Haunted - TNT
I can barely believe it took two people to concoct this badly written, awkwardly staged attempt at a thriller – or that it has attracted a cast of familiar faces from the small screen. Maybe they've come to regret their involvement - one fails to project even as far as the first few rows of the stalls, a couple more swallow their lines as though ashamed to deliver them to a paying audience.
So it's hard to care whether Alex's loft apartment (in a brand new but otherwise empty Southwark block) really does harbour a spooky presence, or whether her reunion dinner party will unleash the forces of darkness instead of rekindling a schoolgirl romance. Frustratingly, the playwrights have unearthed some intriguing historical information about this revitalised London location. But they've failed to incorporate the facts dramatically in their half-hearted prod at the supernatural, and the whole sorry enterprise collapses in a ridiculously contrived muddle of exits and entrances via a lift, a stairway and a not-so-firmly closed door.
Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, WC2 (0844-847 1608). Until June 14. £25-£20
Tuesday 27 May 2008
Sunday 25 May 2008
The Deep Blue Sea - TNT
Although the moral climate has changed, the overwhelming emotions portrayed in Terence Rattigan's 1952 drama (inspired by the suicide of his former lover, but transmuted into a heterosexual scenario) still ring painfully true. Having left her husband (a successful judge) for the charms of former RAF pilot Freddie, clergyman's daughter Hester is living in a shabby Ladbroke Grove rooming house. Now unemployed and drinking too much, he's incapable of reciprocating (and barely understands) her all-consuming passion. With logic and reason swept away, Greta Scacchi gives a riveting performance of humiliated middle-aged despair as Hester refuses to return to her loving spouse and tries, desperately, to keep Freddie by her side.
Vaudeville, Strand, WC2 (0870-040 0084). Until July 19. £21-£46
Although the moral climate has changed, the overwhelming emotions portrayed in Terence Rattigan's 1952 drama (inspired by the suicide of his former lover, but transmuted into a heterosexual scenario) still ring painfully true. Having left her husband (a successful judge) for the charms of former RAF pilot Freddie, clergyman's daughter Hester is living in a shabby Ladbroke Grove rooming house. Now unemployed and drinking too much, he's incapable of reciprocating (and barely understands) her all-consuming passion. With logic and reason swept away, Greta Scacchi gives a riveting performance of humiliated middle-aged despair as Hester refuses to return to her loving spouse and tries, desperately, to keep Freddie by her side.
Vaudeville, Strand, WC2 (0870-040 0084). Until July 19. £21-£46
The Good Soul of Szechuan - TNT
Brecht's cynical 1943 portrayal of a corrupt society is given a complete visual makeover by director Richard Jones and designer Miriam Buether who have transformed the auditorium into a wood-panelled cement factory with characters emerging from steel locker doors. Workers, worn down by the deprivation and drudgery of impoverished lives, trudge bleakly across the dusty, glaringly lit stage. Into this less-than-welcome environment come three progressively bedraggled gods in search of goodness and a place to stay for the night. Both are in short supply until the prostitute Shen Te welcomes them into her home — though not until she's popped out to service one more client and earn enough to buy food. When the deities leave her sufficient cash to purchase a tobacco store, Shen Te is determined to do good, but in no time at all she's being seriously ripped off — until, that is, she invents a tough, capitalist male cousin Shui Ta who turfs out the freeloaders and starts turning a profit.
Jane Horrocks has sweetness as Shen Te and a steely determination as her tough alter ego, but Brecht's pessimistic message that altruism cannot survive without a self-serving counterpart — and that love often boils down to a fiscal transaction — is as uncomfortable as the discordant songs which punctuate the action.
Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 (020-7922 2922). Until June 21. Tickets £22.50, under 26s £10
Brecht's cynical 1943 portrayal of a corrupt society is given a complete visual makeover by director Richard Jones and designer Miriam Buether who have transformed the auditorium into a wood-panelled cement factory with characters emerging from steel locker doors. Workers, worn down by the deprivation and drudgery of impoverished lives, trudge bleakly across the dusty, glaringly lit stage. Into this less-than-welcome environment come three progressively bedraggled gods in search of goodness and a place to stay for the night. Both are in short supply until the prostitute Shen Te welcomes them into her home — though not until she's popped out to service one more client and earn enough to buy food. When the deities leave her sufficient cash to purchase a tobacco store, Shen Te is determined to do good, but in no time at all she's being seriously ripped off — until, that is, she invents a tough, capitalist male cousin Shui Ta who turfs out the freeloaders and starts turning a profit.
