Victoria Sadler's Blog, page 26
October 13, 2013
Theatre Review: X&Y, Science Museum
Kids aren't engaging with science. There's no shortage of headlines telling us this so, as part of this wider push to break down the barriers to science, the Twin Primes Theatre Company has created a theatrical production, X & Y, that explores mathematics through theatre.
At the beginning of the show, X (Marcus du Sautoy) stands alone in an illuminated cube that fills the stage. He is happy in his own world - the sides of the cube the beginning and end of his known universe. That there are worlds, possibly even an infinite number of worlds, beyond the confines of his cube is not only not known to X but, according to him, mathematically impossible.
So when Y (Victoria Gould) walks into his cube, unannounced and unexpected, everything X thought to be mathematically true starts to unravel.
It's a great premise but it took a while for me to find my feet - everyone pity the Arts graduate here. Everything started off very pure mathematics. The first 10 minutes are extremely technical with X and Y bonding through their ability to solve algebraic equations. I don't remember that being fun at any point in my life. But as X and Y wrapped themselves in mathematical riddles, it hinted at what was to come - that the application of theoretical mathematics to reality can open up extraordinary questions on our world and our universe.
The short 75-minute piece really hit its stride when personality and humour were injected. As X and Y developed their characters - X technically obsessive but naïve, Y more realistic and witty - so we became more engaged as an audience.
The play's through plot-line is the clash between theory and reality -Y challenging X to put his pure mathematical theories to the test. And much mileage was got out of Y's spot tests of making X explain everyday items such as oranges and bagels.
And from such witty but small beginnings, the play unfolds, moving on to tackle profound questions such as where did the universe come from, does time have an end, and is there something on the other side?
The charisma of the two leads - both mathematicians of some repute as well as actors - is key to the success of the piece. The material isn't perfect - the piece does end up feeling more like a lecture than a production - but by the end of the play even the kids in the audience were laughing along and that surely has got to be a sign of success, right?
To October 16 Science Museum, London
From October 30 - November 3 2013 Manchester Science Festival
October 11, 2013
Theatre Review: The Light Princess, National Theatre
It's finally here! After four years and even a postponement a couple of years ago, "the Tori Amos musical" has finally arrived at the National. For a show so long in the making, it has more flaws than you would expect but they cannot dim the magic of The Light Princess.
Princess Althea and Prince Digby are the heirs to the throne in two warring kingdoms - Lagobel and Sealand. Both lost their mothers early and are emotionally scarred as a result. Althea refuses to burden herself with an emotional connection to anything or anyone. As a result she floats, her feet never on the ground. Without a burden of responsibility or concern for anyone else, she is a free spirit forever in the air. Digby, on the other hand, carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Depressed and sullen, he has not smiled since the day his mother died.
Though they've never met, both are instructed to fulfil their destiny and kill the other to claim victory in the war. Well, true love never doth run smooth, as they say...
Visually the production is an extraordinary achievement, with so many technical components coming together beautifully to realise this magical tale. The set design (Rae Smith) is fantastic. Whether it's the spiralling bookshelves of the ivory tower in which Althea is imprisoned, or the lavish life of the lake that lies hidden in the no-man's land between these two kingdoms, each is perfectly executed and add such texture to the scene.
The puppetry team behind War Horse (Finn Caldwell/Toby Olie) were drafted in to bring the animal kingdom to life. And whether it's the falcon, the frogs or the dogs of war, the results are perfect.
And at the centre of it all is the aerial effects (Paul Rubin) used to keep Althea afloat throughout the show. Through a combination of wires and a team of strong men (and women) how Althea is kept afloat is an achievement in itself.
Rosalie Craig gives a wonderful performance in the lead role. Her vocals stand out some way from her co-stars - and that's even when she's hanging upside-down. She also brings depth to her part, preventing Althea's feistiness from becoming a Disney-Pixar pastiche.
The production is not without its flaws though. Given the USP of this production as "the Tori Amos musical" it seems odd that the weak point is the score, but it is.
The show lacks that one big number, a show-stopper such as Over the Rainbow or, somewhat ironically, Defying Gravity. There's not a single stand-out tune.
Nor in fact is there much that's memorable about the score. The music was mid-tempo for most of the 2h 40min running time and the lack of variety in emotional and pace compounded the lack of unforgettable tunes. It was all a bit too much of the same.
