Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – Cineworld, Wood Green – Saturday 15th July 2023

(Rated 7/5) My mum’s support of my teenage obsession with Harrison Ford was the reason Dad got our first VHS recorder on Christmas Eve, 1983. ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ had been released on videocassette in early December, and the VHS tape of it was obtained by Mum as one of my Christmas presents. That cassette was responsible for our choice of VHS over Betamax! Even though I adored Mr Ford, I had not yet seen ‘Raiders’. My brother and I were told we would be allowed to watch it Christmas morning – it would keep us entertained from 5am, so our parents didn’t have to get up until a more reasonable hour! I would then have been sweet sixteen, (weirdly in my head I was younger than that, but that’s how the maths works out!) R2D2 had been my first screen idol when I was 10 years old and saw ‘Star Wars’ after taking my high school entrance exam, and I remember struggling with the lights of the light sabres! However, as soon as puberty hit, that swashbuckling, cheeky Han Solo caught my eye, and a remote, imagined love affair with Harrison started. That first watch of ‘Raiders’ was SO exciting! Harrison was even better as Indiana than as Han Solo, and Marion Ravenwood – played by Karen Allen – was such a superb smart and sassy heroin. She wasn’t just there as love interest, or to look pretty (though she did), she was very much part of the action. She was Indy’s ‘Goddamn partner’! In fact, the scene which introduces Marion to the audience inspired me to have a go at screen writing myself. From Marion in the drinking competition, through ‘Indiana Jones, I always knew you’d come walking back through my door…’ up to ‘See you tomorrow, Indiana Jones’, the audience is told so much about both characters and their back stories. The whole film is a non-stop action-adventure romp, yet not just a boy-film/shoot-‘em-up – the whole structure is beautiful – introducing Indiana Jones right in the thick of one adventure in search of an ancient artefact from the start, through him being a professor at university, to carrying on his journey to discover the ark of the covenant with historical and mystical interest thrown in all the way. It’s an edge of your seat thrill-ride, with poignant calmer character-moments to provide little rests and strong emotional interest in between. All characters are so well developed and have all become so loved by all the Indiana Jones fans. We see the journeys the main characters take via maps on screen – a little like GoogleMaps of today, though of the age (1936). There are comedy moments – that scene when Indy is faced by a swordsman – Harrison had stomach ache – so instead of a long sword fight as scripted, Indy simply takes out his gun and shoots him – and points of high drama and peril. Nazis feature strongly – they wish to use the power of the ark of the covenant for their own ends. It’s a feast for your eyes, ears and heart. All the following Indiana Jones films have a very similar structure – start with action in one adventure, pause for some poignant character-moments, maps showing us the long journeys to wherever, more action in a slightly different adventure, fun, charm, drama and challenges. For me, ‘Temple of Doom’ was disappointing compared to ‘Raiders’, but now notable for a young Ke Huy Quan playing Indy’s side-kick Short Round, who has since won an Oscar for his role in ‘Everything, Everywhere, All At Once’ – presented to him by Harrison. Doom’s heroin was far too yelly and pathetic imho, but notable for being played by Kate Capshaw – director Stephen Spielberg’s wife. I absolutely adored ‘Last Crusade’- most for exploring the relationship between Indy and his dad – Henry Jones Snr – played so wonderfully by Sean Connery – but also bringing back Raiders’ Denholm Eliot as the delightfully dippy museum curator Marcus Brody and John Rhys-Davies as the devoted friendly Sallah. River Phoenix played a young Indy. But no Marion. She returns in ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’, which tbh I have only seen once! It was interesting as had the son to Indy & Marion, played by Shia LeBeouf, and of course Indy and Marion reunited. But that is about all I remember! So, what of ‘Dial of Destiny’ – well right back up there in quality for me. And Harrison has a sensational new side-kick in Phoebe Waller-Bridge – who said yes immediately when offered the role! It is also, for me, notable in relation to the absolutely adorable interviews with Harrison – in many with Phoebe – and seeing how he wanted to tell this story of older Indy – and see him through to the end of his career. All he says is so charged with emotion, and in fact as a Mr Ford Fan, I couldn’t recommend his message to fans re Indy more (https://www.facebook.com/reel/652493883447598), and all the other little videos of him responding to interviewers about his journey with the character. Seeing all those I felt proud of myself for choosing Harrison Ford as my first human screen idol! A genuinely lovely guy, who cares about all the causes we all need to! Phoebe plays Indy’s god-daughter – her father is played by Toby Jones – who is also in search of Archimedes Dial. The film absolutely has all the best and familiar Indy film qualities. And I found myself very interested in the actual history behind Archimedes and doing my own investigations into what was fact and what fiction. This adventure takes Indy on a journey, the likes of which he has never fully faced before. And leads him to a choice with consequences of huge proportions. Me and my friends thought it might be bittersweet and indeed it is. But it is a true testament to Indiana Jones with the kind of resolution I imagine might satisfy most fans.

