Macbeth – Harold Pinter Theatre – Saturday 30th November 2024

(Rated 5/5) Of all of Shakespeare’s best-known plays, ‘The Scottish Play’ is my least favourite, though, ironically, I realise I have seen it a few times and I know Lady M’s sleepwalking soliloquy off by heart, and hold it in my heart too. So, why did I go yet again?! I mean, of course, Mr. David Tennant is always a draw for me – I have never seen him be ‘rubbish’! But that alone was not enough, and I only half-heartedly tried to get tickets at the Donmar, and didn’t feel that disappointed that I didn’t succeed. But, when the opportunity arose again, and my sister-from-another-mister together with her blood sister wanted to go, I gave my attempts at ticket-acquiring more energy and got row B stalls, before it all sold out very rapidly. I joked with my SFAM that the three of could be his three witches. And, as it turned out maybe so, as they were not physically present! Before I go on, there will be spoilers in this review. Not of the play and plot itself really, but of the production, because, in a way, it all needs saying to try to convey the impact of the ways the audience experienced it.

Once in your seat, you’re invited to put on headphones and test to make sure you hear sounds in the correct ears – very important for later – and yes, you literally cannot hear the performances properly without them. I later met up with my ‘Three Boys’ and A commented it was 8D sound – actually yes – noises of all varieties come at you from all directions, and in some cases it’s pretty crucial to be able to identify from whence they emanate 😉 Macbeth opens with the ‘Weird Sisters’ – no, not me, my SFAM and her sister lol – voiced by the ensemble directly into our ears, as though coming from everywhere and internally at one and the same time. Together with the smoke and candle-lighting you immediately feel like you’re in an other ethereal world, and that together with a minimal black set and a simple glass box at the back trapping at different points many of the cast, who are all – besides one – dressed in dark colours, provides a powerful sense of the sinister and feeling that you’re deep into the darkness of the psychology of this play. Being so immersed, and with tremendous performances hitting me, I genuinely felt more connected with this Macbeth than any other. When Shakespeare is performed with such perfect awareness of the meaning and skill at expressing the emotion of it by the actors, the audience cannot fail to ‘receive it’. David Tennant is certainly a master of the bard. He, and Cush Jumbo as Lady Macbeth, had me so fully engaged. And there is an interesting ‘twist’ in this particular production – He is all in black, She is all in white – unusually and unexpectedly, she is the light to his dark. David’s Macbeth put me in mind of him playing cold psychopath Dennis Nilsen in ‘Des’, and the pace of his delivery and character development too, reminded me of the way he gave us the fast-thinking 10th Doctor becoming all too power-obsessed in the ’Doctor Who’ episode ‘The Waters of Mars’. As many will know, it is normally Lady M, who encourages and even manipulates the couple’s dastardly deeds, but here she is the humanity and conscience to his apparent total lack of guilt. That said the headphones add to the intimacy of the turmoil of their interactions – he can whisper into her and we hear every little murmur. We feel trapped in the game of crowns too, which has to be played by adults and children alike. The presence and absence of children is very keenly felt in this – and again Lady Cush Macbeth poignantly conveys her lack and pain at never being a mother. It also put me in mind of the Tudor World of Hilary Mantel’s ‘Wolf Hall’ and the story of Richard III’s nephews ‘The Princes in the Tower’ and the unsolved potential crime; were they murdered? – both very present on our TVs just at the moment. We’d hope we had become less barbaric, but tragically innocents and children are dying even today in places around the world, simply because of politics! Have we not learned??!! Yet, this is of course exactly what good theatre does for us – it’s past, it’s present, it’s future, it’s showing us ourselves in all our glory and utter tragic insanity.

Just as the darkness and devastation may be getting too much, Jatinder Singh Randhawa distracts us away from the stage by appearing to our right in one of the boxes and teases us about wearing headphones, ‘Are you expecting a radio play?’, argues with an usher who is supposedly trying to throw him out and get him to buy a very expensive programme, and then gives us a stand-up show! At first, I found this very contemporary sketch – mentioning the likes of Suella Braverman and Trump – out of place and distracting, but it later occurred to me this is actually a History play even though it wasn’t called one, and with kings in it, it also needs a fool. Jatinder was a superb fool and made me smile so much. ‘Knock, Knock…’ And after such not entirely frivolous jollity we are back to knocking at the gates of the court of Macbeth! The ensemble cast are like trapped shadow-figures at many points, yet also very front and actively present at others. Standing out for me was Rona Morrison as Lady Macduff – aside from excellent acting she also had excellent red hair! 😉 As also did Gemma Laurie as Ross – we noticed she got extra applause from the cast, then realising she was the cover for usual Ross – an impressive cover 😊

