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2001 - A Theatre OdysseyA review of 2001 in theatre by Philip FisherDateline: 15th January, 2002 In common with almost every other journal with an interest in theatre, the British Theatre Guide has decided that the turn of the year is a good opportunity to review some of the best theatre in London over the last twelve months together with a brief overview of the Edinburgh Festival. It is rarely a chore to go to a theatre and the number of bad plays that one has the misfortune to see in London is incredibly small. Indeed, even at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which is a strange mish-mash of professional and amateur, strong and weak it is still frequently possible to see 40 to 50 productions without too many disasters. It is nice to see that the money that is paid to theatres by the taxpayer goes to worthy causes and results in some major successes. Two of the best plays of the year were John Caird's Hamlet starring actor of the year, Simon Russell Beale, and Humble Boy, also starring Russell Beale along with many of the members of the Hamlet cast, together with Dame Diana Rigg. Each of these was put on at the Royal National Theatre, which, under the artistic guidance of Trevor Nunn, tends to produce rather mixed fare. As well as these two gems, they had many other memorable moments as well as some very forgettable ones. It seems kinder to ignore the latter completely and pick out Joe Penhall's thought-provoking Blue/Orange, which later transferred to the West End. There were also two very interesting plays that toured from overseas, August Wilson's Jitney, like Blue/Orange a fine a play about the effects of racism, and The Far Side Of The Moon by Robert Lepage. This last was a fascinating mixture of autobiography and heavy science, a subject rarely explored well on the stage. The other main subsidised theatre in London (and Stratford) is the Royal Shakespeare Company. This year, they put on two major productions. The more significant and better was the eight-play Shakespeare history season, This England. Almost without exception, these plays, which appeared in both auditoria at the Barbican as well as The Young Vic, were excellently directed, well acted and very exciting. It seems almost unreasonable to select from amongst them but the first play, Richard II starring the RSC's subsequent Hamlet, Sam West, one of the best of a new generation of young British actors together with Henry V and Henry VI Part III all made a big impression. The other series of plays was John Barton's nine-play sequence of Greek myth and history, Tantalus. This was always interesting but lacked the weight of the History Plays. In a bumper year, the RSC had a great many other successes including a very witty Comedy Of Errors and a season of new plays, The Other Eden, the best of which was Luminosity by Nick Stafford. One of the year's highlights in the West End was the revival of Private Lives in a sparkling new production by Howard Davies, starring Alan Rickman and Lindsey Duncan. The other wonder was Deborah Warner's gory, modern Medea, starring her regular collaborator, Fiona Shaw, a good tip for actress of the year. Far too much other work in the West End represented the continuation of long runs such as the delightful An Inspector Calls and The Mousetrap, and the import of Hollywood stars to sell tickets. Both The Graduate and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof took this latter route with some commercial success. It is very pleasing to report that many of the best West End plays started off at smaller theatres. There have been some tremendous productions at some of the off West End and Fringe theatres. Plays at the Royal Court are always adventurous and generally interesting. Perhaps the pick this year has been Boy Gets Girl by the young American playwright Rebecca Gilman with an excellent performance by one of Britain's best young actresses, Katrin Cartlidge. The relocated Almeida brought us The Shape Of Things by Neil Labute, David Hare's translation of Chekhov's Platonov, and, most recently, Brian Friel's Faith Healer. Sam Mendes' Donmar seems to specialise in revivals ,with Christopher Hampton's Tales from Hollywood, starring Ben Daniels, probably the pick of the bunch. Two more theatres that are willing to put on new writing are the Young Vic which had an excellent Christmas show, Monkey, as well as Peter Brook's heavily cut Hamlet, starring Adrian Lester, imported from Paris. In addition, they put on a revival of a seminal play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. The Soho Theatre, a triumph of imagination and lottery money is doing as much as any theatre to promote new writing. This was exemplified by the excellent new play by the young American playwright, Christopher Shinn, The Coming World, as well as the double bill of a new play and an old, Rita, Sue And Bob Too by Andrea Dunbar and A State Affair by Robin Soans, both directed by Max Stafford Clark who's Out Of Joint company remains one of the best and most prolific around. Moving on to the Fringe, the comedy of the year originated at Hampstead. This was Alistair Beaton's topical political satire Feelgood starring Henry Goodman. The Tricycle, as so often, excelled in particular with its productions of Irish plays. Right at the start of the year, its revival of Billy Roche's Wexford Trilogy provided one of those rare pleasures, a full day at the theatre as the three shortish plays followed each other from lunchtime to bedtime. Finally on the fringe, one should not forget smaller theatres such as the Southwark Playhouse, now led by Thea Sharrock, which recently put on a fine new production of Bread And Butter by C P Taylor directed by Mark Rosenblatt. In Edinburgh this year the quality of the best productions was as good as ever. Almost without exception, the Traverse is the place to start each year. This year, they had a wonderful first play by Gregory Burke, Gagarin Way, which later transferred to the National Theatre in London. In addition, Tiny Dynamite by Abi Morgan and Midden by Morna Regan both graced the stages there. At other venues, Lizzie Wort's one woman depiction of Animal Farm in an adaptation by Guy Masterson, one of the kings of Edinburgh at the Assembly Rooms, Casanova by another Edinburgh king, David Greig, with Suspect Culture, Neutrino by the award-winning young company Unlimited at Pleasance and Like Thunder, a moving Danish play by Niels Fredrik Dahl at the Gilded Balloon were all worthy of notice. This gives a fair feel for the quality and quantity of theatre available during 2001. It would be quite possible to name as many plays again that ranged from reasonably good to very good but were either not seen by your correspondent or have been forgotten or neglected when this summary was prepared. Despite the fear that the West End would struggle in the aftermath of the horrors in New York in September, there are still many new plays appearing and audiences to watch them. The initial reaction to the disaster has resulted in the closure of a number of plays that were generally not of the best and it is unlikely that the long-term consequence for London is the end of live theatre. The stage seems to be entering a whole new era as many long established artistic directors have announced their intentions to move on from their current posts. Whether this leads to a merry go round with the same people taking different jobs or whether the consequence is the introduction of fresh blood, the coming year promises to provide much entertaining theatre which will give pleasure to so many. Articles Indices:
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