P.S. I went as a Marion-Indy combo with their ‘baby’ monkey and an Indiana Jones hat, which we all had a go at wearing 😊 P.P.S. I think I’ve pretty much avoided describing plots and giving any spoilers! 😉 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2023

Dr Semmelweis – Harold Pinter Theatre – Saturday 8th July 2023

(Rated 7/5) The supremely superb actor Sir Mark Rylance, not only plays revolutionary Hungarian scientist and doctor Ignaz Semmelweis in this production, but also imagined and wrote this play about him, having read Celine’s surrealist novel, exploring Semmelweis’s life and work. Mark Rylance has assembled a wonderfully rich team of actors, musicians, dancers, designers and other artistic talents to convey Semmelweis’ story, as though from within his own mind and without too, using his wife Maria Semmelweis – played by Amanda Wilkin – to narrate his story from an external – yet also of course emotionally connected – point of view, along with those other performers to illustrate the workings of his mind scientifically, creatively and psychologically. We are introduced to Vienna hospital and the key ‘issue’ in the play by means of young expectant mother, Lisa Elstein – played by dancer, (though as is important to both this production and in addressing Semmelweis’ medical discovery, she, like everyone else is a holistic performer in a piece addressing holistic issues and not just microscopic particles), Chrissy Brooke. As she arrives, she is clearly in labour and asking to go to the midwives’ rather than the doctors’ ward, as a friend has told her there is more risk to her health and potentially life, in the doctors’ ward. This plants a seed into the audience’s and Semmelweis’ mind – again holistic as it is really as though we are all inside his head experiencing this whole process with him – we are all members of his scientific research team. The staging also adds to that feeling and experience. On the stage itself we are in a dark black space, with the characters playing as though within or as background to the main action in Ignaz’ drama. Often the expectant or new mothers appear in the stages of labour or in various phases of puerperal fever in the periphery, whilst doctors are performing or discussing their work in the centre. However, it is not just the stage that is used by performers – they appear at different times all round the entire theatre space – I had a violinist and a dancer perform right next to my seat by one of the exits. Performers also literally join the audience as audience members for a play within the play, and later as medics at a conference quizzing Ignaz as he tries to explain his new ideas from the stage. And what of those ideas? New physician Semmelweis is starting his work as a ‘junior doctor’ in the middle of the nineteenth century, around the same period when Charles Darwin was developing his equally revolutionary and important ideas on evolution. The whole first act of the play is focused on how Ignaz came to his conclusions – beautifully explored as experiments performed through music, dance and mime – with a little discussion thrown in. You literally feel like it’s all passed in just five minutes – there is no heavy science or debate as such to deal with. Though, in reality poor Ignaz – who had great difficulty in expressing himself, which of course added to his problems challenging the supposed knowledge of the time – had a great deal of backlash and heavy challenge as he tried to go against the assumed wisdom of his superiors and some peers. I won’t spoil the story and your voyage of discovery – yep in my mind is Darwin’s voyage on The Beagle and his observations on the Galapagos islands as I write this sentence – as potential audience members for future performances of this play – but suffice to say Semmelweis had to wait until his superiors were away, to undertake the studies, which would lead to his discovery of the causes of death of some of the new mothers in his, and his team’s care. Playing another key role in that care was midwife Anna Muller – beautifully and compassionately performed by Pauline McLynn – who agreed – with other collaborators amongst the doctors – too many characters/performers to name everyone specifically – to try various scenarios to test theories in search of answers. That core factor for Semmelweis was the putrid-smell-causing “death particles”, which he observed in autopsies – we now call them bacteria. With that understanding, came the concept of hand-washing in diluted chlorine between patients – and so happily a reduction in deaths amongst the new mothers – fewer cases of puerperal fever – and later, the development and use of anti-septics. The Neo-Darwinists of today would have us believe that similar tiny particles solely involved in evolution are those of the DNA in our genes. However, in concluding that, they are misrepresenting Darwin and also rejecting Jean-Baptiste Lamarck before him. Lamarck conceived the concept of inheritance of acquired characteristics – and later Darwin would propose the idea of “gemules” – now called exosomes – which enable the inheritance of those characteristics acquired in an organism’s lifetime. Yes, I am aware this may appear to be my going off at a tangent, however, I am simply providing yet another example – see also Nick Smurthwaite’s piece on ‘The Quiet Pioneers’ in this play’s programme – of scientists or other practitioners – who have made crucially important and revolutionary discoveries, that were blocked – or sadly even worse – as they went against the grain of the contemporary wisdom of their time. For further detail on this particular example of the current ‘Evolution Revolution’, I encourage readers to look at ‘Understanding Living Systems’, by Raymond Noble and Denis Noble. I have heard some say theatre is simply there to entertain us – to provide an escape from reality. But, I feel the best theatre is there to also educate us, to relate to us as we feel it resonate with something in our own lives, and to challenge some of our values and beliefs as well as hold and affirm us in others. In director Tom Morris’s piece ‘What is a Radical?’ in the programme he finishes with: ‘The greatest soliloquy writer of all challenged theatre makers “to hold, as ‘twere, the mirror up to nature” and it is surely true that any live collaborative act of storytelling will reflect the concerns of the age and society in which the story is forged. The play you will watch this evening is our collective response to Semmelweis’ story and the world we live in now, inspired by the talent and vision of a brilliant theatre artist. It is both the story of a wild outsider battling against his world, and a reflection on what seems to me to be the greatest need in our society now; to balance incisive vision with patience, kindness and the capacity to listen.’ Mark Rylance’s Dr Semmelweis is a tour de force of a theatrical production telling a highly poignant, challenging, radical, visionary story of science and a man’s life with the greatest sensitivity and compassion together with charm, laughter, sadness and inspiring all the emotions in between. As he always does, Mark Rylance puts ever so much of himself into the production – and yes again holistically! He is involved, I believe, in almost every aspect. Of course, none of us can know Ignaz Semmelweis himself, but Mark inhabits a great thinker, who is kind and caring, yet facing a monumental challenge of increasingly sever opposition, cracks into vulnerability and a struggle to mentally face the storm. We are shown with such powerful visuals and music, how difficult it can be for someone to confront and change imbedded positions and the toll that can take on them personally and professionally. It is the story of one man, but it is also the story of many men and women. Unlike Ignaz himself, Mark is superbly supported by all the creative performers involved. Oh, what a different story it could have been if it had been so for Semmelweis!

I couldn’t recommend this more for entertainment and intellectual and emotional education! Dr Semmelweis – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2023