However the lyrics are modern and ballsy, rather than whimsical - "you can stick your crown up your wazoo" Althea sings to her father as he wrestles with her to take her responsibilities as heir to the throne seriously.
This is a modern fairy-tale so the production goes out of its way to tick all the right boxes: a Uni education a greater achievement than being a princess - check; the gay couples - check; the drug references - check. All that was pulled off well and with wry humour but I found the comedic references to anorexia and force-feeding a little unsettling.
My main concern with the emphasis on the modern was that the tone of the show was so progressive and feminist that the love affair between Althea and Digby - the heart and soul of the show - was rather tepid. This is no grand passion, no Romeo and Juliet.
And given how this is packaged, with Althea as the modern heroine, (and this is a SPOILER ALERT!) it seemed odd that it is, in fact, Digby who saves the day and not the Light Princess.
For a musical that was four years in the making, its flaws are more obvious than perhaps they should be. However they do not outweigh its many positives. A West-End transfer beckons, for sure.
Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre, London
To January 9, 2014
Princess Althea and Prince Digby are the heirs to the throne in two warring kingdoms - Lagobel and Sealand. Both lost their mothers early and are emotionally scarred as a result. Althea refuses to burden herself with an emotional connection to anything or anyone. As a result she floats, her feet never on the ground. Without a burden of responsibility or concern for anyone else, she is a free spirit forever in the air. Digby, on the other hand, carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Depressed and sullen, he has not smiled since the day his mother died.
Though they've never met, both are instructed to fulfil their destiny and kill the other to claim victory in the war. Well, true love never doth run smooth, as they say...
Visually the production is an extraordinary achievement, with so many technical components coming together beautifully to realise this magical tale. The set design (Rae Smith) is fantastic. Whether it's the spiralling bookshelves of the ivory tower in which Althea is imprisoned, or the lavish life of the lake that lies hidden in the no-man's land between these two kingdoms, each is perfectly executed and add such texture to the scene.
The puppetry team behind War Horse (Finn Caldwell/Toby Olie) were drafted in to bring the animal kingdom to life. And whether it's the falcon, the frogs or the dogs of war, the results are perfect.
And at the centre of it all is the aerial effects (Paul Rubin) used to keep Althea afloat throughout the show. Through a combination of wires and a team of strong men (and women) how Althea is kept afloat is an achievement in itself.
Rosalie Craig gives a wonderful performance in the lead role. Her vocals stand out some way from her co-stars - and that's even when she's hanging upside-down. She also brings depth to her part, preventing Althea's feistiness from becoming a Disney-Pixar pastiche.
The production is not without its flaws though. Given the USP of this production as "the Tori Amos musical" it seems odd that the weak point is the score, but it is.
The show lacks that one big number, a show-stopper such as Over the Rainbow or, somewhat ironically, Defying Gravity. There's not a single stand-out tune.
Nor in fact is there much that's memorable about the score. The music was mid-tempo for most of the 2h 40min running time and the lack of variety in emotional and pace compounded the lack of unforgettable tunes. It was all a bit too much of the same.
However the lyrics are modern and ballsy, rather than whimsical - "you can stick your crown up your wazoo" Althea sings to her father as he wrestles with her to take her responsibilities as heir to the throne seriously.
This is a modern fairy-tale so the production goes out of its way to tick all the right boxes: a Uni education a greater achievement than being a princess - check; the gay couples - check; the drug references - check. All that was pulled off well and with wry humour but I found the comedic references to anorexia and force-feeding a little unsettling.
My main concern with the emphasis on the modern was that the tone of the show was so progressive and feminist that the love affair between Althea and Digby - the heart and soul of the show - was rather tepid. This is no grand passion, no Romeo and Juliet.
And given how this is packaged, with Althea as the modern heroine, (and this is a SPOILER ALERT!) it seemed odd that it is, in fact, Digby who saves the day and not the Light Princess.
For a musical that was four years in the making, its flaws are more obvious than perhaps they should be. However they do not outweigh its many positives. A West-End transfer beckons, for sure.
Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre, London
To January 9, 2014
October 10, 2013
Theatre Review: 'Roots', Donmar Warehouse
Roots is the kind of production that critics adore but audiences will find hard to love. It's intellectual but slow, well-observed but without purpose and it's intriguing without ever being interesting.