I had a strange experience of time in this production. Even though in many ways it was obvious where we were in the play, I felt Lady M’s presence much longer than I have in other productions. It’s like she was very much there even when she physically wasn’t. I guess that was in part the power of the character’s influence, but also a little like the witches, she could be present in spirit and not in body. The ghosts of other characters continually haunted Macbeth also as the actor playing them was always present even if their character was absent. This, I’ve only just fully engaged with as I write about it now. Clever choice and effect! Our headphones delivered a great deal more than simply actors’ voices, together with wildlife and witchcraft, there was music… and also, we had dancing worthy of places on Strictly! Very enjoyable to watch 😊

As I mentioned earlier, I talked with my ‘Three Boys’ about this production afterwards and A said he had to learn and deliver one of the soliloquys. I started ‘Is this a dagger…’ He said ‘No, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow…’ I asked him why. Apparently, because it was the shortest 😉 I’d witnessed David Tennant joking with Greg Doran about that speech, yet in performing it, of course, David was ever the professional and we felt Macbeth’s utter brokenness and devastation at the loss of his Lady wife.

This production has given me whole new insights into and appreciation of The Scottish Play. Thank you, David, Cush, Will, Director Max Webster and the whole cast and crew!! Macbeth – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2024

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

Good – The Harold Pinter Theatre – Saturday 10th December 2022

 

(Rated 5/5)

I think the role David Tennant is best known for is The 10^th Doctor, and in that role for the main ‘Ten’ is ‘Good’ and all his actions are intended to be for the ‘Greatest Good’ of humanity or even to attempt to change the hearts and minds of the ‘Bad’ Aliens to do ‘Good’. In attempting to do ‘Good’ and save people from ‘Bad’, later in his regeneration Ten acts for the ‘Good’ of one particular person – saving the life of Lindsay Duncan’s character Adelaide Brooke in ‘The Waters of Mars’ – and she then proceeds to kill herself, knowing that her death will be for the ‘Greatest Good’ of humanity!

For me this illustrates the fine line there is sometimes between what could be judged as ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ and how values and morals can be distorted leading us to question what is ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’?! This is pretty much the topic tackled by playwright C. P. Taylor in his stage play ‘Good’. An apparently ‘Good’ man, Halder – played by David Tennant – becomes drawn into circles and finds himself experiencing challenging situations involving his highly disabled mother and anxious wife, which lead to him being seduced by the now clearly terrifying thinking of the Nazis. The disturbing aspect of which is that within the words and arguments of Taylor’s characters, we as audience can start doubting ourselves and our own – we hope – clear distinction between ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’. For me the production of the play and use of just two actors to play the parts of all the other characters interacting with Halder, also adds to this blurry theme and in trying to distinguish and separate arguments and characters, we can go into a state of confusion. I confess that is what happened to me while watching Act1. I found myself trying to follow the points and views and becoming mixed up in my mind. As she will know, I asked my theatre companion for this show, if she had ‘understood’. I imagine that is deliberate by originally the writer and also director, Dominic Cooke.

For me the play comes across as a psychological stream of consciousness in the mind of Halder with little snippets of scenes of interactions/manipulations between him and the other ‘real life’ characters, chopping and changing all the while between his thoughts and actual conversations. The lack of clear distinction is supported by the supporting actors Elliot Levey and in this day’s production ‘1^st cover Helen’ Edie Newman playing Jewish friend to Halder, Maurice and other characters, and wife, girlfriend to Halder and other characters respectively. Important to pay attention – note to self as I didn’t as much as I wished I had – or you might get lost 😉 That said both Elliot and Edie were brilliant – as Ten might say – in switching between roles. I was actually particularly impressed by understudy Edie switching between anxious wife, seductive student/girlfriend, vulnerable needy mother and even a military man! I also enjoyed that Elliot used me at least twice as his audience focus. At one point in the play – and I should mention myself and theatre companion were front row stalls in the middle – Elliot and David were in discussion sitting at the very front of the stage – I could have reached out with my walking stick and easily touched them – and with me and companion both hands up to our chins thinking about the ‘debate’ they were having – Elliot looked right at me and I could see each individual tear coming from his eyes and down his face. So powerful! In fact, I also sensed and realised how in tune me and my theatre companion were in taking sips of our Harold Pinter Package champagne and adjusting position in our seats etc. At one point close to the end though, I was so relaxed down in my seat with feet far out in front of me. Thankfully, I noticed as an actor – who initially I thought was a member of the audience – walked from stage right to left, and I rapidly sat up again with feet under me lol! Just in time not to trip him up!

