The Beast's Pen

Photo: Alex Brenner

Writer and director: Stephen Unwin

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In essence, Laughing Boy, Stephen Unwin’s new 100-minute one-act play, is a dramatised documentary. However, the vitality of the writer/director’s production blows away the dryness that can be associated with such a format and elevates it to a level at which information and entertainment are delivered in equal measures.

The play’s source is Justice for Laughing Boy, a book by Sara Ryan, an Oxford academic with a serious grievance to air. Janie Dee plays her with a sense of tempered rage, impassioned but, at most times, rational. Sara’s son, Connor Sparrowhawk, dies at the age of 18 in 2013, drowning in a bath at a National Health Service residential unit. Connor has learning disabilities and he suffers from epilepsy. The play traces Sara’s journey towards uncovering the truth about what happened to Connor and then seeking justice on his behalf. 

Connor, a lover of buses and lorries, is present on stage throughout the play. Alfie Friedman shows remarkable range in playing him, giving us glimpses into the world that he inhabits as he moves from a gentle and vulnerable boy to an unmanageable and occasionally violent teenager. Most importantly, he brings out the “magic” that endears Connor so much to his family and others

A white screen envelops the small stage in Simon Higlett’s set design and images are projected onto it. Forbes Masson plays Rich, Sara’s partner and support through her ordeals. This leaves four actors – Lee Braithwaite, Charlie Ives, Molly Osborne and Daniel Rainford – to play all other characters in the story plus a Jack Russel Terrier. It is their energy that injects life into the production.

This is a story of failures in care by supposed carers and disrespect for the basic human rights of society’s most vulnerable members. Inquests and enquiries follow over a period of years and the writer points the finger of blame at medical malpractice, overstretched resources, underfunding, etc, leaving no room for arguments to be balanced. The play is presented as one woman’s campaign to battle through the excuses and cover-ups to find truth and accountability.

This is gripping and thought-provoking suff. Yes the play’s final sections drag on for far too long. but dragging on for far too long is precisely what much of this distressing story is about.

Performance date: 30 April 2024

Photo: Mark Senior

Writer: Samuel Adamson

Director: Richard Twyman

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Ever since the release of David Lean’s classic 1945 film, Brief Encounter, middle-aged couples, classical piano music and railway stations seem to have been linked inextricably. All three elements figure in the mix for The Ballad of Hattie and James, Samuel Adamson’s new play, which is a complex study of the adversarial platonic friendship between the title characters, spanning almost 50 years.

The play begins in 2019 with Hattie playing the piano at St Pancras International station. This leads to a reunion with James, a professional musician who she had first met in 1976, and we then see how their on-off relationship develops over the years. When they come together, they cannot even agree on who contacted whom to arrange the meeting, but their conflicts lead to a strange form of mutual dependency that, repeatedly, draws them back to each other.

Hattie is eccentric, wears two scarfs and has ambitions to play the piano at the Royal Albert Hall, but she settles for a job in a tax office. James is gay, stuffy, wears old corduroy trousers and is passionate about Benjamin Britten. They could be the proof that opposites attract and music unites them until it tears them apart. 

There are few actors more accomplished at playing eccentric characters than Sophie Thompson and, as Hattie, she is terrific, pushing the comedy as far as she can without going over the top, while finding the pathos in a life of promise unfulfilled. Charles Edwards’ James, an awkward, impassioned academic, is the perfect contrast. Suzette Llewellyn provides solid support to these precisely judged performances, playing multiple roles, and Berrak Dyer plays the piano beautifully.

The product, directed by Richard Twyman, navigates through the play’s crescendos and decrescendos fairly successfully, only getting stuck in some overlong and over-analytical scenes. Adamson packs the script with details of the characters’ back stories which prove to be of little use in helping us to understand their emotions and the strange bond that holds them together. 

There are minor quibbles about what is, overall, an engrossing and unusual drama, but maybe just a little fine tuning could give it a lot more clarity.

Performance date: 18 April 2024

Writer and performer: Tom Walker

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If anyone has ever wondered what BBC News would be like if it lost its balance, Jonathan Pie (alter ego of Tom Walker) could provide the answer. Pie is the BBC’s Westminster correspondent and, having worked previously for Russia Today, he knows all about democracy.

Perhaps realising that preaching Socialism to an audience that has paid West End ticket prices may not be too good an idea, Pie begins by promising that his “lecture” will not be a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party and, instead, he makes it a Party Political Broadcast against the Conservative Party (and others). All Prime Ministers since Thatcher are in the firing line, with Rishi Sunk being named the most evil of all for having once worked as a hedge fund manager. There are many villains, but where are the heroes that the show’s title promises?

