february 2 . 2001
▼
Heading east to the West End
fter 18 years of annual visits, I am still
reduced to childlike glee at the prospect
of spending time in London. The combi­
nation of respectful tradition, passionate
commitment to excellence and an audacious
need to stretch artistic boundaries to the
breaking point and beyond give the
London theater and opera scene an
excitement and fervor that make my
time there an irreplaceable source of
inspiration and fulfillment.
Having recently returned from a
bingeing trip of 18 shows in 14 days, I
can report that the current crop of work
is extraordinarily strong.
Take advantage of those off-season
prices and go! Many of these shows will
make their way to Broadway and eventually
to the hinterlands, and one especially strong
work is expected on the West Coast soon.
A
eading the pack is Robin Phillips’ stun­
ning revival of the Eugene O ’Neill mas­
terpiece Long D ay’s Journey Into Night.
One of the most painful and emotionally
naked plays ever written, it demands everything
from its interpreters. Phillips’ production is alive
to all the nuances of this wrenching piece and
finds a powerful current of sensuality and physi-
cality underscoring O ’Neill’s script written, as he
said, “in tears and blood.”
The men of the cast give marvelous
performances, but it’s Jessica Lange who ele­
vates the evening to something extraordinary
with her devastating portrayal of one o f the­
ater’s great heroines, Mary Tyrone. Wandering
through the production’s evocative, fog-bound
setting, Lange plunges directly to the very core
of this haunted creature and charts the charac­
ter’s descent into loneliness, anguish and drug-
soaked euphoria with unforgettable honesty.
Next door to the tortured Tyrones is a deli­
cious revival of Noel Coward’s 1920s soufflé Fall'
en Angels. This lighter-than-air confection rises
or falls on its leading ladies, and in Felicity
Kendal and Frances de la Tour this production
has two of the London stage’s finest comedians.
Watching Kendal and the sublime de la Tour do
their extended second act drunk scene is a mas­
ter class in style, timing and audacity— it is Cow­
ard champagne of the driest and finest vintage.
Portland theater director makes pilgrimage
to a source of inspiration
by J on
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blood melodrama and cheap sleaze— all set to
Bizet’s eternally energetic music— The C ar Man is
vastly entertaining and a total guilty pleasure.
Bourne is a clever artist who draws from a
deep well of cinematic, literary and pop culture
references to create his pieces. It is his own
unique brand of camp artistry, and it can make
for an exhilarating evening. Not unlike Su m
Lake, The C ar Man manages to be both a vivid
piece o f dance drama as well as a lusty potboil­
er of cheap theatrics that revs up an audience’s
temperature— and should do quite well when it
tours the United States later this year (includ­
ing proposed West Coast stops in Seattle, San
Francisco and Los Angeles).
I hope most of the original cast members
come over here, as their sizzling energy is what
truly makes the piece work. Especially memorable
are the show’s three leads: the sensual Saranne
Curtin as the most fatale of femmes and the pair
of duel-to-the-death gay lovers, Alan Vincent as
the stud title character and the remarkable Will
Kemp as the Don Jose figure who grows from a
Sal Mineo-like innocent into a tortured, obses­
sive killer. This is a star-making performance.
he Royal National Theatre is playing host
to two productions that show them off at
their best. Director Jeremy Sams and a
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K retzu
ome of the best the­
ater I saw this trip was
fearless cast of comedians
in the opera house.
have reimagined Michael
My favorite opera compa­
Frayn’s classic farce N oises Off,
ny, the often outlandish
and the result is breathless bril-
Kretzu
English National Opera,
liance. It is the essence of farce—
was responsible for the most satisfying event of
anarchistic, chaotic, lethally danger­
my trip: David Pountney’s thrilling new pro­
ous and brutally funny.
duction of Giuseppe Verdi’s rarely performed
Yasmina Reza’s marvelous new play
early masterwork N abucco.
Life X 3, premiering at the National, is a
This tale of lust, greed, madness and politi­
trio of clever and engaging variations on
cal intrigue set in the time of Nebuchadnezzar
the theme of a dinner party gone dread­
was updated in Pountney’s visionary concept to
fully wrong. In this witty, understated tour
include references to contemporary Middle
de force, a quartet of wonderful actors
East struggles, the Holocaust and any number
moves from situation comedy to slapstick
of recent political coups. This incredible pro­
tragedy on a journey to the very heart of
duction encompassed the entire auditorium
what makes daily life both mysterious and
and audience with its costumed orchestra
utterly predictable.
members and chorus spilling out of the orches­
tra and into every part of the decaying, indus­
Other current offerings at the National
are more of a mixed bag. Although director
trial ruin of Stefanos Lazaridis’ epic designs.
John Caird has created a new production of
A great cast headed by American soprano
Hamlet that is a heavy-handed, ponderous and
Lauren Flanigan— making a magnificent Lon­
often curiously uninvolving account of one of
don debut with a gutsy, take-no-prisoners per­
the world’s greatest plays, it is memorable for
formance— filled the Coliseum’s vast space
one reason— but what a great reason it is. Simon
with a thunderous outpouring of pure, high-
Russell Beale is one of the treasures of the con­
voltage electricity. Evenings like that are rea­
temporary English stage, and his Hamlet has
son enough to get on a plane and make a trip
been long anticipated. The result is a beautifully
to this best of artistic worlds— the magic that is
modulated, sensitive and mercurial portrait that
London.
/
towers above the surrounding mediocrity.
Also at the National is Harold Pinter’s
JON KRETZU is associate artistic director o f
never-produced screenplay adaptation of Mar­
Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland and
cel Proust’s legendary novel Remembrance o f
thoroughly loves a busm an’s holiday.
Things Past, which has been some­
what clunkily adapted to the stage
by Pinter and director Di Trevis.
Although I appreciated the effort
and the work of the huge and varied
cast, the piece seems to demand a
more poetic and visually inventive
account than the one on view.
Another hit at the National is
also something of a disappointment,
hut it is a grand, unforgettable one.
Trevor Nunn’s all-star account of
Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard is inflated,
overstated, grandiose, self-indulgent
and utterly fascinating. Nunn’s group
of actors attack the piece like lions
at a feast. On stage it’s every artist
for himself, led most outrageously by
Vanessa Redgrave, a true force of
nature, whose grotesque, hysterical
and sometimes shockingly truthful
A scene from Noises Off
Jon
H
t the Old Vic, Matthew Bourne’s Adventures
in Motion Pictures Dance Company (which
created the fascinating, homoerotic Su m
Lake and the 1940s cinematic Cinderella) is pre­
senting its new smash cult hit, a brilliant rework­
ing of Bizet’s Carmen as a 1950s American film
noir slyly renamed The C ar Man. A combination
of pulp fiction, William Inge, Tennessee Williams,
West Side Story athleticism, ’50s hot rod sex and
portrayal of Madame Rav-
neskaya is a car accident
of a performance— just try
looking away from it for a
single second.
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