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A Year of Highs and LowsPhilip Fisher's Review of 2004 - Part IDateline: 27th December, 2004As 2004 comes to close, it is customary to present a review of the theatre highlights of the year. This article will present a brief overview together with a top five for the year. It will be followed over the next couple of weeks by some more detailed thought and analysis. For whatever reason, this year has been characterised by a number of absolutely wonderful shows and performances that will live in the memory for a very long time. It has also had its share of disasters which is inevitable. The general impression is that, while the good stuff was very good and bad staff unwatchable, there were far more mediocre plays in the middle than usual. To summarise, this was probably the year of the three-star show rather than the four, bearing in mind that my grading system tends to be generous. What we all really want to do is to focus on the memorable highlights and on this occasion, the mouth waters at the prospect. The best play of the year, in almost everybody's opinion, was The History Boys, Alan Bennett's comedy about school life in the 1950s (even if it was set in the 1980s). It featured an unforgettable performance from Richard Griffiths as the kind of the dotty, inspirational schoolteacher that everybody wishes that they had had. Yet again, Nick Hytner and the National Theatre are to be thanked for finding a gem. For Shakespeare, the special event was one of the year's three Hamlets. Trevor Nunn decided to cast a bunch of unknowns (and his Mrs) for his production at the Old Vic and got it absolutely right. His discovery of Ben Whishaw, surely the next Gielgud, was tremendous and the production lived up to a prodigious central performance. For somebody who takes considerable trouble to avoid attending musicals, The Producers was something of a revelation. It was a rich theatrical experience where the music complemented the drama and comedy perfectly. It benefited greatly from the late injection of the sensational Nathan Lane, for which a rather sour Richard Dreyfuss must reluctantly take the credit. The Barbican, with their BITE offerings, present an eclectic mix, the best of which will rank with anything that the world can offer. This year, the highlight was an explosive reworking of Ibsen's A Doll's House directed by German wunderkind Thomas Ostermeier.
To complete a glittery top five, David Eldridge's stage version of the cult Dogme movie, Festen, directed by Rufus Norris, was unforgettable. Given its shocking subject-matter this may not be a good thing for some, as it was the stuff of nightmares and may well have given some members of the audience sleepless nights. However, it was also a taut drama containing beautiful acting and perfect direction and pushes Norris high on the list of our best directors.
Consolation prizes should go to three other plays that were undoubted five-star winners. Rebecca Lenkiewicz' The Night Season in the Cottesloe Theatre was a magical piece about an extraordinary Irish family, containing fine acting and heart rending drama. Primo, a one-man show based on the works of Nobel winning writer Primo Levi showed Sir Antony Sher and director Richard Wilson at their very best. It tells the autobiographical tale of an Italian survivor of Auschwitz using nothing but a great actor wandering around a large stage. Those who were not lucky enough to see it at the National should book early when it is revived at Hampstead in the New Year. Conor McPherson has long been recognised as a wonderful talent and in Shining City, on the main stage at the Royal Court, he produced perhaps his greatest work, certainly competing with The Weir for that title. A simple tale about unsuccessful Irish folk, like so many of those above, it got right under the skin of its characters and also its audience members. It would be interesting to get viewers' reactions to this selection of a top five plays plus three. If you have seen much theatre in London this year, then do please send in your our own top five or, if you wish, pull this selection apart. Even better, why not agree with at least some of the selections and suggest alternatives that you believe are better. The succeeding articles in this series will provide a fairly comprehensive list of what has been on. If there are enough responses, we might even be tempted to produce a reader's top five of 2004.
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