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Review of the Year 2007 - The London Stage (2)1. The National, the RSC and the BarbicanDateline: 23rd December, 2007The National Theatre continues to go from strength to strength under Nicholas Hytner although this year, with something of an emphasis on co-productions, there has been more negative comment about some of the main stage work than has been the case in recent years. It is inevitable that the Cottesloe, which he has specifically designated as a new writing theatre, will have both hits and misses but there have been enough of the former to justify and support the policy. Undoubtedly the highlight of the year was saved until late December, when Hytner directed Simon Russell Beale and Zoe Wanamaker in Much Ado About Nothing, a delight for Shakespearean purists and pleasure seekers alike. This was Miss Wanamaker's second chance to shine at the National in 2007, as she also starred in Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo, which became a kind of memorial to its original director, Steven Pimlott. The programming this year could not have been more varied. For the young at heart, War Horse is a visual delight featuring fantastic puppetry on an epic scale and will bring a tear to most eyes before the end of the evening. There has been comedy, ancient and modern, with Ayub Khan Din's Rafta Rafta bringing a welcome Asian perspective to the theatre, while George Etherege's The Man of Mode featured several excellent comic performances in an updated revival. However, Noel Coward's Present Laughter failed to fire on all cylinders despite good performances from Alex Jennings and Sarah Woodward; and one of Pinter's lesser-known plays, The Hothouse, made a rare appearance. Perhaps the best of the lot, partially for its simplicity but also for a deep underlying political message was another returning play, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, which still featured its original cast, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, who were as good as ever. The transfer of a really atmospheric play, Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, from the Gate with Paterson Joseph wonderful in the lead again, allowed Thea Sharrock to make her National debut which will surely be the start of a long and successful relationship. This has generally been a good year for women at the theatre, both on and off stage despite Nick Hytner's outburst following the less than favourable reviews given to Katie Mitchell's revival of Attempts on Her Life. Marianne Elliott directed the really excellent Anne-Marie Duff in Shaw's St Joan, while Deborah Warner helped Fiona Shaw to conquer a large wasteland of a stage practically alone in Happy Days by Beckett. Following so many other theatres, the National also went in for staged versions of films, working in tandem with Kneehigh on the Powell and Pressburger film A Matter of Life and Death, which though it entertained and contained moments of beauty, was generally regarded as a pale imitation of the movie by those who have worshipped it, in many cases from childhood. The international revivals continued with Gorky's Philistines featuring a standout performance by Phil Davis and an enjoyable touring production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht that made a brief appearance in the Cottesloe. The RSC's London visits, ignoring the Soho season considered separately, have tended to feature big names in fine fettle. In Antony and Cleopatra, Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter strutted their stuff to great effect, while on consecutive nights in November, there were opportunities to see The Seagull and King Lear, both featuring Sir Ian McKellen, although he shared duties with William Gaunt in the Chekhov. These proved to be a real highlight, with Romola Garai announcing herself as a true stage star playing Nina in The Seagull and Sir Ian shining as Lear got further and further from sanity. Since the RSC left, the Barbican has become a receiving house for worldwide productions but also more recently the home of Cheek by Jowl, who are now apparently running parallel British and Russian companies. In The Pit, the programming is if anything more eclectic with short runs allowing visitors to sample high-quality theatre from around the world on a regular basis. Maintaining the Chekhov and Shakespeare combination, Cheek by Jowl offered us The Three Sisters in Russian, which seemed no hindrance to understanding, even with relatively rare looks at the surtitles, as well as an unusually staged, modern dress Cymbeline in English. Other highlights of the Barbican year included Icelandic Company, Vesturport's completely bizarre Peer Gynt, a revival of David Greig's thought-provoking and still incredibly topical Europe and Complicite's characteristic A Disappearing Number, which taught many theatregoers more about higher mathematics than they will have learned in the whole of their school lives. Philip Fisher
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