) will be followed by a concert performance of Cappricio at the ROH.

And while we are on The Ashes, the Nottingham Playhouse's eponymous production is a fascinating, enjoyable and successful telling of the story and intrigues before, during and after the Bodyline series.