At the heart of Roots is Beatrice. It's 1958 and Beatie, as her family call her, has come back home to Norfolk for a couple of weeks to prepare her family to meet, for the first time, her fiancée Ronnie.
Beatie's been staying in London with Ronnie, a man who considers himself an intellectual with a profound socialist passion. Beatie is desperately in awe of her fiancée, prone to quoting his profound thoughts at the flip of a coin. Only now Beatie is fretting that her family are not clever enough for Ronnie and could become the source of great embarrassment for her.
Written in the 1950s around the same time as other kitchen-sink dramas such as Osborne's Look Back in Anger, Roots is a study of so many themes that were popular material at that time - the frustrated dreams of the common man (or woman), the exploitation of the working classes and the rigidity of the British class system.
However, unlike the angry conflicts and fights that filled similar material at the time, the pace of Roots is very languid. Great passages in the production pass without much of anything happening. Beatie's conflict with her family is at a very low level throughout most of the play and arguments intermittent until the climactic dinner scene as the whole family wait for Ronnie's imminent arrival. As a result, the play lacks much in the way of momentum and narrative drive; it just sort of meanders along.
But that's not to say there isn't much to enjoy about this show.
At the heart of the production is a very warm, heartfelt performance from Jessica Raine as Beatie, the young woman struggling to find her own voice. But she is not alone in delivering a quality performance - the whole cast is excellent in their portrayal of a Norfolk family somewhat contentedly stuck in their little community with their inevitable family politics and familiar routines.
Wesker's dialogue is also a highlight. There isn't much in the way of anxiety or conflict, true, but he brings great humour to the script with his wry observations on how people time their days with familiar rituals and occurrences.
The sets are also superb (Designer: Hildegard Bechtler). To set up two functioning country kitchens and a family dining room in the compact space of the Donmar during the course of a single show is quite a challenge so credit to the sharp stage management crew who built each set without a hitch.
However, though I can say I did enjoy the production overall, it was noticeable that not all of the audience stayed until the end. Roots is a Look Back in Anger without the anger. And for that, audiences will struggle to come away from this production enthusing about it.
Donmar Warehouse, London
To November 30, 2013
At the heart of Roots is Beatrice. It's 1958 and Beatie, as her family call her, has come back home to Norfolk for a couple of weeks to prepare her family to meet, for the first time, her fiancée Ronnie.
Beatie's been staying in London with Ronnie, a man who considers himself an intellectual with a profound socialist passion. Beatie is desperately in awe of her fiancée, prone to quoting his profound thoughts at the flip of a coin. Only now Beatie is fretting that her family are not clever enough for Ronnie and could become the source of great embarrassment for her.
Written in the 1950s around the same time as other kitchen-sink dramas such as Osborne's Look Back in Anger, Roots is a study of so many themes that were popular material at that time - the frustrated dreams of the common man (or woman), the exploitation of the working classes and the rigidity of the British class system.
However, unlike the angry conflicts and fights that filled similar material at the time, the pace of Roots is very languid. Great passages in the production pass without much of anything happening. Beatie's conflict with her family is at a very low level throughout most of the play and arguments intermittent until the climactic dinner scene as the whole family wait for Ronnie's imminent arrival. As a result, the play lacks much in the way of momentum and narrative drive; it just sort of meanders along.
But that's not to say there isn't much to enjoy about this show.
At the heart of the production is a very warm, heartfelt performance from Jessica Raine as Beatie, the young woman struggling to find her own voice. But she is not alone in delivering a quality performance - the whole cast is excellent in their portrayal of a Norfolk family somewhat contentedly stuck in their little community with their inevitable family politics and familiar routines.
Wesker's dialogue is also a highlight. There isn't much in the way of anxiety or conflict, true, but he brings great humour to the script with his wry observations on how people time their days with familiar rituals and occurrences.
The sets are also superb (Designer: Hildegard Bechtler). To set up two functioning country kitchens and a family dining room in the compact space of the Donmar during the course of a single show is quite a challenge so credit to the sharp stage management crew who built each set without a hitch.
However, though I can say I did enjoy the production overall, it was noticeable that not all of the audience stayed until the end. Roots is a Look Back in Anger without the anger. And for that, audiences will struggle to come away from this production enthusing about it.
