Public Property **** TNT

Friday 27 November 2009 16:33 GMT

Sam Peter Jackson proves he’s a name to watch in Public Property - a comic satire on fame, sex and scandal.

Married, award-winning newsreader Geoffrey (with a secret gay lover in the background) has become something of a national institution, but a poorly received autobiography and an acrimonious split from his publicist is just the start of his troubles and possible downfall when he offers a tearful teenager a ride in his swanky car.

Jackson has a neat line in fast-paced dialogue, and is excellently served by a first class cast of three. Robert Daws’ plump, well-fed face registers growing panic as well as revealing a fundamentally compassionate nature as he realises just how deep a pit he’s dug for himself, whilst Steven Webb’s 16-year-old Jamie from up North cries real as well as crocodile tears when he finds himself caught up in a far trickier situation than he can cope with. And as debt-laden publicist Larry, Nigel Harman is a nasty self-serving manipulator, grabbing the opportunity of “money in humiliation” as he steers his client through – and into - a media minefield.

Hanna Berrigan’s direction keeps the action moving swiftly through the occasional repetitive lapse, and although it relies more on laughter than subtlety, this sharp new play makes for a hugely entertaining evening.

Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1A 2DY, (0870 060 6632) ambassadortickets.com/myrealwar until December 5 (£17.50 - £25.00)

The Habit of Art *** TNT

Friday 27 November 2009 16:33 GMT

Alan Bennett’s layered new work The Habit of Art reunites WH Auden and Benjamin Britten – as well as a rent boy – in an imaginary meeting decades after both their artistic collaboration and their friendship had ended.

It’s a clever, sometimes sad, musing on sex, creativity, and diminishing powers, blessed with nuanced turns by Richard Griffiths and Alex Jennings.

But despite Bennett’s wit, erudition and comic skills, ultimately, The Habit Of Art lacks the vital spark to truly make it soar.

Lyttelton at the National, South Bank, SE1 9PX, (020 7452 3000). Until Apr 6. £10-£42.50.

Unedited version:-

Using the device of a play rehearsal within his play, Alan Bennett’s layered new work reunites W.H. Auden and Benjamin Britten – as well as a rent boy – in an imaginary meeting decades after both their artistic collaboration and their friendship had completely disintegrated.

It’s a clever, sometimes sad, musing on sex, creativity, and diminishing powers, blessed with nuanced performances from Richard Griffiths (as forgetful Fitz playing the slovenly poet who pisses in the kitchen sink) and Alex Jennings (his thespian counterpart portraying the fastidious composer). Adrian Scarborough’s Donald flounces discontentedly as their future biographer and Frances de la Tour’s seen it all before stage manager wryly smoothes over actorish egos. But despite Bennett’s wit, erudition and comic skills, ultimately it lacks the vital spark to truly make it soar.

I Found My Horn **** TNT

Tuesday 24 November 2009 10:43 GMT

This likeable one-man show proves that middle-aged men don’t have to run off with a younger woman to find satisfaction.

With his marriage in tatters, journalist Jasper Rees developed an unexpected new hobby when, stowed away in the attic, he rediscovered the musical instrument he last played (disastrously) when he was a 17 year old schoolboy. Twenty five years later, he sets himself the challenge of performing in front of an audience of French horn aficionados just twelve months down the line.

Performed by Jonathan Guy Lewis (the co-adaptor of his book) this amusing mid-life crisis monologue charts Rees’s progress from the initial germ of an idea to his performance in Mozart’s Third Horn Concerto at the annual festival of the British Horn Society. As well as a bit of horn history, he brings to life not only the increasingly panicking Rees but also the experienced player who coaches him, a German former maestro who suffered a stroke and now teaches at the American horn camp he crosses the Atlantic to attend, and his old music master from schooldays.

