The American Plan

 TNT

Summering in the Catskills has long been popular with Jewish New Yorkers - offering a chance to get away from the heat of the city, and, for the young, the possibility of romance.

In multi-award-winning playwright Richard Greenberg’s superficially gentle drama, the title refers not only to the all-in hotel rate offering almost non-stop meals, but also to a way of life aspired to in the 60s which wealthy widow Eva (a Jewish émigré who claims to have caught the last boat out of Hitler’s Germany) wants to secure for her emotionally fragile daughter Lili – so long as the man in question meets with her approval, and that’s proving to be a pretty tough call.

When Luke Allen-Gale’s attractive Nick emerges, dripping, onto the jetty, Lili thinks her knight in shining armour has finally arrived – but Eva seems all set to scare him off, too.

None of the characters proves completely truthful, which leaves scope for various twists and the younger members of the cast persuasively handle the changes in mood, with Emily Taaffe touchingly vulnerable as Lili and Mark Edel-Hunt’s forceful Gil making a late appearance to throw another unexpected spanner in the works.

But Diana Quick’s Eva seems oddly ponderous for such a manipulative woman and although David Grindley’s production garnered excellent reviews in Bath earlier this year, this 1990 American drama with its debt to Tennessee Williams seems to have lost something in the transfer.

 

St James, 21 Palace Street, SW1E 5JA
Tube: Victoria
Until 10th August £15 –£40
(£50.00 Premium seats) stjamestheatre.co.uk

Propeller's The Taming of the Shrew & Twelfth Night

 TNT

Edward Hall, currently the artistic director at this address, made his name with his all-male touring company Propeller. It’s still going strong under his command and is stopping off here briefly with revivals of a couple of Shakespeare’s comedies both of which have an underlying vein of darkness.

Most accessible – and, here, most brutal -  is their interpretation of The Taming of the Shrew – a no holds barred account of a man viciously determined to break the will of his chosen woman, Kate, and gain her fortune too. The fact that Kate is played by a man (Dan Wheeler stomping around angrily in Doc Martens and head to toe black) gives licence for far more extreme violence than is usual.

Vince Leigh’s swaggering Petruchio doesn’t just humiliate her by turning up bare-buttocked at their wedding, but, once married, tugs her by her white-blond hair and stamps on her hand.

Yes, it’s amusing to see Bianca (fetching in a peach polka dot dress) played as a rather calculating coquette instead of the usual sweetly insipid foil to her older sister (her tutor brings The Joy of Sex  to their lessons together). But seeing Kate broken and cowed into total submission still leaves a nasty taste even though the whole episode is presented as a drunken dream.

Their Twelfth Night is a much more restrained affair - though there are bare bums to be seen here, too.  Designer Michael Pavelka’s wardrobes with their tarnished mirrors are now shrouded and masked characters oversee the proceedings.

But having a man playing a woman who disguises herself as a youth yields insufficient dividends – there’s nothing feminine about Joseph Chance’s shipwrecked Viola and little chemistry between him and the lovesick Duke Orsino.  Consequently it’s Gary Shelford’s subtly scheming servant woman Maria who steals the show -  a neat natural in heels with a nifty side-line in tap-dancing.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU
Tube | Swiss Cottage
Until 20th July
£22- £29 each
playhampsteadtheatre.com

Fences

 TNT

Lenny Henry was already into his fifties – and, as a comedian, a household name - when he picked up a Best Newcomer award for his performance of Othello.

But although he may have come to straight acting pretty late in a busy career, he’s gone on to prove that the accolade marked far more than a flash in the pan achievement. Now, at almost exactly the same age as Troy Maxson, the Pittsburgh garbage collector at the centre of American playwright August Wilson’s domestic drama (written in 1987 but set thirty years earlier) he gives a powerfully emotional account of a flawed and complex man who knows what he has, but can’t stop himself from destroying it.

It’s a rather unbalanced play which is sometimes over wordy and keeps us waiting rather too long for an unexpected bombshell.  But, before then, Henry and Tanya Moodie’s Rose (his devoted wife of 18 years) establish the loving, supportive warmth of what looks like a solid relationship, and his contentedly boozy payday banter with best buddy Bono (Colin McFarlane) confirms that this ex con has become a reliable, if not altogether satisfied, working man.

Yet, stuck in a dead end job and still resentful that his prowess at baseball was never fully recognised because of his colour, Troy seems set to deprive their teenage son (Ashley Zhangazha’s Cory) of his own chance at being signed up for a career in football and is dismissive of elder son Lyons’ (Peter Bankole) jazz gigs. Even his support of his war-damaged brother proves to be less than straightforward.

Wilson, who died in 2005, completed a cycle of ten plays, one for each decade, chronicling the African American experience and Paulette Randall’s revival of this Pulitzer prize-winning drama does him proud, with Henry’s totally convincing Troy taking his time to build the fence which will bothkeep intruders out and confine his family within.

Duchess, Catherine Street, WC2B 5LA
Tube | Covent Garden/ Charing Cross
Until 14th September
£20.00-£52.50 (Premium seats £65)
nimaxtheatres.com

Our Town

 TNT

Just a few chairs, tables, ladders and a leafy bough hanging overhead comprise the scenery in Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning study of everyday life in the small fictional community of Grover’s Corner somewhere in New Hampshire.

 Written in 1938, it was pretty experimental for the time –with the character of the Stage Manager (a competent Simon Dobson in present day clothes) breaking through the fourth wall to address the audience directly whilst also dropping into the action to serve as a drugstore owner and a clergyman.

