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Articles
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Articles |
London Theatre in 2005A year of highs, lows and in the middle, the London bombingsDateline: 27th December, 20052 - The National Theatre, the RSC and the BarbicanNicholas Hytner has had a lot to live up to following an absolutely tremendous opening season as director of the National Theatre on the South Bank. The general consensus is that 2005 has been characterised by highs, most of them towards the end of the year and also some misses, particularly in the experimental Cottesloe Theatre. Coram Boy has managed to overcome the difficulties of the Olivier Theatre to enchant and amaze both children and adults in the run-up to Christmas. It contains an outstanding performance from Anna Madeley playing two different boys, aged eight and 15 and is a worthy successor to His Dark Materials and The History Boys, the two big hits in Hytner's first year. For those of a slightly grimmer aspect, Samuel Adamson's new version of Ibsen's Pillars of the Community in the Lyttelton has proved a delight, as much for the discovery of a relatively unknown play by one of the greats, as for the quality of the writing, production and ensemble acting. The year started well too, with another revival, Complicite's A Minute Too Late, an absolute hoot of a physical and mime show that looked at death as a subject for comedy. There were many other riches as well with a first appearance from Mike Leigh, after a dozen or so years of stage absence with 2000 Years, a play about ordinary Jewish people in Cricklewood that was always likely to meet an appreciative audience at the National. This started its life in the Cottesloe and then was awarded promotion on to the bigger Lyttelton stage due to its popularity. The House of Bernarda Alba has been the most popular Lorca play in recent years but Sir David Hare's new version directed by Howard Davies still offered much to delight in including Vicki Mortimer's sun-drenched, white set and some excellent acting led by Penelope Wilton. There was only one Shakespeare but since it was a six-hour long a version of Henry IV directed by Nick Hytner and starring Sir Michael Gambon as Falstaff, it can count as at least two. The final play of the year is Once in a Lifetime by Kaufman and Hart in Edward Hall's endearing new production starring Victoria Hamilton and David Suchet. It didn't sustain its early promise right through but still contained much enjoyable humour. Brian Friel who has proved one of most popular writers on London stages this year managed two appearances with revivals of Aristocrats in the Lyttelton and Translations in the Cottesloe. In that smaller theatre, apart from 2000 Years there were a new version of Tristan and Yseult in collaboration with Kneehigh and Howard Brenton's new play Paul. After its embarrassing absence from London a couple of years before, the RSC has now colonised a large number of theatres in the capital with small-scale work at Soho and a wonderful Spanish season completely stolen by Simon Trinder, a man who does not know how to play a supporting role supportingly, including House of Desires and Pedro the Great Pretender. There were also parts of two Shakespeare seasons from Stratford including Corin Redgrave as King Lear (he also played Ken Tynan), Greg Hicks as Macbeth and most recently a Twelfth Night featuring Richard Cordery as a gigantic Malvolio, never seen better than in tight, yellow biker's leathers. Redgrave's sister Vanessa appeared in an unusual version of Hecuba that generally received critical distaste but contained much to enjoy even if the star's performance, possibly due to a recent illness, was greatly underpowered. The Barbican used to be the London home of the RSC and there were grave fears for its theatrical future after Adrian Noble decided to withdraw his company from the capital. However, it has bounced back as a venue for international companies of the highest calibre and this year also teamed up with the homeless Young Vic in a programme that was very ambitious and sometimes extremely successful. The highlight of the year was Deborah Warner's Julius Caesar containing a cast to die for (well, Julius did) including Simon Russell Beale, Anton Lesser, Ralph Fiennes and in a tiny cameo, Fiona Shaw. As if this was not enough, they also had a hundred or more extras, which gave the crowd scenes real drama. Before the Young Vic arrived, there were also productions by the Abbey of The Plough and the Stars, Peter Brook with Ta Main Dans La Mienne and Theatre O's inventive Astronaut. The Young Vic opened their Young Genius program with Robert Lepage's sublime Dragon's Trilogy, a five-and-a-half hour epic that miraculously concealed the discomfort of the temporary seating in the Barbican's main Theatre. Other highlights of this season included Greg Hicks as Tamburlaine the Great, Underground, an excellent site-specific piece in an abattoir that recreated the atmosphere of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, and, in the Pit, David Greig's bizarre reworking of Ubu the King, resited to a Scottish old people's home. The year ended with Greig back on the main stage, teamed up with Rufus Norris for a Christmas show featuring the much-loved cartoon character, Tintin with his friends Snowy (the irrepressibleTrinder again) and Captain Haddock but the indigestible title of Hergé's Adventures of Tintin. Philip Fisher
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