Three Days in the Country, after Ivan Turgenev, adapted and directed by Patrick Marber, National Theatre, London, 8* out of 10

Shortening Turgenev’s original “Month in the Country” to three days, Patrick Marber focuses on the comedic side of this Comedy of Manners. Even on the first preview night, this was a smooth and most enjoyable sell-out performance on the big Lyttleton stage.


In a long hot summer, in the 1850s at the Islaev country estate the Arkady Islaev (John Light) and his wife Natalya Petrovna (Amanda Drew) are hosting guests for the summer. Their young son Kolya is being tutored in German by the young student Alekesei Bilyaev (Royce Pierreson) protégé of the German Professor Schaaf (Gawn Grainger).  While Arkady Islaev busies himself with running his estate, Bilyaev awakes the the passions of Natalya Petrovna and her 17-year-old ward Vera (Lily Sacofsky). Before deciding on whether it would be wise to engage in any sexual relations with the upper echelons of the house he has to decide whether a mutually enjoyable fling with Katya the maid (Cherelle Skeete). Meanwhile Nataly Petrovna and Vera have to consider other potential partners for what they have in mind, none as young and vigorous, as Bilyaev, though. There is Rakitin (John Simm) Arkady Islaev’s best friend and secretly in love with Natalya, who has made him her best friend and confidant and there is the hapless middle aged neighbour Bolshintzov who thinks young Vera would be a way to marry his fortune together with the Islaev estate. Livening up the proceedings is country doctor Shpigelsky (Mark Gatiss) who is better evaluating his own strength and weaknesses then making accurate diagnoses.

Shortening Turgenev’s original “Month in the Country” to three days, Patrick Marber focuses on the comedic side of this Comedy of Manners, although this being 19th century Russian comedy there is quite a bit of melancholy and drama but not the deeply felt pathos of the Chekhovian Russian soul. It should be noted that Turgenev wrote his play before the Chekhovian masterpieces had gained recognition. He had to wait a few decades to get his play past the Tsarist censor. Nonetheless interest in Turgenev grew Chekhov’s plays had become famous. In a sense Turgenev is Chekhov-light and funny. Being caught in a loveless marriage cannot be much fun for Natalya Petrovna, and restrained by her sense of bourgeois morals and absent the modern apps of Tinder and Ashley Madison, she has to make do with desiring, or not, the male company available at her country estate. 

Thanks to an attractive set and costumes, direction that underscores the intent of the writer and a very competent ensemble of actors this production, even on the first preview night, was a smooth and most enjoyable performance on the big Lyttleton stage. Mark Gatiss stands out by making the most of all the best lines, followed not far behind by John Simm’s Rakitin and Amanda Drew’s Natalya Petrovna.  Enthusiastic applause by audience in  the sold-out preview performance.  

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/three-days-in-the-country

Three Days In The Country

Richard II, by William Shakespeare, directed by Simon Goodwin, Globe Theatre London, 8* out of 10

Richard II contains acutely observed and depicted characters and some wonderful lines. The production is uncomplicated and focuses on the essential.  It is carried by a competent cast of actors who deliver their lines with great aplomb. This play is especially rewarding for those interested in politics or English history.

Anointed king at 10 years of age, Shakespeare’ s play deals with the last 2 turbulent years of Richard’s reign. At the beginning of the play, the King, known for his good looks, is called to arbitrate a bitter dispute between his cousin Henry Bolingbroke and Mowbray. He changes his mind several times on how to settle it. First he agrees to let them fight a duel; but then he interferes at the last moment and decides to banish both from England, Mowbray for life and Bolingbroke for 6 years. He never explains that unequal treatment, which looks arbitrary to the other Barons. They sense their king is becoming dangerously arbitrary and perhaps quite insecure. 