The evening begins with a so-so 20-minute set from Egyptian-American comedian Maria Shehata. Presumably, her job is to warm up the audience for Pie, but, having done so, she sends us out for a 20-minute interval and cools us down again. Very odd.

Pie’s style is to launch into ferocious, foul-mouthed tirades, pitched at such a level that they cannot be good for his blood pressure. A Socialist who sends his son to a private school and is a member of BUPA, a conservationist who cannot be bothered to re-cycle waste and regards David Attenborough as overrated, we figure out that Pie’s Achilles heel is hypocrisy long before he owns up to it.

Moving at break neck speed, Pie leaves us little time to dwell on the nonsenses or to figure out the other side of his arguments. Corruption, cronyism, privilege, greed, etc are all sitting targets and, when he hits them, his observations are often very funny. His overlong “lecture” only flounders when he asks us to take him seriously.

Pie rants against every political and social convention that comes, apparently randomly, into his head, reserving special venom for British democratic institutions. However, it is all reminiscent of Basil Fawlty beating up his motionless car and maybe this self-confessed hypocrite’s hopes for real change are just pie in the sky

Performance date: 16 April 2024.

Photo: Manuel Harlan

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Robert Icke

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With a title that alludes to a character in Hamlet, Robert Icke’s production of Player Kings is a mash-up of the two parts of  Henry IV, William Shakespeare’s stirring coming-of-age saga, which tracks the progress of the heir to the throne, Prince Henry (Hal), from wastrel to warrior. Its themes are timeless and universal.

King Henry (Richard Coyle) appears with regalia not dissimilar from that seen at the coronation of King Charles III, as Icke gives an immediate signal that no opportunity to link the play to the modern world will be missed. Henry’s grip on the throne is tenuous, with descendants of his deposed predecessor gaining momentum, but how he wishes that he had a son to match the valiant Hotspur (Samuel Edward-Cook), that of his adversary. Instead, his own oldest son is absent, attending the “court” of Sir John Falstaff, a battle-hardened retired soldier, who is set on growing old disgracefully in the bawdy ale houses of East London.

The jewel in Player Kings’ crown is youthful octogenarian Ian McKellen’s marvellous Falstaff. As written, the character is truly ridiculous and McKellen goes flat out to squeeze every drop of pitiable absurdity from him, knowing that, in these plays more than any others, Shakespeare connects comedy to drama with absolute precision.

Toheb Jimoh’s Hal is angry and petulant, as if holding off his inevitable accession. But this is not a gullible kid who simply falls for Falstaff’s boasts, exaggerations and lies. He is fully aware that, while he joins in the boozing, whoring and pranking, his heritage sets him apart. On stage together, McKellen and Jimoh generate magical chemistry, lighting sparks off each other.

Running at well over three hours, including one interval, this could have become a hard slog and, very briefly, Icke’s production gets bogged down in 15th Century politics. However, mostly, it skips lightly over them, leaving scene-setting factual details to appear occasionally as surtutles. Using minimal sets, designer Hildegard Bechtler opts for varies 20th Century costumes and the staging relies on hand-drawn curtains at scene changes. The overriding mood is inflamed much by dim, atmospheric lighting, designed by Lee Curran. The climax to the first half is the Battle of Shrewsbury, staged with long shadows, gun shots and explosions. What is lost in historical accuracy is made up for in dramatic intensity and Icke tops it off with a wonderful coup de théâtre.

The second half is more subdued and reflective, giving it the potential to feel like an anticlimax. However, rich characterisations save this production from that fate and foundations laid down in raucous earlier scenes add power and poignancy to the Bard’s melancholic study of ageing and renewal.

Popularised by star casting, revivals of Shakespeare plays in commercial theatres seem to be going stronger than ever before. Player Kings certainly sets a high bar for those that follow.

Performance date: 12 April 2024

After her stint playing Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix series The Crown, Imelda Staunton will be returning to her role as the Queen of British musical theatre in a revival of Jerry Herman’s Hello Dolly over the coming Summit at the world famous London Palladium. She joined a small gathering in the venue’s Cinderella Bar to chat about the production with director Dominic Cooke and The Reviews Hub’s Stephen Bates was there to eavesdrop.