Like all taxing tasks, his attempt to master 16 feet of intractable coiled brass tube is full of doubts, uncertainties and potential humiliation, but, as he puts the mouthpiece to his lips for the crucial final concert the audience is really rooting for him to succeed.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU (020 7722 9301) until November 28 (£15-£25) Under 26 - £10

The Kreutzer Sonata **** TNT

Tuesday 24 November 2009 10:40 GMT

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This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Tuesday 24 November 2009 10:27 GMT. It was last updated on Tuesday 24 November 2009 10:40 GMT.

Skilfully adapted from Tolstoy’s 1889 novella by Nancy Harris, this almost perfect chamber piece is a haunting and disturbing account of one man’s fatal jealousy.

At first suave and almost relaxed, Hilton McRae’s middle-aged Pozdynyshev sits alone in the carriage of a moving train carriage (atmospherically designed by Chloe Lamford) isolated from his unseen fellow passengers as they make their way to a concert.

Almost immediately he admits to an antipathy to music, and it soon becomes apparent that, though he claims that he loved his wife, a deep-rooted misogyny also pervades his mind set.

As his confession unfolds, he proves to be a fascinating but increasingly unsympathetic being. Just released from prison, he relishes the opportunity this journey gives him to recount first his unsavoury premarital peccadilloes as a young man about town, then his growing distrust of his piano-playing wife as she practiced and performed an intense Beethoven duet with a violinist acquaintance.

McRae gives a memorably compelling performance, luring the audience into his confidence as his suspicions overpower him, and the dreamlike glimpses of the two musicians (ethereal figures briefly illuminated as they play) enhance the power of Natalie Abrahami’s production, turning what is virtually a monologue into a haunting study of one man’s twisted psyche.

Gate, Pembridge Road W11 3HQ (020 7229 0706). Until December 19 (£16)

Change **** TNT

24 November 2009 10:36 GMT

In under two hours, Italian quick-change artist Arturo Brachetti gets through more outfits than a battery of supermodels.

Now in his fifties, he proves an engaging and nimble performer, let down only by a sluggish post-interval tribute to film director Fellini and Sean Foley’s superfluous script which leads to an unimpressive “final transformation.”That apart, however, his show is crammed with delightful moments.

In the blink of an eye he’s changed from a punk to the Queen, and in a tribute to Hollywood he transforms himself from Nosferatu to Gene Kelly, then, simultaneously, to Bogart and Bacall.

Add an enchanting menagerie of skilfully executed shadow puppets and a liberal sprinkling of magic, and here’s a show to please the child in all of us.

Garrick, Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0HH (0844 412 4662) ambassadortickets.com/london till 3 Jan (£15 -£50)

Life is a Dream - This is London

Written in 1635, Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s philosophical allegory has echoes of both Oedipus and The Tempest with its dehumanised central character incarcerated in an attempt to thwart a

harmful prophecy. In the belief that his son would prove a cruel monarch, Basilio, King of Poland pronounced his baby son dead and secretly locked him away with only masked guards and the nobleman Clotaldo for company.

Hardly surprising then, that (despite his royal birth) a confused Segismundo acts as much like a beast as a man when the disguised lady Rosaura inadvertently stumbles across his prison tower, or that, briefly returned to court so that the king can judge his true nature, his behaviour is hardly regal. Drugged so that he can be duped into believing that his experience of freedom is just a dream, Dominic West’s cropheaded, atavistic Segismundo lashes out, forcing his father to lock him up again until external forces compel him to give his son another chance.

With its themes of conflict between free will and destiny, fantasy and reality, and incompatible loyalties to kin and country, this is a sometimes verbose and awkwardly structured drama. But Jonathan Munby’s well-acted production (in a new version by Helen Edmundson and played out against the ragged gold leaf map of Angela Davies’ stark design) successfully embraces the subplot of Kate Fleetwood’s cross dressed, revenge-seeking Rosaura.

West (of The Wire fame) proves a powerfully angry stage presence as he tries to make sense of his life-long imprisonment and his short-lived liberty, whilst Lloyd Hutchinson’s droll Clarion adds a welcome note of perfectly timed comedy to this complex play from the Spanish Golden Age.

Donmar

Seize the Day *** TNT

Friday 13 November 2009 15:06 GMT

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This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Friday 13 November 2009 15:06 GMT.