David Tennant has become so ‘Good’ at playing ‘Bad’ – will that be the last time I use those terms – eg in ‘Des’ as serial killer Dennis Nilson - that it is no surprise whatsoever that he is excellent in this role. Disturbingly ‘Good’ – whoops no not the last – but it’s a testament to all three performers that for me there was absolutely no distinction – yep that word again too – in talent. I loved that at curtain call David and Elliot both indicated Eddie for specific applause. She was so ‘Good’ – lol – an understudy I wonder how ‘Good’ – okay maybe I need to stop – Sharon Small was. I’m unlikely never to know as I doubt I will see it again – even though I genuinely feel I missed a lot of specifics in dialogue that could be very interesting to read over and unpick. It’s for sure a highly thought-word-processy drama. I won’t say anything about the plot as even to say a little sort of gives things away, but suffice to say in the main it is set in a set looking like a prison in Frankfurt between 1933 and 1942. And the end is… chilling!

Excellent play, superb production, but maybe not for Christmas as such 😉

 

Good – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2022

Prima Facie – The Harold Pinter Theatre – Saturday 11th June 2022

 (Rated 7/5)

Jodie Comer as Tessa in ‘Prima Facie’ is easily the most powerful performance I have ever seen on stage. That is no exaggeration at all. The play, written by Suzie Miller and directed by Justin Martin is the story of a defence barrister who finds herself on the other side in more than one way after she is sexually assaulted by a colleague defence barrister.

For 100 minutes Jodie is the sole performer who narrates, plays Tessa and Tessa impersonating a multitude of other key characters using simply alterations in her physicality and voice.  She seamlessly changes tone and emotion as she hardly pauses for breath through the highly verbose and lengthy script whilst also changing her clothes, doing her make-up, turning lights and candles on and off and moving furniture around!! As we have come to expect of Jodie Comer, she explores her vast emotional range through her facial expressions and body posture and movement as she uses the entire stage, furniture and props to demonstrate to us all that is going on in the play. She takes Tessa from in control, expertly trained barrister witty and dramatic in her defence of her latest client accused of sexual assault proudly pronouncing that the legal truth is more important than any so-called actual truth to defenceless, vulnerable victim, a broken woman trying to win her case with the actual truth of her assault. For any of us it would be difficult enough to memorise the entire script but she truly performs it and gets all the business in too! Absolutely extraordinary!! A True Tour De Force

 

Prima Facie – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2022

P.S. Other Reviews:

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/apr/27/prima-facie-review-jodie-comer-on-formidable-form-in-roaring-drama

 

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/prima-facie-review-jodie-comer-harold-pinter-theatre-b996782.html

 

https://www.theweek.co.uk/arts-life/culture/theatre/956644/prima-facie-review-awards-will-follow

 

David Suchet: Poirot and More (A Retrospective) – The Harold Pinter Theatre – Saturday 8th January 2022

 

(Rated 7/5)

My first Restricted Review for three years and who better to welcome me – and in this case my dear Dad too – back to the theatre than (as of 2020) Sir David Suchet.

Though I have watched some of his Hercule Poirot performances prior to 2020, his companionship as I consumed as many of his seventy episodes as I could find was so much appreciated as easily one of the best entertainments during all the covid pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and further confinements of 2021. For me and I know for so many others including – and I think most importantly Agatha Christie’s daughter – he IS Poirot. As his stage companion and good friend Geoffrey Wansell stated as part of his introduction to the show every second someone, somewhere in the world is watching David Suchet as Hercule Poirot on their screens. How amazing is that?!

