The Beast's Pen

Photo: The Other Richard

Writer: Marcelo Dos Santos

Director: Matthew Xia

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Feeling Afraid as if…was an award-winning hit at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but, at first glance, it seems that the driver transporting it to London could have made a wrong turn, dropping it off at the Bush Theatre rather than a mile along the road at the Hammersmith Apollo, home of stand-up comedy. The line that separates a play in monologue form from a stand-up routine can often be wafer-thin, but, here, it is near to invisible.

Distinction is made even more blurred by the performance of Samuel Barnett, an actor of considerable repute, who is so convincing as a 36-year-old neurotic comic that it becomes almost impossible to believe that he is not the real thing. Barnett takes on the guise of a camp performer in the mould of, say, Joe Lycett, churning out sharp one-liners with consummate ease and mixing them with sly asides and natural rapport with the audience.

The comedian, comfortably immersed in London’s gay scene and averse to any form of commitment, tells the story of a slow-burn relationship with an American man who has the misfortune to suffer from cataplexy, which means that laughing can trigger a severe, perhaps even fatal physical reaction. The central irony in the monologue is that the comedian’s new boyfriend can never give him the response that is his professional life blood.

Writer Marcelo Dos Santos’ script is structured beautifully, blending coarse humour with dark, brittle wit and he signs it off with a delicious punchline. Underlying the laughter, this is a multi-layered piece that explores the human fear of and need for close relationships. Director Matthew Xia sets his 65-minute production in what Kat Heath’s designs make to look like a middle-ranking comedy club.

The show sticks to a very simple formula, but it should not be approached with the sort of trepidation that is suggested by its overlong title, because, when Dos Santos, Xia and Barnett join forces, they  make something terrific happen. However, perhaps it needs to come with a health warning that it is totally unsuitable for anyone who suffers from cataplexy.

Performance date: 15 November 2023

Photo: Pamela Raith

Writer: Jonathan Maitland

Director: Michael Fentiman

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With the possible exception of Michael Parkinson’s clash with Emu, Martin Bashir’s 1995 encounter with Diana, Princess of Wales could be the best remembered interview in the history of  British television. So why does writer Jonathan Maitland feel that it is necessary to re-visit this already over-familiar event? It takes a long time to find the answer.

At the time when the interview aired, opinions divided sharply between those who saw Diana as an innocent victim of a broken marriage and others who believed that she had become a monster set on wreaking vengeance whatever the collateral damage. So much depended on facial expressions and body language that are difficult to reproduce on stage and, wisely, Maitland includes little of the actual interview, opting to sit on the fence. Yolanda Kettle mimics the look and voice of Diana very precisely and suggests that the Princess was gullible, but a long way from being a fool.

Maitland seems interested primarily in Bashir, who is presented unequivocally as a sycophant and a liar. Ultimately, this play is all about Bashir’s deceptions, revealed fully some 25 years later, which were contrived in order to gain the interview, and their consequences. Tibu Fortes is convincing as the ruthlessly ambitious and unrepentant television journalist who has no qualms about persuading Diana that they are both outsiders struggling to survive, she in the Royal family and he at the BBC.

Matthew Flynn gives an air of inflated self-importance to Paul Burrell, who alternates between serving as Diana’s faithful lackey and acting as narrator to the audience. He advises his mistress to be cautious in dealing with Bashir, as does her confidante, the eminently sensible Luciana (Naomi Frederick). Director Michael Fentiman’s in-the-round production has the actors standing, somewhat awkwardly, on a bare stage, not detracting from the detail in the writing.

Maitland is following in the footsteps of Peter Morgan, the master of chronicling modern Royal life, whose screenplays for the Netflix series The Crown have already covered the interview and the subterfuge that led up to it at great length. Unsurprisingly, yawns set in during the first hour of this play, which does little more than tread the same ground, seemingly without any fresh purpose. 

Fortunately, the play finds new life when, effectively, Maitland puts Bashir on trial before a modern-day jury for distorting truth as a result of his deceptions and devaluing all reporting of news. An intelligent debate follows and, intriguingly, Bashir is allowed to defend his actions, as he may not yet have done publicly in real life. Thus the play redeems itself in the final third, but getting there is a slightly tedious slog.

Performance date: 1 November 2023

Photo: Christophe Raymond de Lage

Writer and director: Alexander Zeldin

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It is a long way from Sydney to London and a long time from World War II to the present day. Writer and director Alexander Zeldin’s new play embarks on these epic journeys, viewed from the perspective of one woman’s quest for cultural enlightenment and self-empowerment. An international collaboration, this production was co-commissioned by the National Theatre, RISING Melbourne and Théâtres de la Ville Luxembourg.