The idea for the production fist sprang up when Cooke and Staunton were working together on the 2017 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies at the National Theatre. It began taking shape and was scheduled to open at the Adelphi Theatre in the Spring of 2020. And then came lockdown. However, Staunton sees the delay as being, in some ways, serendipitous, because it means that the show will now be seen at what she regards as the perfect theatre for a spectacular Broadway musical from a golden era (the early 1960s). She recalls fondly that, as a child, she watched all the great stars of the era performing on ITV’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium and then coming here to see live performances by Josephine Baker and Bing Crosby. She says that she will need to banish these memories from her head if she is not going to be too terrified to set foot on the same stage.

Similarly, the star hopes to banish thoughts of the famous names who have played Dolly Levy before her, including Carol Channing and Bette Midler on Broadway and Barbra Streisand, who she acknowledges was 40 years too young for the role in Gene Kelly’s 1969 film version. She says that Dolly has neither the anger and ruthless ambition of Mamma Rose (in Gypsy) nor the inner sadness of Sally (in Follies), Staunton’s two most recent musical triumphs, but she sees a force of positive energy in the character which will strike a chord with audiences in modern times. She believes that it is important to bring back old musicals for young audiences who may never have heard of them. She jokes that she has already been asked if the show is about Dolly Parton.

Cooke is keen to emphasise the musical’s roots. It is adapted from The Matchmaker by the great American playwright, Thornton Wilder. He sees the relationship between the play and the musical as similar to that between George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and My Fair Lady in that many lines are common to both. However, in this new version, additional lines have been taken from Wilder’s play and the director believes that this will make a musical that is already very funny even funnier.

Another change will be the the insertion of the opening number which Herman wrote for the film. Staunton knew the composer/lyricist slightly, having worked with him many years earlier on a production of Mack and Mabel, so she telephoned him to gain permission for the change, which she got. Sadly he is no longer with us, but, hopefully, he will approve from above. When asked how she would like to see theatre grow as it rebounds from the pandemic, Staunton replied that her concern is that the current boom in the West End is not being matched elsewhere. and she would like to see more support for regional theatres. Perhaps a national tour of Hello Dolly could help.

So, after a delay of four years, the sets are being built, the costumes are being sewn, the actors and dancers are in rehearsal. Now we all await now for the curtain to rise.

Attended for The Reviews Hub on 20 March 2024

Photo: Craig Fuller

Writer: Harry McDonald

Director: Matthew Iliffe

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Could anything be more unpleasant than spending an evening stuck in a public convenience? Well, yes, possibly being in such a place and watching Foam, Harry McDonald’s unflinching one-act account of London’s skinhead scene of the 1970s to 1990s.

We share the Finborough’s cramped performance space with a urinal, a wash basin and a cubicle that is complete with spy hole. Nitin Parmar’s set design has all the essentials. In 1974, 15-year-old Nicky Crane (Jake Richards) walks in and begins to shave off his hair. He is followed by the vaguely aristocratic Mosley (Matthew Baldwin), dressed all in black, who invites the boy to join his “club” and presents him with a signature pair of boots. This opening scene has a surreal feel, with Mosley as a demonic figure, but the drama reverts quickly to realism.

The play has five scenes, each with confrontation as its main ingredient. Nicky’s journey takes him from night club bouncer to punk rock singer, a prison term and gay porn star. Each scene has a different protagonist, including a gay photographer (Kishore Walker) and a violent defender of black rights (Keanu Adolphus Johnson) as director Matthew Iliffe’s gritty production mounts aggression on aggression.

What McDonald seems most keen to explore are the interactions between the skinhead subculture, fascism and homoeroticism. As Nicky adorns himself with swastika tattoos and chants nationalist slogans, he has numerous sexual encounters with men, while forcefully denouncing the gay world, The connections and the contradictions are laid out clearly by the writer, but maybe they are not adequately explained. Most crucially, McDonald fails to explain Nicky. Does this monster have a heart or a soul? We never know and the omission leaves a gaping hole in the play.

To its credit, Foam does nothing to mask the ugliness of the lifestyle that it depicts, but it is a tough watch, packing into its 90 minutes as much aggression as in a dozen episodes of Eastenders. When it is over, the night air of Chelsea smells sweet.

