National Theatre Live: Treasure Island

Photography from The National Theatre

In amongst the stellar selection of lockdown entertainment offerings from the National Theatre’s YouTube channel thus far was Bryony Lavery’s adaptation of Treasure Island in a 2014 production from director Polly Findlay.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s *other* hugely influential classic novel is a piratical high adventure, which sees the brave Jim Hawkins caught up in buccaneer hijinks as they face off against the dread pirate Long John Silver in search of buried treasure.

This is a truly spectacular production, full of charm, whimsy and rollicking spirit, which is hardly ever short of breath-taking sights on its two-hour travels. Lizzie Clachan’s outstanding set design alongside Bruno Poet’s lighting, and music and songs from Dan Jones and John Tams manages to conjure up maritime atmosphere in treasure-digging spades. Gorgeously detailed and vivid backdrops abound, with much ingenious mechanical wizardry on display which keeps the production moving along at a pacey and pleasingly fluid clip.

Photography from The National Theatre

Patsy Ferran leads a strong cast as Jim Hawkins, with a refreshingly modern, even prescient, take on this so-called “boys’-own” adventurer, stubbornly refusing to be whittled down to boy or girl, and full of vim and vigour. Alongside her is Doctor Who alumni Arthur Darvill, hugely enjoyable as the dastardly, two-faced Long John Silver, with both performers having a grand old time of it, and sharing good chemistry onstage, along with some surprisingly endearing shared moments. There are no slouches amongst the rest of the principal cast either, with Gillian Hanna convincing as the crotchety Grandma, Alexandra Maher taking a good-natured pop-culture ribbing as The Doctor (complete with swishy, dandy long coat) in her stride, and many highlights present and accounted for on the good ship Hispaniola’s manifest of misfits.

Confidently and skillfully directed by Findlay, this is a lively, hugely enjoyable production perfect for all the family which captures the spirit of high adventure near-perfectly, and looks ship-shape doing it.

"The Nobodies" by Chalk Line Theatre

This is a recollection of a performance on February 20th 2020. Also published in London Theatre Reviews, April 21st 2020: http://www.londontheatrereviews.co.uk/post.cfm?p=2780

Photography by Lidia Crisafulli

Following on from an impressive debut showing with Testament at the Hope Theatre, the Chalk Line Theatre company returns, this time to the VAULTS Festival, with a second offering from writer Amy Guyler in the form of The Nobodies.

Where previous outing Testament dived into the murky depths of male mental health and masculinities, Chalk Line remains keenly socio-political here, telling a new, but no less grimly relevant tale of existential horror through Guyler’s writing, which crackles throughout with all the pacey drama and darkly comic humour, as well as the witticism and insightfulness that has hallmarked Chalk Line’s offerings thus far.

The talented trio of Lucy Simpson, David Angland, and Joseph Reed each thoroughly convince in their parts as radical young socialists Rhea, Aaron, and Curtis respectively, as their group of would-be activists are driven to bribe and blackmail politicians to get their notion of social justice. Before any of them know it, some ill-advised improvisation in a fix starts a radical peoples’ movement which inevitably spirals out of all control, and all manner of ethical horrors ensue in a story which no doubt owes a considerable debt to the stylings of Fight Club and its ilk.

Photography by Lidia Crisafulli

Fortunately, Guyler and the cast manage to bring plenty of distinctly theatrical style, substance, and uniqueness to what might have felt too derivative in less capable hands, and there is much more besides to love about this original production, which pointedly asks searching, discomforting questions about the true moral righteousness of radicals.

Alongside Guyler’s fine writing, and the cast’s great performances, the intimate surroundings of the VAULT stage’s tiny space are put to some very creative and inventive uses by set designer Becca White, whose great sense of place in (quite literally) assembling a scene is ably assisted by atmospheric lighting from Alan Walden, and Mekel Edwards’ evocative sound design. All the while, Vikesh Godhwani and Sam Edmunds’ joint direction makes for a tightly-focused, pacey and very enjoyable evening of drama which certainly proves memorable for its audience. It seems destined for a life well-lived when it transfers to the Edinburgh Festival in the indeterminate future, when (in the words of Beckett) Happy Days will come again.

Photography by Lidia Crisafulli

National Theatre Live: One Man, Two Guv'nors

Photography by Johan Persson

Writer Richard Bean’s accomplished adaptation of 1746 Italian farce The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni transports the original’s evergreen comic scenario - a poor, starving fool of a Harlequin blundering into waiting on two masters at deadly odds with one another, in search of an extra meal - to Brighton in 1963, where the modern Truffaldino takes the form of the hapless Francis Henshall, lately fired from his Skiffle band and caught between two sets of hardy East End gangsters intent on killing each other. Commedia dell’arte ensues as Francis recklessly bumbles his way through every desperate effort to stop each finding out about the other, whilst eating literally everything he can get his hands on.

Opening to unanimous critical acclaim during its original 2011 run with the National Theatre, and becoming a global phenomenon, director Nicholas Hytner’s outstanding work is these days rightfully regarded as a modern classic the British stage. Today, in the throes of our prolonged global quarantine, it proves unweathered by the long near-decade since, as fresh, inventive, energetic and full of laughter as ever, and now, a sorely-needed tonic for these lonely days.

The full cast. Photography by Johan Persson

This is a spectacular production, alive with enthusiasm and almost bursting with love for the craft in every aspect. Mark Thompson’s beautifully realised, clever set design transports us effortlessly everywhere around the city of Brighton, from stately homes to the mean streets, to the posh restaurants in-between; Grant Olding seemingly captures the lightning of 60s rockabilly in a bottle and tosses it back to us via the considerable talents of in-house band The Craze, taking us on a musical journey back through time and placing us perfectly in situ in 1963; the Craze themselves treat us to their infectiously energetic, feel-good rockabilly stylings throughout, performing a short albums’ worth of memorable and ridiculously catchy numbers at (literal) intervals throughout; and certainly not least, an impeccably chosen cast make every performance a highlight down to the smallest of bit-parts, with even the ensemble giving some shockingly convincing turns in danger of bamboozling uninitiated or unwary viewers (or indeed, sympathetic reviewers).

To mention any stand-outs would be to list the whole cast, whom all – from lead James Corden’s pitch-perfect Francis Henshall, to Suze Toase’s delightful, doggedly driven Dolly, and Oliver Chris’ side-splitting Stanley Stubbers – display a spectacular talent for making the rigorously rehearsed seem improvisational, and never fail to do justice to the beautifully literary, playful, sparklingly intelligent, and laugh-out-loud hilarious writing of Richard Bean.

Daniel Rigby as Alan Dangle with Oliver Chris as Stanley Stubbers. Photography by Johan Persson

Indeed, it seems easy to see why this was the first choice for our onrush of indoor theatre of a rather different sort. It represents the best possible opening night: a definitive, superlative run of a classic, so practically perfect in every way that it would perhaps be no loss to the art of theatre to put a stop to all future staging efforts on account of the work having already achieved its pinnacle. A five-star tour-de-force of farce.

Suze Toase as Dolly with James Corden as Francis Henshall. Photography by Johan Persson.