The Deep Blue Sea

A play by Terence Rattigan starring Greta Scacchi and Simon Williams at the Vaudeville Theatre. This playwright went out of fashion - but like many others needs to get far more coverage in the West End - because the themes touched upon in this play are universal and contemporary. The play opens in a seedy flat in 1950s London. Hester is discovered after a failed suicide attempt. She has left her successful (but dull) judge husband in favour of exciting younger WWII fighter pilot ace who cannot commit to anything at all. Both know that the relationship cannot work - but neither can face up to ending it - except by suicide or totally reckless behaviour. The house contains several interesting people (the struck off German Jewish doctor, the landlay with immense common sense, the young married couple finding little to keep their marriage on the straight and narrow) who all contribute advice. The acting was excellent, and although the play is a touch melodramatic for modern tastes it still interests and entertains. Rating: 8/10

Pygmalion

A production at the Old Vic starring Tim Piggott-Smith as Henry Higgins and Michelle Dockery as Eliza Doolittle and featuring the wonderful Una Stubbs as Mrs Pearce the housekeeper. Although this must be a century old, George Bernard Shaw's play about the English class structure, language, women's role in relation to men, and the bizarre nature of modern 'sciences' remains as fresh and funny as it was when it was written. Tim Piggott-Smith might have been born to the role of the 'phoneticist' who proclaims that he can tell where anyone was born and grew up from a few spoken words, and believes that every person betrays their place in society every time they open their mouth. He accepts a bet from fellow language student Col Pickering that he can pluck a lowly flower girl from 'the gutter' and pass them off as a Duchess at an Embassy reception within six months. Despite warnings from his mother and his housekeeper he launches into the project without considering what the girl (Eliza) will do once her independence has been taken away - because with the accent of a flower girl from Lissom Grove she can earn a meagre living and a livelihood, with the accent of a Duchess she cannot obtain any kind of work. In passing Higgins gives Eliza's father a fiver and thereby raises him from the ranks of the 'undeserving poor' - a position that allows him to be a dustman and he can 'touch' any man for a sub - into employment at £3,000 a year as a philosophy lecturer - a position that means 'every man touches him for money'. The cast is superb in this production - Shaw is very wordy, and must require some learning, but none seemed to be delivering their lines or declaiming them, the diction was clear, the timing wonderful, the humour precise - the actor playing Eliza's father has several long speeches, all spoken with feeling and made the audience (containing several school parties) laugh out loud. Una Stubbs as Mrs Pearce proves what an excellent comic actress she is in her scenes. Even though there are many reminders of the musical adaptation My Fair Lady this play is certainly worth reviving. Rating 9/10

The Lady from Dubuque

What a superb actress Dame Maggie Smith is! She truly transformed this play that I saw at the Theatre Royal Haymarket recently.

The Lady from DuBurque is not often produced but it is an excellent vehicle for Maggie Smith, who dominates the second act totally. The play is by the same writer as 'Whose afraid of Virginia Woolf' and is as verbally violent as that play, famously starring on screen Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. The Lady from Duburque opens at the end of a social evening involving three couples, who are 'friends' but appear to have absolutely nothing in common, but in reality hate one another - or do they. One woman is dying of cancer and is in enormous pain - and takes this out on everyone else - her husband, her old college friend, her weak husband, their boorish male friend and his seemingly unsophisticated girlfriend.

The humour is harsh and bitter, sharp and pointed, to the extent that it almost offensive. When things appear to be on the brink of open warfare the actors address the audience and demand answers. (Of course as a British audience we resolutely stared at our shoes and hoped not to have to respond).

The woman who is dying is bemoaning the fact that her mother has abandoned her and ignored her even at the moment of her death. And then Maggie Smith appears with her black 'friend/lover?' and claims to be the long estranged mother. But is she - she is the lady from DuBurque. These two characters inject a great deal of humour (still extremely sharp) and pathos but prevents it from turning into total bathos and melodrama.

Worth seeing - even if only for Maggie Smith's wonderful performance. Rating 7/10

Underneath the Lintel

Starring Richard Schiff - previously seen on TV's 'The West Wing'. This play is currently been performed at London's Duchess Theatre. An amazing one-man show - only one act but Richard Schiff is on stage (alone) for 80 minutes - and how well he does it too! He holds the audience from the moment he walks on stage. This is a voyage of self discovery. The play begins with the actor arriving on stage with the pretence of giving a lecture about what? An ex-librarian becomes obsessed with discovery the truth behind the book he finds in the returns file - it is over a century overdue. He then attempts to trace the owner of the book through a dry cleaning ticket from London, a tram ticket from Bonn, and so on and so on. This is good, old-fashioned story telling, and depends so much on the abilities of the actor - it is a monologue but Schiff uses his voice and body and the few artifacts with tremendous skill. There are a few visual aids, and some sound effects, but remarkably understated. Schiff's self discovery is about religion, the existence of God and about a man finding out about himself and his relationship with the world.
A remarkably good play. Rating: 8/10

The Thirty Nine Steps

Today I went to see a performance of 'The Thirty Nine Steps' at the Criterion Theatre at Piccadilly Circus. Based (extremely loosely) on the John Buchan story of daring-do, espionage and international politics.
This version, however, bears much more resemblance to the Alfred Hitchcock film of 1935. I think when I tell you that 4 actors (3 men and 1 woman) play 120 characters you'll begin to understand that this production is for laughs rather than tension or thrills. I won't give away how they achieve the feat of reproducing a crashing biplane - on stage with sound and fury.
Tracing Richard Hannay's adventures in pursuit of those in possession of 'state secrets' before they can be taken abroad, we travel from a West End theatre via his private apartment (including a dead lady picked up at the show), unlikely disguise as a milkman, a highspeed rail journey (including the famous scene on the Forth Bridge), a Highlands workman's cottage, a crashing plane, high speed car chases and a return to the theatre for the denouement. All this is done with remarkably few items of scenary.
A fun afternoon for anyone with a sense of humour. The run has been extended - and the theatre was packed. My rating 8/10