Jane Horrocks has sweetness as Shen Te and a steely determination as her tough alter ego, but Brecht's pessimistic message that altruism cannot survive without a self-serving counterpart — and that love often boils down to a fiscal transaction — is as uncomfortable as the discordant songs which punctuate the action.
Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 (020-7922 2922). Until June 21. Tickets £22.50, under 26s £10
Monday 19 May 2008
Betwixt! - TNT
The recently refurbished Kings Head seems to have unearthed a hotline to new musicals revolving round blocked writers struggling to produce their second bestseller. First came the charming opening show centring on the murder of a blockbuster novelist who couldn't produce a follow-up, and now Ian McFarlane's comic jaunt sends Bailey (another guy from the sticks who's moved to New York and can no longer put pen to paper) into the fantasy land of Taravatania. This daft bit of escapism follows Bailey and his uninvited flatmate Cooper through a mysterious miniature door and into a parallel world where the wicked Langwidere has turned Princess Ariella's parents into goldfish and kidnapped her princely fiancé. McFarlane (who also camps it up shamelessly as Cooper) has provided some nifty lyrics to go with his pastiche music, but it often feels as though the pantomime season has arrived early. Still, it's all performed with tremendous gusto — and if you've ever wondered what happened to the contestants who didn't win the role of Maria, here's your chance to catch Sound of Music reject Abigail Finley playing a disembodied head who finds her body as well as true love. Yup, it's that kind of show.
Kings Head Theatre, Upper Street, NI (0844-412 2953). Until June 22. £20- £25 (concessions available)
The recently refurbished Kings Head seems to have unearthed a hotline to new musicals revolving round blocked writers struggling to produce their second bestseller. First came the charming opening show centring on the murder of a blockbuster novelist who couldn't produce a follow-up, and now Ian McFarlane's comic jaunt sends Bailey (another guy from the sticks who's moved to New York and can no longer put pen to paper) into the fantasy land of Taravatania. This daft bit of escapism follows Bailey and his uninvited flatmate Cooper through a mysterious miniature door and into a parallel world where the wicked Langwidere has turned Princess Ariella's parents into goldfish and kidnapped her princely fiancé. McFarlane (who also camps it up shamelessly as Cooper) has provided some nifty lyrics to go with his pastiche music, but it often feels as though the pantomime season has arrived early. Still, it's all performed with tremendous gusto — and if you've ever wondered what happened to the contestants who didn't win the role of Maria, here's your chance to catch Sound of Music reject Abigail Finley playing a disembodied head who finds her body as well as true love. Yup, it's that kind of show.
Kings Head Theatre, Upper Street, NI (0844-412 2953). Until June 22. £20- £25 (concessions available)
The Year of Magical Thinking - TNT
When novelist Joan Didion's husband of 40 years died of a heart attack in 2003, she refused to accept her loss. Didion's solution was to commit her feelings of devastation and denial to paper, and the resulting memoir subsequently became a bestseller. By the time she was approached to turn it into a play, her daughter, too, had died after a series of illnesses. You'd expect that hearing the strategies Didion adopted in order to cope with this cruel double bereavement would be emotionally cathartic. Yet (despite an impressive and heartfelt solo performance by Vanessa Redgrave) her testimony, when transferred to an almost bare stage, evokes sympathy and detached recognition rather than raw emotional involvement.
Lyttelton at the National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 (020-7452 3000). Until July 15. £10-£41
When novelist Joan Didion's husband of 40 years died of a heart attack in 2003, she refused to accept her loss. Didion's solution was to commit her feelings of devastation and denial to paper, and the resulting memoir subsequently became a bestseller. By the time she was approached to turn it into a play, her daughter, too, had died after a series of illnesses. You'd expect that hearing the strategies Didion adopted in order to cope with this cruel double bereavement would be emotionally cathartic. Yet (despite an impressive and heartfelt solo performance by Vanessa Redgrave) her testimony, when transferred to an almost bare stage, evokes sympathy and detached recognition rather than raw emotional involvement.