Relying on a very limited retinue of manipulative characters the king becomes ever more tyrannical and inconsistent in his decisions. When he needs money for a war in Ireland and hears that John of Gaunt is about to die, he alienates the landed nobility further by deciding to confiscate the dying man’s land and treasures rather than letting the inheritance pass on to Henry Bolingbroke. Enraged Henry returns early from banishment to take back what he sees as rightfully his. As things go very well for him, he decides to increase the level of his ambitions; or is it only that he decides to reveal the full extent of his ambitions only now?  In any case, Henry now wants to force Richard to abdicate. But once Henry has wrested the crown from Richard, what to do with an ex-king who, while still alive, will always be a danger to the man who has deposed him? 

For Shakespeare the wildly inconsistent Richard’s rule at the end of his reign, his narcissistic character and his inattention to keeping a wide group of his Baron’s satisfied, lies at the root of the coming Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York. 

Richard II contains acutely observed and depicted characters and some wonderful lines. There is John of Gaunt’s declaration of affection for England, “This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, this earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, this other Eden, demi-paradise”, and there are Richard’s musings, as he realises his reign will come to a premature end “for within the hollow crown, that rounds the mortal temples of a king keeps Death his court”.

The production is uncomplicated and focuses on the essential.  It is carried by a competent cast of actors who deliver their lines with great aplomb. Charles Edwards in the role of the capricious Richard II and Edward Gaunt as John of Gaunt, Richard’s uncle and the father of the usurper Henry Bolingbroke, stand out. 
    
The risk you take when going to see a production at the semi-open-air Globe Theatre is that your enjoyment may be affected by the weather and other environmental factors that do not play much of a role at more conventional theatre venues. During the Friday Matinee performance of Richard II the clouds over London opened their floodgates and the passenger planes landing seemed to want to give their passengers a glimpse of the performance. The audience sitting on the covered benches stayed dry but could not hear all of the text while those standing in the pit probably heard every word, but did get absolutely drenched in the process.

Nevertheless, playing and watching Shakespeare in the rain at the Globe Theatre, "these scepter'd aisles this demi-covered stage", is inspiring; actors and the audience form a special bond and have a great time.

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/globe-theatre/richard-ii-2015

Spy, 2015, Film written and directed by Paul Feig, 9* out of 10

Spy is two hours of good slapstick, witty repartee and unadulterated, laugh-out-loud fun. Besides the screenplay, it is the great performances in the supporting roles that give this film the sustainable energy, which lasts beyond the final credits.

Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) and Bradley Fine (Jude Law) are a team. Bradley is the suave elegant super-spy with a licence to kill; Susan is the guiding voice in his ear from central command, without which Bradley’s derring-do would long have ended in his ultimate demise. Together with her however, he appears elegantly invulnerable in the most dangerous situations, while she is as invisible and eminently forgettable to her senior management as she is indispensable to Bradley’s success. To her colleagues in the vermin infested windowless open plan office, Susan is the mostly harmless cake-baking desk clerk analyst and homely single woman in her forties. But, “events dear boy, events” will soon turn her life and reputation upside down.

As far as James-Bond spoofs go, this is a very successful one. It is witty and subversive; and the social comment is deeper than can be expected from the genre. Not quite the Dardenne brothers social drama, but some memorable  “makes-you-think” moments.

Besides the screenplay, it is the great performances in the supporting roles that give this film the sustainable energy, which lasts beyond the final credits. Jude Law and Allison Janney are good. Jason Statham and Peter Serafinowicz live up to the great character roles they have been given. And among this great cast, Melissa McCarthy, in the main role is a Dawn French look-alike (think The Vicar of Dibley) with just as much comedy talent. She manages to make her character an unlikely female role model – both lovable and respectable.

My only criticism of Spy is that the few scenes of blood and gore were unnecessarily graphic for this genre.

