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A Year of Highs and LowsPhilip Fisher's Review of 2004 - Part IIDateline: 11th February, 2005In its second year under Nicholas Hytner, the National Theatre has gone from strength to strength. One of the most pleasing aspects of their work is their support of new writing. The best of all was Alan Bennett's The History Boys, but it did not stop there. It would be all too easy for our National Theatre to play safe and produce wonderful versions of classics. But, in the smaller theatre in particular, they have taken risks and had many successes, the best of which was Rebecca Lenkiewicz' The Night Season. The list of strong contenders for best new play from the Cottesloe is long. Recently, Kwame Kwei-Armah's Fix Up gave a real boost to black culture while earlier in the year, Roy Williams less successful Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads looked at similar issues from a different angle. The National has also done Londoners a wonderful service by introducing its £10 season with the assistance of Travelex. This has enabled theatre-goers to see some of the best plays around (including The History Boys) for less than the price of a cinema ticket. The other big seller, currently revived, is Nicholas Wright's adaptation of Philip Pullman's best-selling series of novels, His Dark Materials. The original production contained a wonderful performance from Anna Maxwell Martin as Lyra and those who have loved the novels are equally entranced for six hours by the plays. Sir David Hare wrote two new pieces, both strongly based on contemporary political issues, the very successful The Permanent Way and the somewhat turgid Stuff Happens. The revived classics included Complicite's glitzy Measure for Measure, Cyrano starring Stephen Rea, Marivaux' The False Servant and, going rather further back, Katie Mitchell's stark new Iphigenia at Aulis. The importation of American stars, so prevalent in the West End has also hit the National with the presence of Lauren Ambrose in Sam Shepard's very dark Buried Child. As if all this has not been enough, Sir Antony Sher excelled under Richard Wilson's direction in the one-man show Primo, based on the writings of concentration camp victim Primo Levi. Just along the South Bank, the Old Vic has been revitalised, not before time. First, Sir Trevor Nunn produces a wonderful Hamlet, detailed in the first article of this series. Subsequently, Kevin Spacey has taken over the reins as artistic director and his ambitions know no bounds. His first effort as a director, Cloaca, was not a success and this was followed somewhat bizarrely by Sir Ian McKellen starring in Aladdin. With Spacey's desire to introduce new writing, we must all hope that 2005 is a great year for the Old Vic. Since the RSC's residency ended, the Barbican has hosted BITE seasons which have never been less than adventurous. They tend to have highs and lows as experimental works joust with the sublime. The best this year was the revival of A Doll's House but there were other high points that included a reworking of Gogol's The Overcoat and the unforgettable The Black Rider, featuring a collaboration between Robert Wilson, William S Burroughs, Tom Waits and Marianne Faithfull. The RSC itself has not been seen as much in London as in the past, nor at their very best, although this should change with Michael Boyd's policy decision to reverse his predecessor's disastrous mistake. The pick has perhaps been a rather enjoyable Taming of the Shrew. The West End launched some big musicals during the year with The Producers an outstanding success, The Woman in White less so but distinguished by incredible computer-generated graphics from William Dudley. In terms of straight plays, the West End had a funny year with some big successes, often unexpected but also some almost embarrassing failures with big names used to hide very week shows or scripts. David Grindley's revival of Journey's End with no big names was a surprising hit. It has spent the year touring both the country and West End theatres to the delight of audiences. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has proved a hot ticket ever since its disastrous opening in Edinburgh. The combination of heartthrob Christian Slater and the wonderful Frances Barber has proved seductive. One of this year stranger hits has been Round The Horne Revisited. A radio show presented on stage sounds like a recipe for disaster but in fact, has proved both enjoyable and nostalgic, if rather predictable and has outlasted many of its much more expensive theatrical cousins. For those who love big names and pretty faces in shows that often leave much to be desired, we had When Harry Met Sally featuring Luke Perry and Alyson Hannigan followed by Molly Ringwald, Oleanna with Aaron Eckhart and Julia Stiles, By The Bog of Cats starring Holly Hunter and even The Shape of Things with Alicia Witt. Shakespeare had a pretty good year including an Indian Twelfth Night at the Albery, Othello starring Sir Anthony Sher at the newly-opened Trafalgar Studios (there was an alternative, very different version at the Riverside Studios produced by Cheek by Jowl) and much covered under reports on specific theatres. He was also represented at the Globe in what was less than a classic year with Measure for Measure the pick. Far stronger than any of these and involving big English names including Dame Diana Rigg and Victoria Hamilton was Michael Grandage's new version of Tennessee Williams's Suddenly Last Summer. For Beckett lovers, Endgame with Sir Michael Gambon and Lee Evans had great appeal. The West End can also operate on a smaller scale and it is pleasing to see the success of Little Women at the Duchess charging as little as £27.50 for top-price seats and the New Ambassadors Season of Edinburgh transfers, the best of which was a very radical version of Antigone, Gone by Glyn Cannon. Perhaps the best of the lot though was Rufus Norris's wonderful stage production of Festen, the first Dogme film, transferring in from the Almeida, following on from their success earlier in the year with Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia. The very worst of the year was undoubtedly... it's tempting but unfair to publish this. Somebody must have thought that this unnamed play was good, even if it failed to make its second night and taste is a strange thing. In any event, this reviewer managed to avoid it.
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