The Tricycle’s Not Black & White season continues with Kwame Kwei-Armah’s latest state of the nation offering which tempers serious issues of race and integrity with lashings of comedy.

The US has a black president, so why shouldn’t London have a black mayor when it’s time to replace the current blond incumbent?

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith plays Jeremy, a personable TV presenter whose unscripted, on-screen, have-a-go encounter with a violent black youth costs him his job but brings him to the attention of Howard, the manipulative head of an unnamed organisation which is looking for a suitable candidate to front the next mayoral campaign.

Kwei-Armah’s characters are somewhat broadly drawn, but he can’t be accused of viewing them through rose-coloured spectacles and the scenario he envisages does few favours to anyone involved.

The apparently squeaky clean Jeremy has a black mistress as well as a white wife, and he’s fully aware - and prepared to take advantage - of the fact that he’s being groomed to appeal to voters of all colours in an increasingly multi-ethnic capital.

Still, since he doesn’t have a particular political stance of his own, it doesn’t take much persuasion from Howard (himself under investigation for suspect behaviour) and his sexy, smooth-talking colleague (Jaye Griffiths) to bend him to their cause.

Despite its somewhat clunky structure and haphazardly introduced plot strands, Kwei-Armah (who also directs) knows how to entertain. The behind the scenes machinations are fun to watch as the battle for occupancy of City Hall progresses, and though (through no fault of the actors) Jeremy’s mentoring of the teenager he decked (Aml Ameen) doesn’t convince, it serves to illustrate the differences of attitude between the generations and classes of black Londoners as the end of the noughties approaches.

Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR Kilburn Tube (020 7328 1000), in rep to 17th December (£10 - £20.00)

Category B **** TNT

Friday 13 November 2009 15:20 GMT

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This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Friday 13 November 2009 15:20 GMT.

The Tricycle’s Not Black & White season gets off to a fine start with Roy Williams’ gritty prison drama. The first of three new state of the nation plays by black playwrights, it’s set in a Category B jail where no one (not the prisoners, and certainly not the screws) wants to end up - apart, that is, from new boy David who’s eager to make his mark and disrupt the somewhat dodgy but workable status quo.

Williams depicts a prison system in which the wardens turn a blind eye in order to keep the peace, and where a hierarchy of prisoners knows their place and sticks to the top dog’s rules.

Drugs are easily sneaked in, but a mobile phone is a transgression too far.

But he doesn’t flinch from portraying the pressures on prisoners, staff and the relatives who see their loved ones banged up in an institution with tough laws of its own: single mum Chandra (Jaye Griffiths) is utterly distraught knowing the treatment her young son (Aml Ameen), charged with raping his girlfriend, is likely to suffer at the hands of the inmates.

Director Paulette Randall keeps the action moving swiftly as Karl Collins’ manipulative and psychologically unstable Errol gets closer to parole, Sharon Duncan-Brewster convinces as feisty, outgoing warder Angela who knows the score and tells it like it is, and Williams (with his sharp ear for dialogue more than compensating for the contrivances in the plot) suggests that the institutionalised environment offers an unexpected if volatile refuge for guards and convicts alike.

Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR Kilburn Tube (020 7328 1000) in rep to 19th December (£10 - £20.00)

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice **** TNT

Friday 13 November 2009 15:29 GMT

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This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Friday 13 November 2009 15:29 GMT.

X Factor finalist Diana Vickers makes an impressive West End debut as the versatile-voiced daughter of loud-mouthed Northern widow Mari, who’s too busy getting pissed and hunting for a man to notice the talents of her reclusive offspring.

Terry Johnson’s revival of Jim Cartwright’s 1992 tragi-comedy gives Lesley Sharp’s brassy, brazen mother-from-hell full rein to show how to age disgracefully. In a succession of flesh-hugging outfits she mauls Marc Warren’s sleazy would-be agent Ray whose real interest lies in the reluctant LV’s moneymaking potential.