Spy is two hours of good slapstick, witty repartee and unadulterated, laugh-out-loud fun. Knowing Hollywood, Spy 2 is probably already in the works, but, as spoof comedies go, this one is a hard act to follow.

http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/spy

A Most Violent Year, (2014) Film, written and directed by J. C. Chandor, 8* out of 10

Brilliantly written and competently directed by J. C. Chandor, A Most Violent Year is an understated business drama playing in a mob-like world of gritty family businesses with few holds barred in the melting pot of the streets of New York. Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain and Albert Brooks are given particularly interesting roles and reward their screenwriter/director with outstanding performances.

It is 1981. Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) is an immigrant from Columbia who has made good in the competitive mafia-ish heating fuel business in New York. In the process has married Anna (Jessica Chastain), the bosses daughter and taken over the business. Now he is about to make a major move risking his financial and social capital to lift the business to a new level. The last thing he needs is trouble, but the not so cosy semi-cartel of competitors is unhappy with this slightly less corruptible member of their clan, who doesn’t quite want to belong. And the ambitious New York City district attorney (David Oyelowo) smells blood in the water, an opportunity for pouncing on Abel’s business at this delicate moment of vulnerability. Luckily Abel can rely on his tough, street-wise loyal wife and his calm and wise chief financial officer (Albert Brooks)– or can he?

Brilliantly written and competently directed by J. C. Chandor, A Most Violent Year is an understated business drama playing in a mob-like world of gritty family businesses with few holds barred in the melting pot of the streets of New York. Here petty crime is part of doing business and can too easily escalate into something more sinister. Chandor marvellously captures time (1980s) and New York/New Jersey and milieu, the mob-ish heating fuel business. As the great defender of the market-economics Adam Smith already warned, businesses will always have a tendency to circumvent the forces of competition by semi-illegally erecting barriers and agreeing territories and prices. The consumer loses out. So for the market mechanism to work the State has to enforce it; but to function the State needs to collect taxes and resist the gravitational forces of corruption. This leads to a clash of interests playing out dangerously across the varying moral codes of the different stakeholders. 

Strong acting performances throughout, but Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain and Albert Brooks are given particularly interesting roles and reward their screenwriter/director with outstanding performances. Thoroughly satisfying business-drama/thriller with less mindless violence than the title suggests.

Deluge, Play by Fiona Doyle, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 7.5* out of 10

This production of Fiona Doyle's play is based around designer Moi Tran’s inventive set, in which flood water plays a central and effective role in conjuring up a dark and dystopian Irish countryside. 

Incessant rain falls on the Irish countryside, where Joe (Edward Macliam) and his wife Kitty (Elaine Cassidy) are running a farm helped by their farmhand Flan (Gary Lilburn). Partly due to the generosity of Joe’s father the farm has fallen into debt. So it is not only imperative to stem the floods but also to keep the sinister loan sharks at bay. Against this backdrop, the news that Kitty is pregnant may perhaps herald an optimistic future, but to Joe it feels more like a further turn of the screw increasing the escalating difficulties weighing on their enterprise. Add to that the constant threat from thieves who have their eye on the stocks of vital animal fodder and the enormous emotional pressure soon brings them close to reaching breaking point.

Fiona Doyle, award winning full time playwrights since 2012, has written a dark dystopian tale of not very jolly Irish country folk. The production at the Hampstead Theatre downstairs is , which is both gloomy and threatening and gives director Anna Ledwich and the competent acting ensemble quite a bit to work with. And they work with it well, with the water eerily slowing down the protagonists' movements. Of the competent cast, Elaine Cassidy performance stands out. Through no fault of the actor concerned, the use of a single actor for two roles was less successful; investing in two actors, one for Joe and one for pub landlord would have been better.

The story is solid and the dialogues well written, as one would expect from a talented writer. Warm applause ended a satisfying evening of entertaining, quality theatre as one has come to expect from the “Hampstead Downstairs”. I’ll be back.

http://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2015/deluge/

Golem, Theatrical multimedia spectacle by the 1927 theatre company , Young Vic Theatre London, 10* out of 10

Golem is a an intelligent, relevant, humane and funny story full of deep insights into what it means to be human, innovative and alive in a world full of technological opportunities and pitfalls. This spectacle is truly original truly wonderful, as keeps the audience enchanted and indeed full of wonder. 