Performance date: 22 March 2024

Photo: Mariano Gobbi

Writer: Tobia Rossi

Director and translator: Carlotta Brentan

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Italian playwright Tobia Rossi has found a novel way of exploring the growing pressures placed on teenagers in modern times. His 85-minute two-hander is a dark and sometimes shocking parable for the age of social media,

In Hide and Seek, the hider is Gio (Louis Scarpa), a teenage schoolboy who we assume to be gay, and the seeker is Mirko (Nico Cetrulo), a slightly older boy from the same school in rural Italy. Gio has taken refuge in a remote cave to escape the bullying and torrents of online abuse hurled at someone who happens to be different from their social group. His absence could be construed by the wider world as kidnapping or murder and, when Mirko finds him, he becomes complicit in a growing deceit.

The boys’ conversations centre around Tik Tok, WhatsApp, “hits”, “likes” and so on, They share their admiration of comic book super heroes. When Mirko relays news of the frenzy that Gio’s disappearance is causing in the local community and throughout Italy, Gio shows more delight in his newfound celebrity status than concern about worrying family and friends, thereby highlighting the dehumanising effect of social media.

Rossi’s script requires Gio and Mirko to be both mischievous boys and sexually awakened young men. Occasionally the dialogue jars, feeling not quite right for a situation, but the actors, both excellent, have few problems in bridging the gap between the different sides of each character. The bond between the pair grows and takes on more sinister undertones as Mirko becomes dominant and manipulative and Gio’s ambitions become more irrational. Once more, youngsters who are at ease in the virtual world are seen to struggle when dealing with real emotions.

Having translated to play into English, Carlotta Brentan directs a production that is consistently engrossing and equally disturbing. The entire drams unfolds inside a cave which has no natural light, leaving set designer Constance Comparot to fill the tight studio space with a central representation of a rock and Gio’s essential provisions scattered around. Seemingly more challenging is the job of lighting designer and Alex Forey copes admirably.

In the closing stages, Rossi’s play seems to emulate the plight of the two lads, finding itself in a dark place with no clear escape route. The conclusion which the writer finds is not entirely satisfying, but, at least it gives cause for hard reflection.

Performance date: 15 March 2024

Photo: Marc Brenner

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Brigid Larmour

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Increasingly in recent years, The Merchant of Venice has come to be regarded as one of William Shakespeare’s problem plays, due to the perceived antisemitism in its treatment of the vengeful Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Perhaps cutting the most offensive lines could sweep some of the difficulties under the carpet, but, courageously, director Brigid Larmour’s revival takes exactly the opposite approach by tackling the problem head on.

The production lands in the West End for a limited run almost a year after it began touring. Therefore, it was conceived well before the sequence of events triggered on 7 October 2023 added new urgency to its anti-antisemitic sentiments. This version of the play is set in the East End of London in 1936, when mobs of black-shirted demonstrators, led by former Labour Member of Parliament Oswald Mosley, were swarming the streets in ugly protests against the Jewish community, aligning themselves with activities of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis in Germany. Real life newsreel footage from the time and newspaper cuttings are projected onto the set, accompanied by British nationalist images and patriotic songs.

The change of setting does not explain the change in Shylock’s gender, but making the character a woman takes nothing away from the power of the messaging. In fact Tracy-Ann Oberman’s compelling performance in the role provides more than adequate justification. Abandoned by the elopement of her daughter Jessica (Gráinne Dromgoole) with the gentile Lorenzo (Priyank Morjaria), she becomes an isolated figure and it is made abundantly clear why the racist abuse which she receives, particularly at the hands of the arrogant merchant Antonio (Raymond Coulthard), is unbearable and why she is driven to claim her pound of his flesh.

The lack of colour in Liz Cooke’s set and costume designs establishes a sombre tone which runs throughout. This makes the rather silly romcom  that takes up a large part of the play’s first half seem even more ill-fitting than usual. Portia, played as a very modern professional woman by Hannah Morrish, has inherited great wealth from her late father and now has to choose between suitors by getting them to open caskets. There is much more potential for comedy here than Armour chooses to squeeze out, but perhaps it is wise to understate these scenes rather than risk undermine the gravity of the production’s overriding themes.

Portia’s chosen suitor is Bassanio (Gavin Fowler), Antonio’s close friend, and thus she is drawn into the merchant’s conflict with Shylock. The stage is now set for a searing, all-female courtroom battle of breathtaking intensity. Very lucidly, the question is asked as to who is in the right – the persecuted and abused Shylock, fighting for her honour, her heritage and her faith or Antonio, defending his flesh and his life.

in this adaptation by Armour and Oberman, the play runs for a manageable 130 minutes and, even if the brief sermonising which rounds it off feels unnecessary, it underlines the deep passion of all involved in the project. When the quality of mercy prevails here, we are left hoping that the same will soon happen universally,

Performance date: 21 February 2024