Lyttelton at the National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 (020-7452 3000). Until July 15. £10-£41
Stockholm - TNT
Passionate and playful, tender and tormented, Frantic Assembly's two-hander strips away the almost smug perfection of an apparently ideal relationship and gets right to the core of what binds Kali and Todd so tightly together. With a potent mixture of words (Bryony Lavery's sparse script) and stylised movement (Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett's erotically charged choreography) the destructive cycle which characterises their life together gradually takes over Todd's birthday celebrations. An Ingmar Bergman film, sex on the stairs of their lovingly renovated home, a delicious meal with champagne – but there are far too many knives hanging ominously on the kitchen walls and Kali's niggling insecurities are just a missed phone call away. Taking its title both from the country the protagonists are planning to visit and the psychological syndrome (in which victims become emotionally attached to their tormentors) this is a compelling and visually imaginative work in which the controlled fluidity of Samuel James and Georgina Lamb's performances powerfully accentuate the violence underpinning the surface harmony of their perfect partnership.
Hampstead Eton Avenue, NW3. (020-7722 9301). Until May 24. £23-£14 (£11 for under 26s)
Passionate and playful, tender and tormented, Frantic Assembly's two-hander strips away the almost smug perfection of an apparently ideal relationship and gets right to the core of what binds Kali and Todd so tightly together. With a potent mixture of words (Bryony Lavery's sparse script) and stylised movement (Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett's erotically charged choreography) the destructive cycle which characterises their life together gradually takes over Todd's birthday celebrations. An Ingmar Bergman film, sex on the stairs of their lovingly renovated home, a delicious meal with champagne – but there are far too many knives hanging ominously on the kitchen walls and Kali's niggling insecurities are just a missed phone call away. Taking its title both from the country the protagonists are planning to visit and the psychological syndrome (in which victims become emotionally attached to their tormentors) this is a compelling and visually imaginative work in which the controlled fluidity of Samuel James and Georgina Lamb's performances powerfully accentuate the violence underpinning the surface harmony of their perfect partnership.
Hampstead Eton Avenue, NW3. (020-7722 9301). Until May 24. £23-£14 (£11 for under 26s)
Monday 12 May 2008
Gone with the Wind - TNT
Three husbands, three kids, the American Civil War, 1000-plus pages — there's just so much to get through in the life of Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, the heroine of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 blockbuster novel. First-time playwright Margaret Martin's three-and-a-half hour musical adaptation tries to fit it all in, but her often risible lyrics and derivative songs only intermittently stir the emotions — and that's thanks to NaTasha Yvette Williams' Mammy and the soaring chorus of freed black slaves. Jill Paice's defiant Scarlett grew on me (though her determination seemed only skin-deep) and while Darius Danesh's deep-voiced Rhett undoubtedly has stage presence, snogging Scarlett like a hungry mop doesn't help Trevor Nunn's adequate, but uninspired, production of this epic romance.
New London Theatre, Drury Ln, WC2 (0870-890 0141). Until September 27. £60-£27.50
Three husbands, three kids, the American Civil War, 1000-plus pages — there's just so much to get through in the life of Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, the heroine of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 blockbuster novel. First-time playwright Margaret Martin's three-and-a-half hour musical adaptation tries to fit it all in, but her often risible lyrics and derivative songs only intermittently stir the emotions — and that's thanks to NaTasha Yvette Williams' Mammy and the soaring chorus of freed black slaves. Jill Paice's defiant Scarlett grew on me (though her determination seemed only skin-deep) and while Darius Danesh's deep-voiced Rhett undoubtedly has stage presence, snogging Scarlett like a hungry mop doesn't help Trevor Nunn's adequate, but uninspired, production of this epic romance.