Inspired by conversations with Zeldin’s mother and her peers, the woman in the story is Alice, played in later life by Amelda Brown and, for most of the play, by Eryn Jean Norvill, whose performance is a tour-de-force. All other roles are shared among seven actors. Alice is born into a traditional Australian family; her father, a soldier who is away fighting in the War, is unknown to her in her formative years and the faraway shores of Europe seem no more than a dream to her.

Driven by a rebellious streak and a thirst for knowledge, Alice matures to become a fiercely independent woman, immersed in the Arts. The play tracks her progress through troubled times and stormy relationships to eventually discovering her place in the world. The times in which she lives impact on her life, but, in some small way, she helps to change those times.

The play purports to be an “intimate portrait” of Alice, but Zeldin hits the problem that intimacy and the Lyttelton Theatre have frequently made uncomfortable bedfellows. The writer/director’s previous work at the National Theatre, the gritty social dramas LOVE and Faith, Hope and Charity have thrived on the compact space of the Dorfman Theatre, but. here, the vast stage almost swallows his play. Zeldin attempts to break down the fourth wall by having characters enter and exit through the audience, but to little avail and Marg Horwell’s colourless set designs drain the production of any warmth coming from the performances. 

Perhaps it was always foolishly ambitious to try to condense this sprawling and complex narrative into a one-act play, running for under two hours and, inevitably, the storytelling is episodic and often confusing. There are several dramatic flashpoints, heightened by stirring modern orchestral music, composed by Yannis Philippakis, but they tend to feel isolated from the story and their impact is thereby diminished.

There is much of interest in The Confessions, but this production leaves behind a feeling of being cold and distant, allowing many of the play’s complexities still tangled. 

Performance date: 23 October 2023

Photo: Dawn Kilner

Writer and director: Adam Zane

Adam Zane’s new play is a modern-day morality tale set in the city of Manchester, putting the emphasis on the first syllable. The action revolves around five men who enjoy the pleasure’s of the city’s Gay Village to the full. Their mobile devices are loaded with every known gay dating app and their nights are packed with excesses of sex, drugs and alcohol.

Ben (David Paisley) is in his mid-40s. Having spent 12 years in a monogamous relationship with a much older man, he is now intent on making up for lost time, being a “daddy” to the others, who are all in their 20s. Kam (Sam Goodchild) and Russel (Matthew Gent) are Ben’s old friends who are both denying a little too vigorously that they are a couple. 

They are joined to make up a foursome for the night by AJ (Levi Payne), a newly in town from Doncaster who will later prove to be too slow to learn the perils of unprotected sex. When the action is in full swing, Simon (George Hughes) responds to a dating app message and then there are five. He is porn “star” looking for a steadier job and he has a serious addiction problem.

In Zane’s script, words and deeds are brazen and bawdy. The dialogue alternates between sexually explicit and tired innuendo, broken only by talk of the men’s passions for Victoria Wood, Coronation Street and, of course, Kylie. For all of the first act, the writer seems unable to decide whether he is casting scorn on the lifestyles of the character or celebrating them and being daring alone is not enough to carry the play.

A change of tone in the second act proves to be the play’s redemption. The characters begin to see themselves as unable to escape, trapped forever, each destined to become  “the Ken Barlow of Canal Street”. They come to realise the hollowness of their hedonism and a tragic event jolts them into seeing reality. In these later stages, Zane’s writing itself finds a sense of purpose.

There is little work for a costume designer in a lively, well-paced production, directed by the writer himself. Dick Longdin’s set design for Ben’s bedroom with a much used king-size bed as its centrepiece, suggests that it is part of a comfortable middle class dwelling. in some ways, the characters are integrated into conventional city life, but, in many other ways, they are far apart from it.

Zane’s writing sparks a feeling that the biggest obstacles to enjoying the fruits of their liberation arise from members of the gay community themselves, thereby echoing sentiments to be found in the works of Kevin Elyot. Such a comparison may flatter Zane at the moment, but there is sufficient here to indicate that brighter things could be on the way.

Performance date: 12 October 2023

Photo: Ellie Kurttz

Writer: Tanika Gupta

Director: Pooja Ghai

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With our Government warning us of an imminent “hurricane” of immigrants, it is worth taking time to reflect on historic attitudes towards those who are seeking to build new lives in the United Kingdom. Tanika Gupta’s new drama, transferring from the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upn-Avon, charts the progress of a group travelling on a ship arriving in England from India in 1887, whose lives become intertwined.