David Suchet entered stage left - or right to us but Dad will appreciate the reference as I used to enter stage left to the living-room on lockdown mornings to the accompanying sound of a creaking floor board to announce my arrival – full of beaming smiles and waving with joy to us his audience. He seemed absolutely genuinely delighted to see us all – the theatre was almost at capacity – and thanked us for our bravery in coming to the show all masked up of course so sadly he couldn’t identify anyone.

Geoffrey Wansell was a wonderful ‘guide {for} us on this journey’. It was performed initially as a kind of interview or maybe better described as two friends chatting about David’s life on stage and screen. It was all so completely natural you wouldn’t think it was planned or scripted as it clearly had been with the help of producer Liza McLean and David’s wife Sheila.

To start we were given an exploration of David’s early life and introduced to his Grandma and Mum – both performers themselves – and his Dad who was a clinician. His Grandma was his key inspiration for embarking on his life as a performer. Though his supportive companion on that journey was his Mum who attended many of his appearances on stage. David told us how during one of his first outings he had to call out ‘‘Mother, Mother’’ across to the offstage area. From the stalls he heard “I’m here, David” 😉. In later performances in other shows she would announce her presence during a quiet moment in whatever his first speech would happen to be with a little cough 😊

David also rejoiced in first encountering his wife-to-be (at that stage more seasoned than he in the profession) as she came down onto the stage to greet him a then junior actor. He was smitten straight away! And they have remained together for decades so lasting much longer than many relationships in the industry.

Poirot was naturally the main feature popping up several times throughout the show. David informed us as to how he would get into a character. To begin his beautifully demonstrated masterclass he took us back to Greek theatre and the wearing of masks. A character was at first expressed silently through body movement but then performers progressed to using their voices to im-per-sona-te i.e. inhabit their character per/though the sona/sound of the voice they choose to pass through the mask. As he gradually revealed further the precise ways of vocal expression conveys character and the meaning of the words of the writer. This brought us onto an excellent lesson in Shakespeare’s Highway Code – Iambic, Pentameter, Iambic Pentameter, Alliteration and Onomatopoeia. He showed us their use in various speeches from Shakespeare exaggerating some to highlight and clarify as he would do in rehearsals while exploring his character development. To land on consonants or not can be a question 😉 David emphasised – as indeed I’ve heard many actors do – that his acting choices are to serve the writer. And in turn it is crucial to understand how the character is needed in the play. What would happen if you took Iago out of Othello for example? Othello and Desdemona would have a honeymoon and live happily ever after. No conflict and no jealousy! No drama!! David was involved in a production of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in which he played Shylock. He and the production received complaints about antisemitism. David showed us through two speeches both the ‘dark’ sides of Shylock and the humanity in him “Hath not a jew eyes… If you cut us do we not bleed…” Here surely Shakespeare is telling his Elizabethan audience at the time and us now that we are all the same whatever creed and colour we are – a profound exposition on humanity as appears in many of his plays. There really is more than unites us than divides us.

And so shall we travel back to Cher Hercule for our grande finale?! As I had already read – also during one of our lockdowns – in ‘Poirot and Me’, David read all of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot Mysteries digesting every single detail of his character and making handwritten notes which he used to be absolutely precise in his impersonation of him as well as giving copies to all involved in the productions so they could help him maintain that accuracy. Sadly where Agatha Christie was alive to fully approve of Joan Hickson as her definitive Miss Marple, she had passed away at the time David Suchet embarked on Poirot. However her family knew other interpretations had not felt right to his creator. Agatha’s daughter told David the audience needs to laugh with but not at Poirot. David fully achieved that in his inhabitation of Hercule. Now to the piece de resistance – the fundamental aspect of character - a demonstration of going from the voice of David Suchet to that of Hercule Poirot with steps on the way incorporating first a French accent, then a twist of Belgian/Flemish and gradually going up from stomach via ribs (he could feel it there and still not right) to neck, behind the eyes (where the voice was “out there” rather than within the body) and finally reaching the little grey cells where Hercule resides! We could hear each subtle difference in sona along the way perfectly. I was in floods of tears by the end and so wished I'd been naughty and recorded it!! I did not but here is a more compressed version: https://youtu.be/MZJpGq6W1bw

Et Voila Poirot within Suchet smiles with arms outstretched on stage as behind him we see Poirot in the same pose and in full costume outside Agatha Christie’s Hatfield House.

Magnifique!!

 

David Suchet: Poirot and More – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2022