New London Theatre, Drury Ln, WC2 (0870-890 0141). Until September 27. £60-£27.50
Derren Brown Mind Reader - An evening of wonders - TNT
Neither as dark nor as disturbing as his last West End show, Derren Brown's latest offering is still mightily impressive. There's no more lying on broken glass or hammering a nail up his nose, but Brown is a consummate showman who knows just how to manipulate not only an individual (as he does in his current TV series) but also a crowd. Once again, audience participation is crucial – who's summoned on stage is decided by flying Frisbees sent skimming across the auditorium. Men, it seems, are better candidates for some kinds of psychological manipulation than women(something to do with the way they process information, perhaps?) but he works his mental magic on both sexes and there's even the chance for one lucky individual to win £5,000.After the interval, he reappears in sombre tails to make a table levitate and, miraculously, managed to divine not only what a guy in the stalls was hiding (sunglasses) but also the make and date of purchase, and then to deduce from the handwriting on a randomly selected opaque sealed envelope that the person in the upper circle who wrote it was a middle-aged lady who'd led an overland trip to Kathmandu.Brown insists repeatedly that he has no psychic powers and uses no stooges, but (as with his genial New York counterpart Marc Salem whose more intimate show this increasingly resembles) his uncanny ability to read – and control - our minds leaves me completely and admiringly baffled. Go see for yourself.
Garrick, Charing Cross Road, WC2. (0870-040 0083). Tickets £40- £22.50. Until June 7
Neither as dark nor as disturbing as his last West End show, Derren Brown's latest offering is still mightily impressive. There's no more lying on broken glass or hammering a nail up his nose, but Brown is a consummate showman who knows just how to manipulate not only an individual (as he does in his current TV series) but also a crowd. Once again, audience participation is crucial – who's summoned on stage is decided by flying Frisbees sent skimming across the auditorium. Men, it seems, are better candidates for some kinds of psychological manipulation than women(something to do with the way they process information, perhaps?) but he works his mental magic on both sexes and there's even the chance for one lucky individual to win £5,000.After the interval, he reappears in sombre tails to make a table levitate and, miraculously, managed to divine not only what a guy in the stalls was hiding (sunglasses) but also the make and date of purchase, and then to deduce from the handwriting on a randomly selected opaque sealed envelope that the person in the upper circle who wrote it was a middle-aged lady who'd led an overland trip to Kathmandu.Brown insists repeatedly that he has no psychic powers and uses no stooges, but (as with his genial New York counterpart Marc Salem whose more intimate show this increasingly resembles) his uncanny ability to read – and control - our minds leaves me completely and admiringly baffled. Go see for yourself.
Garrick, Charing Cross Road, WC2. (0870-040 0083). Tickets £40- £22.50. Until June 7
Oxford Street - TNT
Though the plot is as flimsy as a worn-out vest top, Levi David Addai's short, highly enjoyable new play is bursting with lively dialect and cheeky backchat. Designer Soutra Gilmour has transformed the intimate space into the busy frontage, store room and security office of a fictional Oxford Street sports shop where the audience perches on shiny white plastic stools. It's the run up to Christmas and, even though they are graduates, part-time security guard Kofi (who wants to be a journalist) and shop assistant Loraina (who has ambitions to be a singer) are still earning their money in dead-end jobs they'd rather not be doing. There are excellent performances all round — including Kristian Kiehling as an inscrutable Polish loss-prevention officer and Cyril Nri as his Ghanaian old-timer boss — and Ashley Walters' Darrell exudes shifty, bad boy charm from the moment he turns up for work. Yet despite the jaunty dialogue, ultimately the picture Addai paints for today's multicultural youth is a dispiriting one of limited opportunity and frustrated aspiration.
Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, Sloane Square, SW1 (020-7565 5000). Until May 31. £15 (£10 on Mondays)
Though the plot is as flimsy as a worn-out vest top, Levi David Addai's short, highly enjoyable new play is bursting with lively dialect and cheeky backchat. Designer Soutra Gilmour has transformed the intimate space into the busy frontage, store room and security office of a fictional Oxford Street sports shop where the audience perches on shiny white plastic stools. It's the run up to Christmas and, even though they are graduates, part-time security guard Kofi (who wants to be a journalist) and shop assistant Loraina (who has ambitions to be a singer) are still earning their money in dead-end jobs they'd rather not be doing. There are excellent performances all round — including Kristian Kiehling as an inscrutable Polish loss-prevention officer and Cyril Nri as his Ghanaian old-timer boss — and Ashley Walters' Darrell exudes shifty, bad boy charm from the moment he turns up for work. Yet despite the jaunty dialogue, ultimately the picture Addai paints for today's multicultural youth is a dispiriting one of limited opportunity and frustrated aspiration.
Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, Sloane Square, SW1 (020-7565 5000). Until May 31. £15 (£10 on Mondays)
Wednesday 7 May 2008
SMALL CHANGE - Donmar - This Is London
Four actors and four simple chairs – that's all it takes for Peter Gill's revival of his own 1976 memory play to conjure up the impoverished austerity of postwar working-class Cardiff and a street where the walls are so thin you know just about everything that's going on next door.
With its autobiographical feel and disjointed, almost poetic, speech patterns, it evokes a time when mothers lived in floral pinafores and had tea ready on the table when their husbands got home.
Moving between the 50's and the 70's, Matt Ryan's Gerard Harte recalls a boyhood of simple pleasures and maternal discipline, and a close friendship with his neighbour Vincent Driscoll (Luke Evans) whose mother (Lindsey Coulson) is constantly pregnant and losing control of her life. There's tragedy and humour – and a delightful moment when she and Sue Johnston's resilient Mrs. Harte escape the daily drudgery with an impromptu dance together. But at the heart of it all, as Gerard returns to the place he always wanted to get away from, is his growing certainty that his relationship with Vincent should have been so much more than either boy ever allowed it to be.
Louise Kingsley
Four actors and four simple chairs – that's all it takes for Peter Gill's revival of his own 1976 memory play to conjure up the impoverished austerity of postwar working-class Cardiff and a street where the walls are so thin you know just about everything that's going on next door.
With its autobiographical feel and disjointed, almost poetic, speech patterns, it evokes a time when mothers lived in floral pinafores and had tea ready on the table when their husbands got home.
Moving between the 50's and the 70's, Matt Ryan's Gerard Harte recalls a boyhood of simple pleasures and maternal discipline, and a close friendship with his neighbour Vincent Driscoll (Luke Evans) whose mother (Lindsey Coulson) is constantly pregnant and losing control of her life. There's tragedy and humour – and a delightful moment when she and Sue Johnston's resilient Mrs. Harte escape the daily drudgery with an impromptu dance together. But at the heart of it all, as Gerard returns to the place he always wanted to get away from, is his growing certainty that his relationship with Vincent should have been so much more than either boy ever allowed it to be.
Louise Kingsley
Tuesday 6 May 2008
The City - TNT
Martin Crimp's short new play is strange, very strange. It begins conventionally enough with a contemporary middleclass couple telling each other about their respective days over the evening meal.There's already tension in the air. Chris's job is unexpectedly at risk and translator Clair recounts a chance meeting with an author who told her he had been tortured and gave her the blank diary he intended for his young daughter. As the scenes progress and the seasons change, the marriage fractures further and the scenario becomes increasingly surreal. A twitchy, nervy neighbour (a nurse) comes to complain that their playful children are disturbing her daytime sleep and talks about her doctor husband's experience in an unspecified war-torn city. Chris, now unemployed, finds blood in his daughter's coat pocket. Crimp seems to be offering clues as to what is really going on in this deconstructed world but, as finally becomes apparent, nothing seems to be what it seems to be.Katie Mitchell's tantalising production conjures an atmosphere of disquieting, disjointed unease but (despite compelling performances from Benedict Cumberbatch as the progressively demoted Chris and Hattie Morahan as his distanced wife) Crimps writing also infuriates with its dreamlike, nightmarish echoes.
Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1 (020-7565 5000). Until June 7. £25-£10
Martin Crimp's short new play is strange, very strange. It begins conventionally enough with a contemporary middleclass couple telling each other about their respective days over the evening meal.There's already tension in the air. Chris's job is unexpectedly at risk and translator Clair recounts a chance meeting with an author who told her he had been tortured and gave her the blank diary he intended for his young daughter. As the scenes progress and the seasons change, the marriage fractures further and the scenario becomes increasingly surreal. A twitchy, nervy neighbour (a nurse) comes to complain that their playful children are disturbing her daytime sleep and talks about her doctor husband's experience in an unspecified war-torn city. Chris, now unemployed, finds blood in his daughter's coat pocket. Crimp seems to be offering clues as to what is really going on in this deconstructed world but, as finally becomes apparent, nothing seems to be what it seems to be.Katie Mitchell's tantalising production conjures an atmosphere of disquieting, disjointed unease but (despite compelling performances from Benedict Cumberbatch as the progressively demoted Chris and Hattie Morahan as his distanced wife) Crimps writing also infuriates with its dreamlike, nightmarish echoes.
Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1 (020-7565 5000). Until June 7. £25-£10
Hello and Goodbye - TNT
Director Paul Robinson first tackled this 1965 two-hander by Athol Fugard in 2003. Presumably haunted by the damaged, white Smit siblings and their inability to escape the past, he has now returned to their uneasy reunionwith a new cast. Set in the grimy, rundown Port Elizabeth home (barely more than a shack) where Johnny and his older sister Hester grew up, it's an emotional account of lives blighted by a combination of extreme poverty and the tyranny of a father who lost his leg in an accident and is, apparently, sleeping, seriously ill and bedbound, in an off-stage room.Whilst Johnny remained behind at his constant beck and call, a rejected Hester made an early escape to Johannesburg and a life of prostitution. Now, fifteen years later, she's returned – not in search of reconciliation but to claim her share of the rumoured compensation money.
Both performers are excellent. Rafe Spall captures the barely controlled anxiety of the troubled Johnny, a solitary, borderline autistic young man immured by his fathers' Calvinist indoctrination. And Saskia Reeves' cynical Hester, rifling frantically through the cardboard boxes containing memories of their repressed childhood, conveys all the disappointment and desperation of a woman who has finally used up all her options.
Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1 (0870-060 6632) Until May 17. Tickets £22.50 (£15 Monday).
Director Paul Robinson first tackled this 1965 two-hander by Athol Fugard in 2003. Presumably haunted by the damaged, white Smit siblings and their inability to escape the past, he has now returned to their uneasy reunionwith a new cast. Set in the grimy, rundown Port Elizabeth home (barely more than a shack) where Johnny and his older sister Hester grew up, it's an emotional account of lives blighted by a combination of extreme poverty and the tyranny of a father who lost his leg in an accident and is, apparently, sleeping, seriously ill and bedbound, in an off-stage room.Whilst Johnny remained behind at his constant beck and call, a rejected Hester made an early escape to Johannesburg and a life of prostitution. Now, fifteen years later, she's returned – not in search of reconciliation but to claim her share of the rumoured compensation money.
Both performers are excellent. Rafe Spall captures the barely controlled anxiety of the troubled Johnny, a solitary, borderline autistic young man immured by his fathers' Calvinist indoctrination. And Saskia Reeves' cynical Hester, rifling frantically through the cardboard boxes containing memories of their repressed childhood, conveys all the disappointment and desperation of a woman who has finally used up all her options.
Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1 (0870-060 6632) Until May 17. Tickets £22.50 (£15 Monday).
Monday 5 May 2008
Fram - TNT
With its framing device of a Greek professor resurrecting actress Sybil Thorndike, plus its discussion of the role of arts in humanitarian affairs, Tony Harrison's ambitious new verse play frequently loses sight of the man at the heart of it — Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian polar explorer, diplomat, politician and 1922 Nobel Prize winner. Written in rhyming couplets, this production (co-directed with designer Bob Crowley) has a funny colloquial touch to counterpoint the stark historical facts and images as Nansen swaps his Darwinian stance for a more philanthropic view. The play is too long, sometimes repetitive, and frequently indulgent, but it's worth waiting for the moment when Fram, Nansen's ice-defying ship, rises triumphantly from the depths — a symbol of all that he accomplished.
Olivier at the National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 (020-7452 3000). Until May 22. £10-£30 (part of the Travelex £10 season)
With its framing device of a Greek professor resurrecting actress Sybil Thorndike, plus its discussion of the role of arts in humanitarian affairs, Tony Harrison's ambitious new verse play frequently loses sight of the man at the heart of it — Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian polar explorer, diplomat, politician and 1922 Nobel Prize winner. Written in rhyming couplets, this production (co-directed with designer Bob Crowley) has a funny colloquial touch to counterpoint the stark historical facts and images as Nansen swaps his Darwinian stance for a more philanthropic view. The play is too long, sometimes repetitive, and frequently indulgent, but it's worth waiting for the moment when Fram, Nansen's ice-defying ship, rises triumphantly from the depths — a symbol of all that he accomplished.
Olivier at the National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 (020-7452 3000). Until May 22. £10-£30 (part of the Travelex £10 season)
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