Have you ever felt that a smart general-purpose tool you bought is fantastically useful that before you know it has started to take over your life? 

As legend has it, in the 16th century Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel of Prague, built a Golem, a servant made of clay, a medieval robot which would only carry out the commands given to it by its master, the Rabbi. The German writer Gustav Meyrink's took up this theme in his classic 1914 novel "Der Golem". 

Golem a show written, created and played by the "1927" theatre company, is very much of our information age, even if the creation that gives this show its name shares its looks and some other characteristics with its illustrious legendary predecessor.  

Annie tells us this cautionary tale of her brother Robert, their friends and work colleagues. Robert and Annie have been brought up by their grandmother. Robert is a shy, geeky lad, who has a minor job in the "back-up department" of a large company. Annie together with Robert and friends is the lead singer/guitarist in the aspirational punk-band Annie and the Underdogs. Robert loves gadgets and buys all the ones an inventor friend of his comes up with. And so one day he comes home with his friend’s latest invention Golem, but as he and his friends will soon find out Golem is not quite like the previous toys and gadgets Robert has come home with and will soon have an impact on Robert, his friends and their relationships to each other.

Golem is a an intelligent, relevant, humane and funny story full of deep insights into what it means to be human, innovative and alive in a world full of technological opportunities and pitfalls. It is presented in a beautifully creative way, melding live performance of movement, music and narration seamlessly with beautifully inventive screen projections.  Think Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times meting Wallace and Gromit with a dash of Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) thrown in.  The result is subtle, hilariously funny and superbly entertaining. 

Everything in this piece fits together beautifully without a a dull moment.

Golem is the 1927 theatre company's third show and a co-production with the Salzburg Festival, the Theatre de la Ville de Paris and the Young Vic, so it will go on international tour. Founders Paul Barritt and Suzanne Andrade, performer Esme Appleton  and producer Jo Crowley are the core of a fantastically talented ensemble.

This spectacle is truly original truly wonderful, as keeps the audience enchanted and indeed full of wonder. The young Vic to be congratulated for a presenting a spectacle that deserves to be showered with prizes and praise.  If you are in London go see it (it plays there until the end of January 2015); if not, catch it when Golem goes on international tour. 

Standing ovations from the rapt audience last Tuesday night and unreservedly 10* out of 10 from me.

http://www.youngvic.org/whats-on/golem

http://www.19-27.co.uk/golem/

Die Letzten Zeugen (The Last Witnesses), by Doron Rabinovici and Matthias Hartmann, Burgtheater, Vienna, Austria 10* out of 10

In a powerful, hard hitting and moving performance, 6 actual survivors of the Holocaust given voice by professional actors come together to bear witness. They show us an example of true courage, living meaningful lives after enduring unimaginable cruelty perpetrated on them and their families by their neighbours and compatriots. Saying yes to life despite of everything. German speakers should not miss the upcoming performances in Vienna (April, May 2015) or Salzburg (October 2015). English speakers can only hope that tentative intentions for an English performance can be realised. 

Burgtheater in Vienna, 24 March 2015. Marko Feingold walks to the front of the stage: “While in the concentration camp I had to endure an incredible amount of beatings and was constantly afraid to be beaten to death. I had three siblings of whom I do not know how they died. I only hope that they did not have to endure the beatings that left me alive.” Marco Feingold, lucid articulate, 102 years old, is part of a theatre piece devised by Doron Rabinovici and Matthias Hartmann. Hartmann is the German former Head of the Burgtheater, who left this post under the cloud of a financial mismanagement scandal; Rabinovici, author and historian, is the son of Suzanne –Lucienne Rabinovici, another survivor of the Shoah, also appearing in his piece. Rabinovici’s study of the Judenrat (Jewish Council) in wartime Vienna, Eichmann’s Jews, has appeared in English. So has his prizewinning satirical novel “Elsewhere”. The importance and problem of memory is a recurring theme in his work.