Donmar Warehouse, London
To November 30, 2013
October 5, 2013
RAW 2013 Anna Politkovskaya Award: Malala Wins Top Human Rights Award
The RAW Anna Politkovskaya Award is given annually to a woman human rights defender from a conflict zone in the world who, like the award's namesake, stands up for the victims, often at great personal risk. In a ceremony at London's Southbank Centre, the award for 2013 was given to the young champion of education rights, Malala Yousafzai.
On October 7 2006 Anna Politkovskaya, Russia's most famous journalist and outspoken critic of the Putin regime, was assassinated outside her apartment in Moscow. The award named after her is given out annually on the anniversary of her murder.
Anna wrote relentlessly from the war in Chechnya, exposing the brutal treatment of civilians there by both the Russian forces and Moscow-supported Chechen officials. These reports won Anna no friends in the Kremlin and meant she worked in almost constant fear for her life.
Anna survived several attempts on her life including abduction, a mock execution by the Russian Army and an attempt to poison her but such was the power of Anna's writing that the attempts continued until Anna was killed.
Such was Anna's profile that when she was murdered, both the then-President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair issued public statements condemning the killing and urged the Russian authorities to find her killers. Justice for Anna though remains elusive. A second trial is currently underway in Russia on gunmen accused of being involved in Anna's murder but the perpetrators for the crime have never been identified.
To honour Anna and other women like her in the world, RAW in War (Reach All Women in WAR) created the Anna Politkovskaya Award. RAW is an international human rights NGO supporting women human rights defenders, and female victims of war and conflict around the world.
Sadly the rota call of previous Anna Politkovskaya award winners does not make for happy reading. The first winner of the award was Natalia Estemirova, a close friend and colleague of Anna's who worked in Chechnya collecting testimonies from civilians tortured by the Russian forces. In July 2009 Natalia was kidnapped and murdered.
Last year's winner was the American journalist Marie Colvin, probably the most noted war correspondent of her generation. She was the victim of a targeted killing for reporting from Homs in Syria on the atrocities against civilians, defying the ban on foreign journalists imposed by the Syrian government.
It's not much better for the extraordinary women who won the award in the years in-between. Malali Joya, the winner of the award in 2008, has been pursuing the warlords in Afghanistan, demanding they face justice for the crimes they committed against civilians, in particular women. She has survived several assassination attempts.
In 2010 the award was given to Halima Bashir, a doctor in Darfur/Sudan. During the conflict in Darfur, Halima treated the victims of gang rape, including children, committed by the Janjaweed militia. She gave detailed witness statements to UN representatives of the perpetrators. As a result, she was abducted by Sudanese soldiers, held hostage and gang-raped for three days. In spite of this horrific experience, Halima still testified against the Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir before the International Criminal Court.
Malala Yousafzai walks bravely in their footsteps. Last year Malala was shot by the Taliban in an attempted assassination following a blog she wrote for the BBC website (under a pseudonym) on her life under Taliban rule and the need for education for girls.
That she, like all the previous recipients of this award, has shown extraordinary courage is beyond doubt and she spoke eloquently about the special dangers facing women in conflict zones in her acceptance speech.
"Women are more courageous than soldiers. It is more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier, in conflict. This war is being waged against women who are our mothers, our sisters and our daughters. This needs to cease and it needs to cease now.... I believe in the powerful woman. Our strength should not be judged by our bodies."
A recurring theme in Malala's extraordinarily mature speech was the need for collective action. "Individual voices are powerless but collectively we have the power to struggle, to raise our voices and prevail."
Displaying oratory skills way beyond her years, Malala moved most of the audience to tears as she spoke passionately of her convictions. "Nothing is more important to me than the right of every child to be educated."
And like all the previous recipients of the award, Malala espoused the need for peaceful solutions. "We must fight not with guns and bombs but with pens and books. The power of pens and books will always defeat guns and bombs. Knowledge always defeats ignorance."
That Malala speaks with wisdom and a spirit beyond her years has been noted many times before. But as this 16 year-old girl concluded her speech with "There is a long journey [ahead] for me" one could only hope and pray that it is also a safe one.
October 4, 2013
Opera Review: The Wasp Factory, Lindbury Studio Theatre
The Wasp Factory at the Royal Opera House is a dark psychological study of what is pretty disturbing source material anyway. The violence of Iain Bank's book is not carried through to this production but the dark gothic intensity of his story most definitely is.