Rani is a 16-year-old, employed as a nursemaid to a wealthy English family who is returning home. Immediately on arrival, the family dismisses and abandons her to make her own way in a hostile London. She gains employment with an aristocratic family, but soon discovers that the father of the children in her care is making demands on her that go far beyond household duties and she finds herself back on the streets. Eventually, she becomes the assistant to an Indian politician who is striving to become a Member of the British Parliament. Tanya Katyal is captivating as Rani, transforming from an innocent victim into a confident young woman who is capable of fulfilling her own dreams.

Arriving on the same ship is Abdul, sent as a Golden Jubilee gift to Queen Victoria, Empress of India. Many will already be familiar with the friendship that develops from the 2017 film Victoria and Abdul, but the story is re-told here touchingly with Raj Bajaj making a proud Abdul and Alexandra Gilbreath a stubborn and enlightened monarch. The establishment opposition to this friendship is voiced by a stern lady in waiting, Lady Sarah (Francesca Faraday).

Backed by the considerable resources of the Royal Shakespeare Company, director Pooja Ghai’s lively production has an epic quality that contrasts beautifully with the intimate nature of the stories being told. Designer Rosa Maggiora’s striking two-level set allows the Empress to oversee her subjects and her vibrant costumes accentuate differences between two cultures. Musical compositions by Ben and Max Ringham add much colour and energy when performed by a company of 18 actors and five musicians.

Gupta does not need to remind us of the modern day relevance of her play, but she packs the drama with savage indictments for the crimes of imperialism and the injustices caused by racism and class divisions. However, the messaging is wrapped carefully inside stories of friendship, struggle and an on-off romance between Rani and a sailor from the ship on which she arrived. 

Running at almost three hours (including one interval), The Empress does not feel overlong. It makes serious social and political points and it tells human stories, striking a precise balance. Ultimately, it is entertaining and uplifting..

Performance date: 10 October 2023

Writer: John McKay

Director: Liz Carruthers

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The year is 1985. Live Aid is happening, Margaret Thatcher is celebrating six years in Downing Street and Back to the Future is the big hit on cinema screens. It is also the year in which Scottish writer John McKay’s short play is set.

Not seen in London for 35 years, the play was intended to be staged alongside the premiere of Sunny Boy, a sequel set in 2023. However, due to unfortunate circumstances, this has proved to be impossible and the revival now stands alone. It is a supernatural comedy, rooted firmly in its own place (Edinburgh) and time.

Eck (Angus Miller) is a young man who is embarking on a career in broadcasting. While preparing himself for an interview with the BBC, he is shocked by the arrival of his father, Willie (Liam Brennan), who has been dead for 12 years. McKay makes up new rules for the powers of ghosts, giving us one who is visible to everyone and can eat. Dead Dad follows startled Eck around, turning the job interview into chaos, making unhelpful interjections on a trip to the supermarket and ruining his son’s hopes on a first date.

As a generation gap comedy, this is all fine, if a little predictable, but McKay uses Dad’s 12-year absence to widen the gap with jokes that are very specific to their own era. Dad is bemused by 1980s fashion trends and health food fads and he has no idea who Thatcher is. These gags are mining the same seam as those revolving around time travel in 1985’s hit film and, from the perspective of 38 years later, they are very much back to the past

Director Liz Carruthers allows the two actors only a wooden chair as their single prop and they are both terrific, making it such a pity that much of their material has gone so far beyond its sell-by date. Hopefully, we shall not have to wait too long to see Sunny Boy, but, for now, the valiant efforts of Miller and Brennan to give the kiss of life to the earlier play all seem rather pointless.

Performance date: 5 October 2023

Photo: Danny Kaan

Music and lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Directors: Matthew Bourne and Julia McKenzie

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When the great American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim died on 26 November 2021, he left behind a hole in the world of musical theatre that may never be filled. He also leaves behind many, many old friends and this extravagant show establishes emphatically that London’s West End is, collectively, among them.

We have seen tributes to Sondheim before. The 2010 televised 80th Birthday Prom at the Royal Albert Hall lives long in the memory, but the involvement of Matthew Bourne as co-director and Stephen Mear as choreographer ensures that this show is more animated than any concert could be. Most famously, the 1976 revue Side By Side By Sondheim showcased the writer’s early works and Julia McKenzie, a star of that show in the West End and on Broadway, joins Bourne, thereby adding a poignant sense of continuity.

