Review: #ROHaeternum, etc., Royal Ballet

Aeternum was the star piece in this triple bill and Claire Calvert was the star in Aeternum. If there were another matinee I’d go back and see it all again and maybe appreciate the other two ballets better. I missed Aeternum last time as I was nodding off after 24 Preludes due to the Chopin effect and went home early. This time, the preceding ballets were more interesting. They were both narrative ballets – they are obviously coming back into fashion – not that I’m sure what the story of Cermemony of Innocence actually was. It was good to watch and Britten’s music was excellent. The Age of Anxiety had a much clearer story, apparently based on an Auden poem but very reminiscent of Coward’s Design for Living. Set in New York to music by Bernstein, it made me think of Jerome Robbins’ choreography for West Side Story. I knew it was an unfair comparison: the dancing was superb but I still haven’t seen a British company manage to swing like that, although Boston Ballet did when they visited London. These were only the second performances of both works and I suspect they’ll be just that bit better when they are revived – they are certainly worth seeing again. For Aeternum, everything was superb: the choice of music by Britten, the orchestra under Barry Wordsworth, the choreography by Christopher Wheeldon and the dancing, but it felt like it was all there to support the stunning performance by Claire Calvert. She is still only a soloist but on the basis of this I strongly look forward to seeing her in other major roles.

Review (not): Ghost Stories, Arts Theatre

No review for Ghost Stories @GhostStoriesUK as they ask you not to give anything away. It was fun and a bit scary, but nothing like as scary as the stage version of Let the Right One In
(which was scarier than the film) but why were there no women in the cast? Many of the parts could easily have been played by women or adapted for women. Sometimes gender is important to the story. The whole point of ENO’s The Girl of the Golden West was to look at the role of a lone woman in the tough world of the California gold rush and the wonderfully expressive conducting of Keri-Lynn Wilson helped make up for the lack of women on stage. There was no excuse in Ghost Stories.

Review: The Vertical Hour @VERTICALHOURLDN Park Theatre

A profound play by David Hare featuring a flawless performance from Thusitha Jayasundera – if she had a simpler stage name she’d be a big star. Peter Davidson is as excellent as one would expect with Finlay Roberston playing his son – a good performance but a less convincing character than the other two. The play opens and closes with Thusitha Jayasundera’s American politics lecturer holding tutorials with two students. The students’ essays present the simplistic pro- and anti-war arguments, sandwiching the main play where her arguments with Peter Davidson’s character offer more nuanced viewpoints. The relevance of the mess that Bush and Blair created to the current situation with ISIS has dominated many reviews but the play is also about relationships, teaching, war correspondence, guilt and personal responsibility. I thought I’d missed this but they added an extra performance yesterday. It’s justifiably almost sold out but if you can find a ticket then do so.

Review: #HereLiesLove Dorfman Theatre @NationalTheatre

This looked and sounded absolutely fabulous in every way. The NT’s new Dorfman Theatre is designed to be re-configurable but I bet they didn’t think it would be re-configured so many times, and so effectively, in a single show. I loved the music by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim but then I’ve got CDs by both of them so it might be a problem if that is not your thing. The music never stops, nor does the show which was a straight 100 minutes with no interval. The cast is astonishingly good, singing and dancing with terrific energy and skill. I saw no programme so I can’t credit anyone but I was surprised to find at the curtain call there were fewer than 20 – the energy and the costume changes made it seem like at least twice that. It’s like nothing else I’ve ever seen and I’m left stumbling at quite how to describe it. All can say is that if you can get a ticket then do so.

On the down side, as I left I heard a young couple discussing it. He said he thought he understood it from around half way and she said she didn’t understand it at all, so if you aren’t already familiar with the story I’d strongly recommend you read up a bit on Wikipedia. I did also wonder why David Byrne approached Fatboy Slim for the music, having been in Talking Heads with Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, aka Tom Tom Club, who created one of the greatest dance albums ever.