The rough poetry of the language can be overdone, but Vickers’s imitations of divas from Faithfull to Bassey and Garland to Piaf are instantly recognisable.

Vaudeville, Strand, WC2R 0NH Charing Cross (0844 412 4663; littlevoicewestend.com). Until Jan 30. £16-£48.50

Our Class Cottesloe This is London

The history it covers is complex, but the staging of Tadeusz Slobodzianek's distressing new play (in a version by Ryan Craig) couldn't be simpler. There isn't a prop in sight bar the wooden chairs which are both the starting point and final resting place of Dora, Menachem, Heniek, Zygmunt and their fellow classmates who return from the dead to relive their lives from the moment they started school in 1925.

Stepping into the bare rectangular playing area, the five Jewish tots and their Catholic counterparts introduce themselves and their ambitions in childish tones, oblivious to the differences which are destined to determine their futures. But these children are from the Polish village of Jedwabne, where, in 1941, the sizeable Jewish population was virtually eradicated overnight - apparently not, as previously believed, by the invading Germans but, it is now claimed, by their own Polish neighbours.

As their country comes under the power of first the Soviets, then the Nazis, the fortunes and status of the ten protagonists change, shift and overlap. There's an occasional act of defiant heroism or unexpected kindness in the face of a mass determination to purge the town of every single one of the 1600 Jews, but, overwhelmingly, ignorance, fear and treacherously self-serving deception fuel the group mentality of brutal anti-Semitism and destroy the bonds formed in childhood.

Even the good fortune of Abram who ails to America in the 30's and lives long enough to become the head of another dynasty to replace those who were lost is scant compensation for the dreadful fate of his Jewish classmates.

Fine, well-defined performances (including Lee Ingleby's cold, calculating Zygmunt, Sinead Matthews' Dora with unfulfilled dreams of becoming a film star and Jason Watkins' creepy cleric) sustain the three hours of director Bijan Sheibani's excellent production, and this grim but involving drama shows, tragically, that terrible deeds often reap far greater rewards than honourable ones.

The Power of Yes (unedited version)

Men in suits are out in force in David Hare’s interview-based assessment of the events leading up to the current financial crisis. Notepad in hand and sporting a casual brown jacket Anthony Calf (as the playwright’s alter ego) quizzes the famous, the influential and those unwilling to be identified who just didn’t see it coming.

In fluid succession, these bankers, traders, journalists and hedge fund managers crisscross the bare stage below the flickering backdrop of Angus Jackson’s deftly staged, well-acted production, adding observation and information before disappearing back into the darkness.

Hare makes an intelligent guide as he exposes the blinkered greed which contributed to the near collapse of the banking system, but, despite the odd flash of humour, ultimately this is more journalistic investigation than drama.

The Power of Yes *** TNT

Friday 06 November 2009 17:49 GMT

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This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Friday 06 November 2009 17:49 GMT.

Men in suits are out in force in David Hare’s interview-based assessment of the events leading up to the current financial crisis.

Notepad in hand, Anthony Calf (as the playwright’s alter ego) quizzes those who just didn’t see it coming. Hare makes an intelligent guide as he exposes the blinkered greed which contributed to the near collapse of the banking system, but, despite the odd flash of humour, this is more journalistic investigation than drama.

Lyttelton at the National, Southbank, SE1 9PX TUBE: Waterloo. Until Jan 10. £10-£35

Little Fish ** TNT

Friday 06 November 2009 13:43 GMT

90 minutes of New York angst seems a very long time in Michael John Lachiusa’s 2003 musical, receiving its European premiere at this tiny theatre. Suggested by short stories written by Deborah Eisenberg (herself the partner of Wallace Shawn, another American writer specialising in introspective self-analysis) it owes a debt to Rent and to Stephen Sondheim, but there’s neither sufficient wit nor insight to carry this short running time.