Devised by Cameron Macintosh and stage in his Gielgud Theatre, which adjoins the newly renamed Sondheim Theatre, the show opens with Bernadette Peters, who has avoided the West End for most of her illustrious Broadway career, and Lea Salonga reminding us that Sondheim achieved major successes, as lyricist only, with West Side Story and Gypsy before his first hit as writer of both music and lyrics in 1962. That first show was the Ancient Roman romp A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and, fittingly, this show’s opening routine, Comedy Tonight, originates from it. Much comedy as well as nostalgia and pathos follows.

A 14-piece orchestra, under the direction of Alfonso Casado Trigo, is  placed at the back of a stage that is adorned by countless lights. In a company of around 20 well-established performers, those joining Peters and Salonga include Clare Burt, Janie Dee, Damian Humbley, Bonnie Langford, Jason Pennycooke, Joanna Riding and Jeremy Secomb. A little overwhelming, perhaps.

In the first half, we are whisked from a New York wedding chapel (Company), into and through land of fairy tales (Into the Woods), before spending a Summer weekend in the Swedish countryside (A Little Night Music) and landing in the den of a throat-cutting barber (Sweeney Todd…). No one ever questions Sondheim’s versatility, but, here, the greatest hits selection feels slightly random and could maybe benefit from some witty original material to link the segments and provide context. As the half draws to a close, the company comes together for a glorious rendition of Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George as an image of George Seurat’s painting hangs over their heads.,

The backbone for the second half is provided by Sondheim’s two homages to the age of Vaudeville, Follies and Gypsy, with the mix of pathos and comedy holding together firmly. Peters tugs at the heartstrings with Losing My Mind, as she had done with Send in the Clowns in the first half, and Salongs asserts forcefully that Everything’s Coming Up Roses; however, both are eclipsed by Dee’s hilarious party piece, The Boy From…, which was written for a long-forgotten off-Broadway revue.

The razzle-dazzle of Broadway in all it’s moods dominates proceedings, with the wit and wisdom of Sondheim’s lyrics and his haunting melodies shining through. Sadly, this leaves little room for a full appreciation of Sondheim the pioneer, the man who expanded the boundaries of musical theatre into new territories, and ambitious shows such as Pacific Overtures (soon to be revived in London) and Assassins are squeezed out.

Not a wake but a celebration by Sondheim’s old friends for his old friends, this show should also draw in many new friends. The songs featured here are like treats from a tasting menu, perfect for whetting the appetite for a main course in the form of a full Sondheim musical. There should be plenty of opportunities to feast for many years to come.

Performance date: 30 September 2023

Photo: The Other Richard

Writer: Marek Horn

Director: Ed Madden

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Ethnology, anthropology, romance and David Bowie seem like ingredients for a fairly peculiar concoction, but aren’t most romcoms about opposing forces ultimately coming together to find harmony? Marek Horn’s new one-act play, Octopolis, receiving its World Premiere, dares to offer this mix and the result is a strikingly original and highly entertaining comedy.

George is a recently widowed professor of ethnology, living a reclusive life on a university campus. She shares her quarters with an octopus named Frances, who is part of her research into human and animal behaviour. She asks questions such as whether or not Frances believes in God. George’s solitary life is intruded upon by the arrival of Harry, an ambitious doctor of anthropology, whose mission is to observe both George and Frances and reach conclusions which may not concur with the findings of his hostess.

Typically for scientists, the two protagonists seek logical explanations for everything even where none exist. Both are expert in fathoming the unfathomable, but neither is so hot at dealing with their own emotions. The challenge for Horn is to make both characters credible academics as they voice conflicting theories, while also making the dialogue accessible to audiences who are most likely to perceive it as intellectual gobbledegook. In meeting this challenge, the writer is aided by the verve of director Ed Madden’s production.

The academics confront each other, making humorous asides directly to the audience and, at interval’s, they break for “dad” (and “mom”) dancing to Bowie tracks. Jemma Redgrave’s brittle and defensive George is a figure of comedy living on the cusp of tragedy. Ewan Miller’s geeky and arrogant Harry shows eagerness for discovery and naïveté in comprehending himself. Together these actors, on stage for the play’s entire 100 minutes, light sparks off each other.

Designer Anisha Fields finds a very clever way of suggesting the ever presence of Frances. The audience sits on three sides of the stage and the whole length of the fourth side is taken up by what appears to be a tank full of water. Reflections of the actors can be seen in the glass front of the tank, giving the impression that it is the human characters that are being studied, thereby underlining the point of the play.

Once the intellectual mist has cleared, Octopolis reveals itself to be smart, slightly surreal and quietly touching. This is a romcom that has legs, eight of them ro be precise.

