The Beast's Pen

Photo: Manuel Harlan

Writer: Tom Stoppard

Director: Nina Raine

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Any play that begins as the Russian army invades a neighbouring country is sure to strike a chord with modern audiences, even if they are too young to remember the events of 1968. This revival of Czech-born writer Tom Stoppard’s 2006 play Rock ’n’ Roll serves as a timely reminder of the impact of the foreign occupation of Czechoslovakia on the country’s people, their freedoms and their culture, including, of course, their music.

Unlike the present day, 20th Century divisions in Europe were founded, at least in part, on ideological differences, the West upholding the principals of capitalism and democracy and the Eastern Soviet bloc following the principals of communism and authoritarian rule. These opposing ideologies form the basis for Stoppard’s play.

Max (Nathaniel Parker) is a university professor, living in Cambridge with his dying wife, Eleanor (Nancy Carroll). He is a prominent Marxist, believing unswervingly in egalitarianism and the iron-fist methods needed to enforce it. Jan (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), studying for a doctorate, is his pupil and supposed disciple. The 1968 Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia inspires Jan to move back to his home country and he packs up his precious vinyl collection of rock music and leaves for Prague.

On arrival, Jan experiences the realities of the occupation. The country’s  leader, Alexander Dubček is perceived as weak (“basically Cliff Richard”) and its leading rock band, The Plastic People, is driven underground. Working as a writer, Jan becomes a dissident and he pays the price. For large chunks of the play, Stoppard is, in effect, playing Devil’s advocate with himself as he lays down the arguments to support the viewpoints of both Max and Jan, but the problem is that good arguments do not necessarily make good drams. Perhaps realising this, the writer brings in human stories of friendship and romance, but they come across as afterthoughts and the two distinct elements of the play never connect properly with each other. 

The second act leaps forward 19 years. Margaret Thatcher has just been re-elected as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Max is showing signs of dementia and U2 have replaced The Rolling Stones at the top of playlists. Most significantly, there are signs that The Cold War is beginning to thaw. Jan returns to Cambridge to find that the obdurate Max has not moderated his views and the drama becomes cluttered with secondary characters as the writer seems to struggle to find an apposite ending.

The unevenness of the play takes us on a rocky ride, but director Nina Raine’s classy in-the-round production makes it much smoother. The acting is impeccably and Anna Reid’s set designs with Peter Mumford’s atmospheric lighting supports the actors admirably.

The writer’s sharp wit shines through the fog that the play sometimes walk into. Overall,Stoppard’s clearest message could be that political regimes come and go, but rock ’n’ roll lives forever.

Performance date: 12 December 2023

Photo: Marc Brenner

Writer: Annie Baker

Director: James Macdonald

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Annie Baker seems to have taken up a forms of residency at the National’s Dorfman Theatre, Infinite Life being the award-winning American writer’s fourth play to be staged at the venue since 2016. In style, this new work has much in common with the first of these plays, The Flick in which a group of lonely strangers gather in a near-empty cinema. Here, five women patients in a California hospital chatter mundanely while reflecting on mortality and the even worse alternative, infinity.

The middle to old aged women bask on sun loungers, always fully clothed, as day turns to twilight, to night and then back to day. Baker does not burden the play with a narrative nor detailed back stories for the characters. There can be no spoilers because nothing of note happens. As in The Flick, the writer is never afraid to empty the stage, nor to plunge it into darkness. Pauses in sound and vision are as potent as her words in conveying a sense of the unstoppable progress of time, which is the play’s hidden charter.

The play begins with Sofi (Christina Kirk) ploughing through a copy of George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda before her reading is interrupted by the arrival, one by one, on the sun deck of Eileen (Marylouise Burke),  Yvette (Mia Katigbak), Ginnie (Kristine Nielsen) and Elaine (Brenda Pressley). They exchange pleasantries, discuss their ailments and display all the awkwardness of strangers being thrown together by circumstance. Baker extracts the play’s humour, and there is plenty of it, not from jokes, but from quirkiness and recognisable human traits.

As the drama moves slowly along on a straight track, the only twist comes with the unexpected arrival of a partly-dressed man, Nelson (Peter Simpson), who is being treated for colon cancer. Sofi, who has already declared that bad health results from bad sex, shows an interest in him which leads, hilariously, to a weird flirtation in near total darkness apart from the glow from Nelson’s mobile ‘phone as he shares his explicit selfies.

The acting in director James Macdonald’s deliberately pedestrian production is tuned to perfection. The combined work of set designer dots and lighting designer Isobella Byrd creates a sort of purgatory where normal life is temporarily suspended, part sun-drenched paradise and part nightmarish darkness. It is inhabited by six people who are together but alone, reaching out for something that may never be attainable.

Poignantly, Infinite Life sets up a mirror in front of the audience and what we see in it is slightly ridiculous, but, ultimately, touching. Is itworthwhile setting aside 105 minutes of our non-infinite lives to spend them in the company of these dull and uninteresting people? Actually, it is.

Performance date: 30 November 3023