Frank is the young 16-year old boy at the heart of The Wasp Factory. Ignored by his father, Frank is a damaged soul, wrestling with his guilt for the murder of three of his siblings. His fourth, Eric, has just escaped from a mental institution and is on his way home, throwing Frank's mind into more confusion.
I had some anxiety about whether such a bleak, violent story could be conveyed on stage but when the theatre plunged into darkness at the start of the show, a darkness only broken by a prolonged burst of white noise, I felt pretty sure that the mood of the book was going to be faithfully captured.
There is much to admire in this modern opera by director/composer Ben Frost with a libretto by David Pountney. Its setting - a large pit of dirt with a row of strip lighting above it - is stark, almost brutal but very effective (stage design by Mirella Weingarten).
Wrestling in this dirt are the three women who comprise the cast (Lieselot De Wilde, Jordis Richter, Mariam Wallentin). The three women rotate the cast of characters between them, which is at first confusing but actually incredibly effective in showing Frank's fragmented mind.
This all-female casting is also pretty astute, given the direction the story heads in, and all three women give excellent performances both vocally and physically. Their feral behaviour, burrowing in the dirt, is disturbing and really brings out Frank's deeply abnormal connection with his world.
The musical score is also moving, revealing Frank's inner emotional turmoil as he grapples with responsibility for his crimes. ("It's been years since I killed anybody. And I don't intend to. It was just a phase I was going through.")
There are some challenges however. The main one is that familiarity with the source material is required to get the most out of this production. Though the opera is sung in English, the elocution is not always clear and the lack of surtitles does mean the audience is occasionally unsure what is being said. I've read the book, though some years ago, but even so too often I was unsure where we were in the story.
As you can probably guess though, this is a very intense production, and there is no let up at all in the 80 minute production. For some in the audience, this concentration was too much and I could sense their craving for some light relief - if only literally in lighting up the stage for a bit. Their discontentment may have been exacerbated by not being able to follow what was going on.
However I found the intensity more absorbing, almost addictive, as Frank's world unravelled. I couldn't take my eyes away. There is no let-up in the book either so I felt this production conveyed the visceral pain of Iain Bank's book beautifully.
Lindbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, London
To October 8, 2013
Frank is the young 16-year old boy at the heart of The Wasp Factory. Ignored by his father, Frank is a damaged soul, wrestling with his guilt for the murder of three of his siblings. His fourth, Eric, has just escaped from a mental institution and is on his way home, throwing Frank's mind into more confusion.
I had some anxiety about whether such a bleak, violent story could be conveyed on stage but when the theatre plunged into darkness at the start of the show, a darkness only broken by a prolonged burst of white noise, I felt pretty sure that the mood of the book was going to be faithfully captured.
There is much to admire in this modern opera by director/composer Ben Frost with a libretto by David Pountney. Its setting - a large pit of dirt with a row of strip lighting above it - is stark, almost brutal but very effective (stage design by Mirella Weingarten).
Wrestling in this dirt are the three women who comprise the cast (Lieselot De Wilde, Jordis Richter, Mariam Wallentin). The three women rotate the cast of characters between them, which is at first confusing but actually incredibly effective in showing Frank's fragmented mind.
This all-female casting is also pretty astute, given the direction the story heads in, and all three women give excellent performances both vocally and physically. Their feral behaviour, burrowing in the dirt, is disturbing and really brings out Frank's deeply abnormal connection with his world.
The musical score is also moving, revealing Frank's inner emotional turmoil as he grapples with responsibility for his crimes. ("It's been years since I killed anybody. And I don't intend to. It was just a phase I was going through.")
There are some challenges however. The main one is that familiarity with the source material is required to get the most out of this production. Though the opera is sung in English, the elocution is not always clear and the lack of surtitles does mean the audience is occasionally unsure what is being said. I've read the book, though some years ago, but even so too often I was unsure where we were in the story.
As you can probably guess though, this is a very intense production, and there is no let up at all in the 80 minute production. For some in the audience, this concentration was too much and I could sense their craving for some light relief - if only literally in lighting up the stage for a bit. Their discontentment may have been exacerbated by not being able to follow what was going on.
However I found the intensity more absorbing, almost addictive, as Frank's world unravelled. I couldn't take my eyes away. There is no let-up in the book either so I felt this production conveyed the visceral pain of Iain Bank's book beautifully.
Lindbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, London
To October 8, 2013