Most of the characters make only fleeting appearances over three acts and thirteen years from 1901 to 1913, with the focus mainly on the changing relationship between young Emily whose father edits the local paper and George, the doctor’s son. Between them, the ensemble of fourteen (drawn from a multitude of countries and performing with varying degrees of conviction) play a host of other locals – from the milkman to the alcoholic church organist (whose misery is never explained) and from a university lecturer to a dead woman waiting to welcome another spirit to a different place.

Apparently this reminder to appreciate what one has and to make the most of one’s allocated time has been performed somewhere in the US every night for the last 75 years. Tim Sullivan’s mildly diverting if somewhat underpowered production does little to explain why – but Zoe Swenson-Graham’s Emily glows with optimism in this gentle portrayal of ordinary American life at the turn of the century.

£15+, Kings  Head Theatre,
Upper Street, N1 1QN
Tube | Angel kingsheadtheatre.com

Read more: Theatre review: Our Town at Kings Head Theatre, London - TNT Magazine
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Infamous : Derren Brown

 TNT

What to say about a show that you’re not allowed to say anything about?

Several times during the course of a superbly entertaining evening, Derren Brown – psychological illusionist and mentalist extraordinaire – entreated punters and critics alike not to divulge what goes on in over two and half hours of mind-boggling entertainment.

But I’m sure he won’t object to my saying that he’s a first rate showman who continues to astound every time he appears on stage, holding the audience in the palm of his hand throughout and accomplishing the seemingly impossible – be it mathematical calculations, feats of memory or soliciting visits from beyond the grave.

Somehow, he seems to get right inside people’s heads and, as one would expect, audience participation features large, ranging from a few moments with a microphone to zoning out on stage during the interval, with the majority of the selections decided, in egalitarian fashion, by the random throw of a high-flying Frisbee.      

With co-writer and director Andy Nyman, Brown has put together a slick show built less on shock factor than previously and more on personal confession.   But I’ve still got absolutely no idea how he does what he does. He may, as he reveals, have been called “dickbrain” at school, but those brains of his have stood him in pretty good stead ever since and I just hope they’re already mulling over the contents of his next mind-bending production.

Palace Theatre
Shaftesbury Avenue, W1V 8AY
Tube | Leicester Square / Tottenham Court Road
Until 17th August£16 - £51nimaxtheatres.com

Pride and Prejudice

 TNT

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of the appearance in print of Jane Austen’s ever-popular novel, Simon Reade’s stage adaptation breezes through the husband-hunting escapades of the five Bennett sisters as possible suitors come and go.

Simply staged on a two-tier rotating set of green and gold railings (which at one point become the frames for the numerous Darcy family portraits), Deborah Bruce’s efficient production stays true to the fundamental spirit of the book as the garrulous Mrs Bennett despairs of finding sufficient wealthy, well-connected bachelors to guarantee the financial security and social status of her all-female brood.

Fresh out of drama school, Jennifer Kirby gives a likeably assured performance in the pivotal role of Elizabeth, capturing both her independent spirit and her outspoken wit as she initially despises  - then falls for - David Oakes’ haughty Mr. Darcy.

But, in general, there’s little room for depth or subtlety – partly, perhaps, because of the open air venue (charming though it is when the rain holds off and the temperature improves), partly because of the necessity to strip away much of the original.

So although Ed Birch’s ingratiating clergyman cousin, Mr Collins, gets the laughs with his ridiculous spindly-legged bows and his determination to recruit a wife – almost any wife – in order to please his benefactress (Jane Asher’s disdainful Lady Catherine de Bourgh) it’s a rather too broad interpretation.

But Rob Heaps displays an endearingly puppyish happiness as the somewhat colourless Mr Bingley when he finally gets his sweet-natured Jane, the empire-line dresses place the production firmly in period, and there’s enough dancing in various country homes to make this an enjoyable, if unexceptional, evening.

 

Open Air Theatre
Inner Circle, Regents Park, NW1 4NR
Tube | Baker Stree
£25.00 -£55.00
Until 20th July
openairtheatre.org

 

The Cripple of Inishmaan

 TNT

He’s waved his wand on screen as Harry Potter, whipped off his clothes on stage as a troubled teen in Equus and now Daniel Radcliffe has adopted an Irish accent, a hobbling gait and a mangled arm as Billy, the eponymous youth who lives with his adoptive “aunties” on an isolated Aran isle and dreams of escape.

Set in 1934, Martin McDonagh’s 1990s black comedy mixes fiction with an element of fact (an American film crew really did descend on the area to make the documentary Man of Aran) but the characters are his own.

Pat Shortt’s grubby Johnnypateenmike splits his time between delivering  (usually very tedious) local gossip and trying to kill off his frustratingly resilient old mother (June Watson) with forbidden bottles of illegally brewed booze. The aunts (who run the local store stocked almost entirely with stacks of canned peas) have their own peculiar habits - Ingrid Craigie’s fretting Kate talks to stones at times of stress whilst Gillian Hanna’s down-to-earth Eileen eats the sweets before the customers can even sample them.

With nothing to do to pass the time, Radcliffe’s Cripple Billy (there’s nothing politically correct about McDonagh’s work or the locals he portrays) has turned to books and staring at the cows – but he’s determined to grab the chance of a screen test on a neighbouring island.

It’s an effectively understated performance which contrasts well with Sarah Greene’s abrasive Slippy Helen, a foul-mouthed little minx with a penchant for cracking eggs over all and sundry.

There’s more than a touch of pastiche about London born and raised McDonagh’s writing, but his dialogue fizzes with cruelly funny brio and, fully acknowledging this, Michael Grandage’s snappy production makes you laugh even when you know you shouldn’t.

 

Noel Coward, St. Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4AU
Tube| Leicester Square
Until 31st August
£10.00 - £57.50
MichaelGrandageCompany.com delfontmackintosh.co.uk