Performance date: 25 September 2023

Photo: Marc Brenner

Writer Lynn Nottage

Director: Miranda  Cromwell

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They say that elephants never forget and Mlima is such an elephant. Even after death, he returns to haunt his killers and those who might profit from his demise. In her new 90-minute one-act play, receiving its United Kingdom premiere here, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer Lynn Nottage sets out to investigate the threats to Africa’s dwindling elephant population and the vile international trade in ivory. The play becomes a passionate plea to save a noble species that is being exterminated in order to satisfy the most trivial of mankind’s fads.

Ira Mandela Siobhan gives an extraordinary performance of power and physical agility as Mlima. The elephant is old and majestic, with enormous tusks, which make him the target of poachers, particularly when he roams away from his herd. The play begins with a moving soliloquy from Mlima and them the poachers arrive.

Director Miranda Cromwell’s simulation of the “execution” is vivid and brutal. Long shadows and silhouettes appear on a pale curtain which swishes backwards and forwards across the bare stage. There is no place for sunlight in this dark and disturbing world and so the tone is set for the sorry tale which follows. The production achieves a mystical feel, underlining a belief in African folk lore: “if you not give elephant proper burial, he’ll haunt you forever”.

Nottage and Cromwell set the bar so high with this stunning beginning that they risk making the remainder of the play an anticlimax. And, sadly, so it is. The tale introduces us to corrupt Kenyan officials, powerless conservationists and, as the ivory is shipped from Mombassa to Vietnam en route for China, smugglers, illicit merchants and, eventually, rich clients who treasure freshly-carved statues and ornaments. Mlima’s presence haunts every scene as new characters drift in and out, all played by four actors – Gabrielle Brooks, Brandon Grace, Natey Jones and Pui Fan Lee.

Before the halfway stage, the play takes on the feel of a documentary, loaded by Nottage with sickening facts about the ivory trade, and its dramatic impetus is lost. Flashes of humour are injected, as if in recognition of this problem and the imagination of Cromwell’s staging continues to impress, but these things alone are barely enough to rescue a production that starts on a high and then slowly loses its way.

Performance date: 21 September 2023

Photo: Manuel Harlan

Writer: George Bernard Shaw

Director: Richard Jones

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No singing, no dancing all night and no getting married in the morning; George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 comedy Pygmalion steps out from the shadow of the hit musical My Fair Lady, for which it provided the inspiration, and reveals its own true colours. The play is now performed rarely, but, at the same time, it is highly familiar and living up to audience expectations can present challenges for any revival.

Shaw’s central point, that human beings cannot be judged by their appearance or the accent with which they speak, is, of course, timeless, which director Richard Jones’ production sets out to prove. However, the play’s specific characters and situations are rooted in their own era and this leads to a dichotomy, which is added to by Stewart Laing’s designs, his costumes in period and traditional, his sets plain, even ugly and modern-ish.

In the same way that the humble flower girl Eliza Dolittle asks not to be considered in superficial terms, Jones seems determined to prove that the value of Shaw’s social satire does not need to be judged by a facade of glamour and romance. At times rushed and at other times pedestrian, the uneven flow compound a feeling that all the pieces in Jones’ jigsaw do not quite fit together neatly. All that said, nothing is done to make Shaw’s writing unfunny.

Fresh from her triumphs as sad leading characters in Tennessee Williams dramas, Patsy Ferran revels in the chance to turn her hand to comedy. Her Eliza begins as a squawking wild creature, later transformed by dialect coach, Henry Higgins to become a refined lady who mingles in high society and something of a feminist role model.  Ferran is a delight throughout, but she appears to be far more at ease with her character in the later scenes.

Bertie Carvel last appeared on this stage playing Donald Trump and he tones down his performance only a little to become Higgins. This is less the arrogant toff that we normally see than the nutty professor. Perhaps Carvel is a little too manic at times, but he is successful in bringing out the solitude of a man who is more of a misfit in society than Eliza.

The two leading actors, both Olivier Award winners, take licence to go over the top at times and the same can be said of John Marquez as Alfred Dolittle, Eliza’s rumbustious father, to whom Shaw gives many of his wittiest lines. More subdues are Michael Gould as Pickering, straight man to this madcap Higgins and Sylvestra Le Touzel as the professor’s eminently sensible mother.

Jones’ bold re-imagination of this classic sparks and misfires in just about equal measures. It infuriates as much as it charms, but the key ingredient of Shaw’s wit survives intact and his messages resonate as clearly now as ever.

Performance date: 20 September 2023