This past week I’ve returned from holiday in Malta and jumped straight into a busy week of theatre, seeing four productions in the space of about 5 days. This is not an unusual schedule for me, but I have to admit to have been very grateful for the lazy bank holiday Monday to recover from it, of which I spent most of the day watching Pride and Prejudice, drinking tea and panicking about not doing any pre-reading for my ‘Writing for Theatre’ course. (Started today and was very exciting!)
Something that struck me this week in the theatre I’ve seen, as well as the theatre I’ve liked in recent months, is anything that goes beyond the convention of theatre normal really gets me going. When you see as much theatre as I do, when something comes along outside of the box, it can be immensely exciting. Earlier this year, I felt it with the American Psycho musical at the Almeida (I swear I can’t get this out of my head and won’t rest until they properly announce a transfer) and even something like Body of An American at the Gate Theatre, which is written in an epistolary style. They’re just different.
Gethin Anthony, Laura Rees, Jamie Ballard – In the Vale of Health
This week I had the pleasure of the unusual. I’ll start with the first, In the Vale of Health at Hampstead Theatre – a series of four interlinked Simon Gray plays staged at the same time. I saw Japes and Japes Too. Japes is the original play; a one-off play that Simon Gray just couldn’t let rest. He subsequently wrote three companion pieces, addressing the thing that all writers surely ponder: what would have happened if these characters had made different decisions?
Although it seems a little unfair to write about them without seeing all four, I thought it was an interesting experiment. For my part, Japes and Japes Too were so similar that I found myself questioning how those tiny changes that were there could have affected such a dramatic change of ending. While Japes felt like a soap opera ending, with everything from double death, teen pregnancy, drugs, prison and false child sex abuse threats, Japes Too felt like a tighter, stronger, more true ending.
Thus, I can imagine being Simon Gray and not feeling entirely satisfied with the ending of Japes. It would nag at me too, until I rewrote it.
Gethin Anthony, Laura Rees, Jamie Ballard – In the Vale of Health
As a whole, the story of In the Vale of Health, has some interesting themes. I am fascinated by the interplay between the three main characters; two brothers and a wife they both share. Michael turning a blind eye to the affair between his wife and brother Japes out of a lifetime of guilt over the latter’s misfortune as a result of a childhood accident. In Japes Too, it was all the more affecting than in Japes – the character of Michael spends a lot of time pretending, not acknowledging, something his brother knows he knows. I was struck by a scene after Japes and Anita (wife) have had sex, when Michael walks in and sees them asleep on the sofa, pulls down her skirt and attempts to fasten Japes’ jeans to hide what they have done. When Japes wakes at the movement, neither of them address it.
As a result, the ending of Japes Too satisfied me more. As Michael has sacrificed so much in his guilt, so the ending of Japes Too offers Japes the opportunity to redeem himself and return that care and sacrifice to Michael. The ending of Japes is hollow and melodramatic in comparison.
After the play we spoke to Gethin Anthony and his comments on Missing Dates make me want to see it now. He says it’s the most different of the plays and I’m intrigued where it might go. The idea of four plays so intimately linked, yet also very different, is appealing.
Fiona Shaw in The Testament of Mary
In addition to my double stint at the Hampstead Theatre, I went to the Barbican to see Fiona Shaw in The Testament of Mary. Here we have a massive, huge stage – one of the largest in London at nearly 2000 seats – and one woman, alone. To say she commanded the stage would be an understatement – she owned it. She mesmerised. It was incredible.
Pre-show there is an on-stage exhibit, so do what I didn’t do and get there early. Fiona Shaw is in a square transparent cube and you can get on stage and look up close, take pics, as well as admire a real actual vulture, which she picks up and walks around a bit before taking it off stage. Amazing.
It’s not wholly unusual to get ‘one-woman plays’, but at this scale it’s unusual.
The monologue alone is so powerful, with a tone of bitterness and loss that can’t help but be affecting. The story is one of a mother, Mary, reliving her famous son Jesus’ demise not as we know it from the gospels, but through the eyes of a grieving mother. Mary in modern day is an icon – the church downgraded her to almost silence, so we don’t know the female side of the theology and that’s why this story is so compelling. By choosing to tell it with only her present, it pays respect to that when she has never before had a voice. And it’s about time women had a voice in these things, even if it’s in fiction. And as an audience member, seeing something so unique was truly an experience.
Finally, this week I went for my second outing to The Drowned Man – Punchdrunk‘s incredible, mind blowing immersive experience. On my first trip to The Drowned Man, I was overwhelmed by it. In a good way. I think I talked about it for 48 hours straight afterwards, so impressed I was by the whole experience. The mystery of not knowing what I was getting into, what was next, the excitement of finding the stories, following a character, discovering new sets was an absolute joy. I even had a terrifying one-on-one with an actor that nearly made me wet my pants. In short, it was one of the best things I’d been to in a long time.
Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man
I wouldn’t say I’d like every theatre production to be The Drowned Man, but what it does is take theatre to a new level of experience and connection. The feeling of being part of the show itself really comes through in this production in a way other immersive theatre experiences haven’t (though immersive theatre certainly doesn’t have to do that in order to be good either), and on a scale that surely has never been seen before.
Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man
Although I felt the second The Drowned Man experience paled vastly in comparison to the first, I’m still fascinated by the interplay of story and audience. By making the audience part of the story, including having the sought after one-to-ones with the actors, the experience and appreciation of the entire theatre experience changes every time, as well as being different for every audience member.
As a writer or creator, that potential must be quite intoxicating – the story is not fixed and can live on in many different ways.
Rupert Everett (Guy Bennett) and Colin Firth (Tommy Judd) in Another Country (film)
William Attenborough (Tommy Judd) and Rob Callender (Guy Bennett) in Another Country (play)