Based on books published by 7 survivors of the Shoah,  (Ari Rath, Marko Feingold, Rudolf Gelbard, Suzanne-Lucienne Rabinovici, Ceija Stojka, Vilma Neuwirth and Lucia Heilmann), the words of The Last Witnesses recount the events of the period February 1938, just before Hitler Germany annexed Austria, to 1946, one year after Hitler Germany’s defeat by the allied powers. They are read by professional actors. The faces of the actual survivors as they sit at the back of the stage listening to the actors detailing some of the most terrible events of their lives, are projected onto a screen by video.

With enormous courage they submit themselves to this ordeal, every time the piece is performed. No way that they will sleep well. Most likely they won’t sleep at all after a performance. 77 years after the beginning of the events they recount, the last witnesses are physically frail: two of the original group of eight have died before the premiere in 2013. On 23 March, one of the remaining protagonists was absent due to illness.

What their words have in common is an understated tone, a desire to be accurate, not to exaggerate (as if that were possible). Remarkably they wish to detail every instance, as rare as it was, where an Austrian neighbour, a German soldier behaved humanely. Sometimes this occurred for an instance, sometimes for the whole period of the persecution and murder, but when it happened it saved a life and gave hope. Of course, they also recount the much more widespread instances of neighbours and longstanding friends behaving abominably towards them.

Verba Volant, scripta manent – spoken words fly away, written words remain - and so the projection of a hand holding a fountain pen writing down the testimony the audience is listening to reminds us of the importance not to forget.

The second part of the evening consists of moderated discussions with the protagonists and interaction through questions and answers with the audience in the foyers and rehearsal rooms of the theatre.

Together with the survivors, Rabinovici and Hartmann have combined the means of theatre and the methods of oral and written history together into a new and powerful form. They have been able to do it thanks to the courage and the determination of the actual protagonists willing to endure what must be an ordeal. Yet they are here for the memory of those who were murdered and for the benefit of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of those against whom all these crimes were committed. They are here for those who resisted and for their successors; but they are here also for the benefit of the children, grand children and great grand children of those who committed these crimes and of the silent majority, who sat on the fence. After many years of the official Austria ducking and weaving  the reality of the country’s responsibility for the crimes of the holocaust - Hitler, Eichmann, Kaltenbrunner, Seyss-Inquart lead the ignominious list of the disproportionately high number of Austrian war criminals responsible for German Nazi crimes - official Austria, under considerable outside pressure is showing some signs of facing up to the many crimes against human beings and against humanity which many Austrians committed during World War II. 

Their courage and forbearance is rewarded by a packed mainly young audience, deeply moved and showing a lively interest during the question and answer sessions.

One can only hope that an English version of will be created, so that after Vienna and Berlin, young people in London, New York and other important English-speaking cities may get an opportunity to experience these last witnesses of events that shaped the consciousness if not the conscience of the world we live in.

http://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/aktuell/festivals/theatertreffen/archiv_tt/archiv_tt14/tt14_programm/tt14_programm_gesamt/tt14_veranstaltungsdetail_92635.php

The Nether, Play by Jennifer Hayley, directed by Jeremy Herrin, Duke of York’s Theatre, London 9* out of 10

With suspense from beginning to end this timely, award-winning sci-fi play on child sexual abuse and virtual reality worlds makes tense, uncomfortable viewing and raises many important questions of immediate relevance. Hard-hitting contemporary theatre in a brilliant set designed by Es Devlin. 