The playing space has been reconfigured – with an effective four-piece band perched high behind the blue-grey narrow stage where Julia Worsley’s Charlotte tries to give up smoking and make sense of her life since she arrived in the Big Apple. Escaping from a critical boyfriend (whose disparaging remarks haunt her in every subsequent venture) she takes up residence with coke-head Cinder (Alana Maria, whose animated presence demands a bigger stage), goes swimming at the YMCA and doesn’t do much else apart from wallow in her lack of ability to get on with her life, fulfil her ambition to be a writer, or do anything positive.

There’s a lively cameo by Ashley Campbell as a narcissistic flirt she almost steals from new friend Kathy, and a creepy one by Nick Holder as a lecherous older man, but sadly the performances struggle against the uninvolving, fragmented nature of the material and it’s hard to care whether Charlotte finally succeeds in swimming with the tide or is destined to be a sad, lone fish for ever.

Finborough Theatre, Finborough Rd, SW10 9ED. Tube: Earl’s Court (0844 847 1652). Until Nov 21. £14-£18

If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet **** TNT

Friday 06 November 2009 13:29 GMT

Nick Payne’s idiosyncratic play has a delightfully quirky set to match – designer Lucy Osborne has ripped out the padded seating, and painted blue virtually everything in sight, apart from the cushions and odd assortment of chairs which have replaced it. The acting space cleverly serves as a café, a rocky shore, various rooms in a home and a host of other locations as a relationship develops between a stroppy overweight 15-year-old and her feckless uncle, Terry.

Bullied by her classmates and with parents who are too busy with their own pursuits to pay her much attention, Anna’s not a happy bunny. But with time on his hands and a failed love affair of his own to get over, Terry not only brings her out of her shell but ends up the unwilling object of her affections.

Preoccupied with writing his book, Anna’s ecologically obsessed father (Michael Begley’s eccentric but rather sad academic) is blind to the troubles at home. And though her mother (Pandora Cooke), who teaches at her daughter’s school, is more down to earth, she too, has failed to register the depth of Anna’s loneliness as the family unit begins to fall apart.

Ailish O’Connor is touchingly vulnerable and obstinately persistent as the introverted teenager, but it’s Rafe Spall who steals the acting honours. His Terry is an adult who’s never grown up - infuriatingly irresponsible, disarmingly watchable and an unpredictable delight in Josie Rourke’s spot-on production of this poignantly compassionate new comedy.

Bush Theatre, Shepherd's Bush Green, W12 8QD. TUBE: Shepherd's Bush. (020 8743 5050). Until Nov 21. £20, Saturday matinees £13

Prick Up Your Ears - unedited review

Tragically, life mirrored art just days after press night and, following the suicide of his ex-partner, Little Britain star Matt Lucas has withdrawn from Simon Bent’s new play about anarchic playwright Joe Orton’s final years. He played Kenneth Halliwell, the disgruntled lover whose increasing jealousy and alienation led him to bludgeon Orton (a spry Chris New) to death in 1967 before taking a fatal overdose.

Bent puts Halliwell centre stage, marooned in their claustrophobic Islington flat with its oppressive, collage-covered walls as Orton goes in search of anonymous sex and celebrity high life. But the facts are already familiar from the biography and film of the same name, and it’s left to Gwen Taylor’s caring neighbour to add a perfect comic touch to this solid, sometimes playful but unenlightening drama.

Comedy, Panton Street, SW1Y 4DN 0844 871 7622 to 28 November

Prick Up Your Ears *** TNT

Friday 30 October 2009 16:52 GMT

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Prick Up Your Ears

This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Friday 30 October 2009 16:52 GMT.

Tragically, life mirrored art and, after the suicide of his ex-partner, Little Britain star Matt Lucas has withdrawn from Simon Bent’s new play about anarchic playwright Joe Orton’s final years.

He played Kenneth Halliwell (now Con O’Neill), the jealous lover who bludgeoned Orton (Chris New) to death before taking a fatal overdose.

Gwen Taylor’s caring neighbour adds a comic touch to this solid but unenlightening drama.

Comedy Theatre, Panton St, SW1Y 4DN TUBE: Piccadilly Circus (0844 871 7622). Until Nov 28. £10-£55