Review: @NevillesIsland, Duke of York Theatre

A perfectly cast comedy guaranteed to make you laugh (and wet in the front row). Many of the big name productions I’ve seen this year have been disappointing and one dimensional. This play by Tim Firth is not a shallow star vehicle but deeply satisfying. Besides being funny, it questions the nature of comedy: when does comedy become cruelty or even tragedy? Oddly, the funniest part for me was Miles Jupp’s character trying to tell a joke and failing. There’s a terrific set, perfect direction from Angus Jackson, and the star quartet of Ade Edmondson, Miles Jupp, Neil Morrissey and Robert Webb are superb. Technically this was a preview but you’d never have known it. Thoroughly recommended.

Review: Uncle Vanya @St_JamesTheatre @UncleVanya2014

John Hannah is perfect as Uncle Vanya, superbly supported, especially by @TheJoeDixon, Amanda Hale, Rebecca Night and Jack Shepherd in this unmissable production. It’s yet another reminder of what a superb playwright Chekhov was, re-written in this case by Anya Reiss.The direction by Russell Bolam is also spot on, sometimes allowing a simple look or action carry as much meaning as the words.

The references to iPads and mobile phones brought this production firmly up to date. For me, however, the play could not escape its original setting. The 19th century world of rural, middle class Russia is unlike any other. Distinguished by class from the serfs who were effectively slaves, the middle classes ran their country estates often on the brink of bankruptcy, obliged to play host to large numbers of middle class hangers-on, occasionally playing at professions, a doctor here and an architect there, while eating, drinking and lazing around. It is a world made very familiar not just through Chekhov but in recent productions of Turgenev’s Fortune’s Fool at the Old Vic and Gorky’s Summerfolk. The brilliant Three Sisters at the Young Vic showed that you can perform it on table tops and a heap of black earth and still capture that strange world.

Review: #ROHManon @_stevenmcrae and Roberta Marquez

Steven McRae tweeted that Act 3 inspired him to pursue a career in ballet. I’m so glad as he and Roberta Marquez were totally inspired in this performance, not just technically brilliant but emotionally enthralling. This is ballet at its most romantic and they were superbly supported, especially by Valentino Zucchetti as Lescault and Yuhi Choe as Lescault’s mistress. In fact, the dancers seemed far more genuinely romantic than the saccharine sweetness of Massenet’s music. Maybe the music contrasted poorly with the simple beauty of Handel’s Xerxes the night before which I sadly had to abandon after Act 1 due to ill health. This made me feel so much better – thanks to all involved.

Review: @GreatBritainNT Theatre Royal Haymarket

Aaron Neill was an absolute master of deadpan comic brilliance and almost steals the show from better known stars such as the excellent Robert Glennister and Lucy Punch. Some of the audience were laughing at the crude joking of the newsroom but that is not where the true humour of Richard Bean’s comedy lies. His savage satire of the press is obviously based on the News of the World phone hacking scandal but the plot also takes examples from the Sun, the Star, the Daily Telegraph and others, along with some side-swipes against the Guardian and the Daily Mail. Be warned that there is a lot of very crude language and some rather unsettling story lines but it is hilarious.

I’ve been away on holiday for a few weeks and before that was the summer doldrums, so it’s a great start to the autumn season!

Review: #DangerousCorner @TheatreWindsor

A first class production of J.B. Priestley’s wonderfully crafted play. Good performances all round, but Michael Praed (also excellent in Sleuth) and Kim Thomson stand out. No time to say more – just grab it if it comes near you.

Review: The Importance of Being Earnest, Harold Pinter Theatre

A very enjoyable evening. I almost booked when I first saw cheap seats but reviews were mixed. Then I got a bargain seat on a miserable Bank Holiday Monday – I’ve never seen the West End so deserted – and I’m glad I did. The cast are excellent but far too old for the play, so Simon Brett has added some material about the annual production by the Bunbury Players. Martin Jarvis and Nigel Havers reprieve the parts they played at the National Theatre in 1982. Add Sian Phillips, Cherie Lunghi and Rosalind Ayres and it’s quite a cast. Once they get down to the play itself, they are perfect and you quickly forget their ages and the audience, me included, was soon laughing away. It’s hardly surprising that the additional material does not match the brilliance of Oscar Wilde’s but I think they could have worked on it a bit harder. The extension of the cucumber sandwich humour was perfect but we could have done without the cheap ladder joke. The second half drops the framework; it’s  pure Wilde and pure joy. I think I enjoyed it almost as much as the actors clearly loved acting it.