In a tastefully architected Victorian country house set in idyllically landscaped grounds Sims (Stanley Townsend) is the owner manager of a brothel. In a beautifully appointed bedroom twelve-year-old Iris (Isabella Pappas/Zoë Brough) receives shy young Woodnut for whom she is the preferred prostitute. 

Back to the not so distant future (the year 2050) and a sparsely furnished interrogation room. Sims looking less than elegant and shabbily dressed in modern casual attire is being subjected to interrogation by agent Morris (Amanda Hale) about his activities in a part of the internet where anything goes, the Nether. 

It soon becomes clear that the Victorian House is a fantasy world conjured up in disturbing realism on the Nether,  in a "Second Life" -like world with no sexual phantasies barred.  And the characters' identities in their actual and virtual realities may not all be what they seem.

At a time where the British establishment is reeling from what appears to be institutionalised child sexual abuse, Jennifer Hayley’s disturbing and important play makes very uncomfortable viewing. Although the sexual abuse which takes place is very carefully dealt with on stage, the inner discomfort of the audience at reluctantly picturing (or resisting the picturing of ) what is hinted at makes for a tense atmosphere. 

Jennifer Hayley's tautly written sci-fi thriller throws up many important questions: How far can government agencies go when investigating what people do on the internet? Do sexual crimes carried out in virtual worlds by the chosen avatars of real people count as real sexual crimes punishable in the real world? Are our chosen identities on the Nether (Internet) just as real as our identity (or identities) in real life?

This Royal Court Theatre production has much to commend it. Es Devlin’s set is brilliant, and excellently complemented by the lighting (Paul Pyant) and video design (Luke Halls).  Jeremy Herrin's direction keeps the audience in suspense and under tension. The acting ensemble is excellent. Stanley Townsend’s performance as Sims stands out; so do the child actresses Zoë Brough and Isabella Pappas who play Iris in alternate performances.

It was good to see many more young people than usual for a West End theatre transfer. This is an uncomfortable, suspenseful and worthwhile evening at the theatre that will stay with the audience for a long time.

https://www.londontheatredirect.com/news/1566/Full-Casting-Announced-For-West-End-Transfer-Of-The-Nether.aspx

Ex_Machina, Film 2015, written and directed by Alex Garland, 7.5* out of 10

With Ex-Machina, Alex Garland has written and directed not a great film, but a very good one. Among the cast, Alicia Vikander stands out, giving her artificially intelligent Ava a very human quality.

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is a programmer in a highly successful search engine company created by IT genius and now reclusive billionaire Nathan (Oscar Isaac).

One day he finds out that he has won the first prize in a competition, spending a weekend with Nathan on his estate. It does not take long for Nathan to reveal that he plans to let Caleb in on his secret Artificial Intelligence project: the creation of an artefact indistinguishable from a human being in body and mind. Caleb’s job will be to spend time with Nathans latest prototype, the lovely Ava (Alicia Vikander), to assess by interviewing her to what extent Nathan has achieved what he has set out to do.

Artificial Intelligence is the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. To this Nathan has added some abilities one might describe as emotional intelligence and put it all in a very attractive package. Artificial Intelligence as a discipline is already far advanced so that science fiction films like this are visions of a potential not so distant future.

Of course, as we know since the legends of all time (Pygmalion, the Golem) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein such beings tend to develop ideas of their own. Two nerdy men and an artificially intelligent woman or two is the kind of ménage- à-trois +, that gives the screen-play writer quite a few possibilities – and Alex Garland has used them quite skilfully to create not a great film, but a very good one.

Ex_Machina is an entertaining and suspenseful story about an important issue that our children or grandchildren may very well have to address in real life. The film works as a thriller but beyond that, raises important questions about society and technology.  Not least the topical question of how nerdy internet billionaires will decide to spend their sheer inexhaustible private resources without any effective democratic involvement, checks and balances, let alone controls of ethical boundaries.

Among the acting performances, Alicia Vikander stands out, giving her artificial character a very human quality.