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| Hope springs eternal for cockney
commies |
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CHICKEN SOUP WITH BARLEY
Tricycle - by Illtyd Harrington
THIS is the first play of Arnold Wesker’s biographical
trilogy and is set between 1936 and 1956, when his family lived
in a basement in Stepney.
It starts on October 4th 1936, the day the people of the East
End stopped Mosley at the Battle of Cable Street.
The basement is a dressing station, command post and peaceful
bastion of the Communist Party away from the noisy fray. Exhilarated,
they feel that they have taken a step towards revolution.
Father Harry (Simon Schatzberger) is a reluctant class warrior,
a feckless man who steals scarce cash from Sarah’s handbag.
His sister Cissie (Caroline Lennon) is a garment workers union
official. They never abandoned their political base until the
Khrushchev revelations about Stalin and the Russian suppression
of Hungary in 1956. Now Harry is an incontinent stroke victim
and his son has gone off to Paris to cook. Aida does not believe
that her god has failed and Sarah is unbreakable: “I didn’t
know what happened in Russia. So what if they made the ideology
fail? Does that mean the ideology is wrong?” She is no quitter.
In one great line she shouts out her belief: “If you don’t
care, you die.”
Chicken Soup is not a period piece, but a clear story of the political
and social evolution within a non-typical but certainly identifiable
family. Giles Croft and Dawn Alsop directed and designed. The
other younger actors are very much like the people I knew during
this period.
Now I have to declare an interest. For a week or so in 1950, I
shared the Wesker family’s hospitality and one Sarah endorsement;
a rare accolade. So I can truthfully say the production is real
and touching. These people held on to a belief that promised a
better time. Now the left has no certainties and fewer beliefs
and only a handful that have fire in their bellies.
Until November 22
020 7328 1000
Spirited players stop show from dragging
TORCH SONG TRILOGY
Pentameters - by Ronan Murphy
AN adaptation of Hollywood actor and writer Harvey Fierstein’s
1988 film, Torch Song Trilogy is an exploration of love, loss and
homosexuality transposed from its original setting of New York to
contemporary Camden Town.
The play follows the life of Arnold Berkoff, a drag queen who has
a habit of getting involved with the wrong sort of men.
This trend continues when he becomes involved with Ed, a man who
then starts seeing a woman.
A collection of confusion and power plays ensue between the three,
eventually becoming four when Arnold finds the new love of his life,
Alan.
The play often feels disjointed and lacking in any discernable rhythm,
with the third act, in particular, appearing separate from what
has gone before, and compounding the problem by descending into
repetitiveness.
A confrontation between Arnold and his mother highlights an unfortunate
problem in that many of the situations in the play appear highly
clichéd in 2005.
We have Arnold’s mother telling of her and her deceased husband’s
despair at giving birth to a ‘fairy’, while the entire
character of Ed is a deeply unlikeable caricature of a self-loathing
closet homosexual.
In fact, other than Arnold himself, played with a nice line in sardonic
bitchiness and charm by Stuart Evans, most of the characters are
highly irritating bores who delight in droning on about themselves.
A fundamental failure of the piece is the manner in which the characters
approach emotionally devastating events in a manner which is almost
blasé. If they don’t seem to care about what happens,
why should the audience?
It is a play which struggles to evoke the intensity of emotion that
it seemingly aims for.
The raw but spirited cast are not helped by a script which opts
for over-verbose self analytic dialogue as a substitute for depth.
Until November 6
020 7435 3648
Shakespearean pastiche transferred well
to stage
WYRD SISTERS
The Gatehouse - by Jennie Gruner
HISTORY is rewritten in Wyrd Sisters, adapted from Terry Pratchett’s
novel.
The play, a comic take on Shakespeare, involves a whirlwind of witches
on broomsticks, a cowardly duke, evil queen, a ghost that can’t
remember his lines and some wandering thespians.
The cowardly duke is convinced by his wife to kill the king, yet
his nervous guilt gives him away. “I cannot get my hands clean
of this blood,” he says frantically (sound familiar?).
The Shakespearean references are abundant, and the juxtaposing of
this with modern language means the comedy comes thick and fast.
Meanwhile, the Wyrd Sisters (three witches played by Niamh Dyar,
Amanda Reed and Emma Keele) try to stop the duke and queen from
taking the throne.
While the witches go about restoring order to the kingdom, (with
Nanny Ogg having a few too many drinks along the way), there’s
even a love story. This Threadbare Theatre Company production seems
to have it all, and for fans of Pratchett and his fantasy land of
Discworld, it’s well worth a watch.
Stephen Briggs has made a good attempt at adapting Pratchett’s
work for the stage, using all the visual possibilities for exploiting
the story’s humour. The actors certainly did the characters
justice, yet at times there was a little too much expectation –
in the form of pausing to wait for a laugh. However, the cast was
charming and well meaning.
The second half seemed to flow much better than the first. The storyline
unfolded and the character of Tomjohn, a foundling whom the witches
want to install as rightful king, played by Scott Joseph, really
came into his own.
It is well directed by Lucy Linger. Although the plot seemed thin,
relying a little too much on light humour, if you want lots of harmless
fun, this is the play for you.
Until October 22
020 8340 3488
Wit could be developed
SPIVS
Kings Head - by Laura Moss
IF you have a spare hour to kill at lunch time this week, you
can watch two Del Boy-types reflecting on the end of their road
as a double-act.
The King’s Head continues its series of afternoon performances
with Tony Phillips’ one-act comedy Spivs staring Tony himself
and Peter Dean, perhaps best known as Peter Beale in Eastenders.
It’s the early 1950s and Syd and Ron are feeling redundant.
Drinking half pints of Guinness at Fred’s café, Syd
admits he wants to retire to the south coast.
In a bid to out-do his long-time business partner, Ron threatens
to move to Australia before Syd promptly exposes this plan as highly
fantastical. The pair then rock back and forth between nostalgia
and trepidation of their future.
The sometimes subtle references to the era in which the play is
set might be lost on a younger audience. Spivs seems like a taster
of a promising but incomplete play that might enjoy greater success
once fully developed.
Until October 23
020 7226 1916
Boys seem to have comfortable life
BOYS' LIFE
Etcetera - by Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi
JACK, Phil and Don have been ‘friends’ since they were
very young. Boys’ Life explores the hurdles drunkenly stumbled
upon by the three men, from the “generation that had it all
and didn’t know what to do with it”. Pulitzer Prize nominated
Boys’ Life reiterates the stereotypes of being a man.
Howard Korder’s self-consciously post-modern play resonates
with Shakespeare’s teasing profundity. The trio have problems
with women but appear to have little in common.
Jack, happy in his role as a house husband, uses his time in the
park with his son to ‘pick up’ a female jogger.
Despite their obvious idiocy, the men are endearing and amusing
to watch, due to strong performances. particularly from George Leggat
(Jack), Sharlit Deyzac (Lisa) and James Witt (Phil).
Although the illustration of the pain at losing friends and struggling
with manhood is at times moving; the play inadvertently conveys
the fact that rather than being problematic, perhaps a boy’s
life is a little too easy.
Until November 6
020 7482 4857 |
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Give power to the people
POST-war, early 1950s Britain was still experiencing food rationing
and was a disillusioning place for English gourmands. The war had
destroyed the restaurant trade and, with few exceptions, post-war
eateries made the worst of a bad situation.
FULL STORY
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