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Encore Theatre Magazine

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::Front Page::

:: Sunday, July 30, 2006 ::

The Stoppard Debate # 3

Merry Hell

The two-tier tradition of the Court that the previous correspondent identifies is a massive oversimplification. The Court has changed enormously depending on the artistic directors it has had over the years. One of the defining aspects of the Rickson era has been the complete lack of revivals of any sort. The only revivals in the 50th Programme are not by the English Stage Company but drama school or NYT productions. Because of this there has (financially) been a greater need than ever before to stage a commercially successful new play once or twice a year. In the 50th Anniversary year, these are Rock 'n' Roll and, to a lesser extent, Terry Johnson’s Piano Forte. What is significant about Rock 'n' Roll is that it is both written and directed by Royal Court outsiders in the form of Tom Stoppard and Trevor Nunn. While it is difficult to define what makes a Royal Court writer, Stoppard is certainly not that. In the cases of Hampton, Elyot, Johnson and even O’Brien, their plays were (and are still) staged partly because the Court felt a sense of loyalty to them and partly because they were expected to produce hits. In some cases, this didn’t happen: Kevin Elyot’s Forty Winks, was a tremendous box office flop despite a strong production by Katie Mitchell. But the Court has no reason to feel any loyalty to Stoppard or Nunn because they have absolutely nothing to do with the Court.

That Rock 'n' Roll is a very different play to Motortown is something of a no-brainer. That Motortown is a quintessentially Royal Court play is also quite obvious to anyone who has seen it (taking nothing away from a fantastic play). But what is striking about seeing something like Rock 'n' Roll at the Royal Court is that it is firmly placed within the drawing room comedy tradition of the British theatre that takes in Coward and Rattigan – precisely the tradition which prompted the rebellion upon which the Court’s very foundations rest. It is possible that one might come out of this play with a greater understanding of Czech politics and the respective roles that intellectuals like Havel and rock bands like the Plastic People of the Universe had within the counter-culture, but is a play the best place for finding these things out? Surely, you could become more thoroughly informed by reading a historical account, Havel’s prose or watching a documentary on the subject. What a play can do far better than a television documentary is to tell you something about yourself you didn’t know and Rock 'n' Roll fundamentally fails to do this.

'The incongruous merry laughter' that echoed through the austere home of the English Stage Company was certainly not of the type that has ever been heard at the Court before. Why? Because it was 'Tom Stoppard laughter' – a rare breed (though not unrelated to Michael Frayn laughter). It is not an instinctive, visceral reaction to a situation or a turn of phrase but the sound of someone letting everyone else in the audience know that they got a joke. It is like some massive free-for-all of oneupmanship.

There were also moments of merriment brought about by misunderstanding, such as Candida’s comment that in the late 1960s, her boyfriend was 'a Black Dwarf cartoonist'. Why do the audience think this is funny? Because they think her boyfriend was a black dwarf who also happened to be a cartoonist? There is also merriment brought about by snobbishness, such as the hilarity induced at the idea of the uneducated Esme harbouring an ambition to be a lecturer on Swann Hellenic Cruises – that really brought down the house.

There are good moments in the play, though I would argue that Pete Sullivan as Ferdinand was the real star of the show. Sewell is good but uneven and Cox just spends his whole time bellowing at everyone. The best scenes in the play by some way were between Sullivan and Sewell. The first few scenes, including the interrogation, are too short and of little dramatic interest and the dinner party scene is appalling. Very little sense of the relationship between Esme and Jan is built up, so the final twist in the story has very little power despite the fact that it comes at the end of a three-hour play. It is not a terrible play, but it is not a great one nor a particularly good one and, if it had been written by an unknown, they would probably have been asked to do a fair bit of rewriting, but presumably because it was Stoppard everyone was terrified of not getting something and looking stupid – the fear of not having got the joke!

:: posted by Theatre Worker at Sunday, July 30, 2006

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Comments:

Banker number three's coming in early 2007: a revival of The Seagull, directed by Ian Rickson, with Kirsten Scott Thomas and MacKenzie Crook. Excepting internal transfers and back-catalogue re-runs this must be the first RC main stage revival since Three Sisters in '96 (co-produced with Out Of Joint). A Chekhov plus stars package with straight-to-the-West End "commercial success" written all over it. Let's hope it gives
Dominic Cooke a big enough financial surplus to hit the ground running...

# posted by  Anonymous : 30/7/06 10:22 pm

 

...but a new Caryl Churchill play as well...

# posted by  Anonymous : 30/7/06 10:49 pm

 

Though the Rickson Seagull was mooted early this year to replace the Cloud 9 revival until it was pointed out that it would clash with Royal Court associate director Katie Mitchell's own production opening at the National Theatre. Rickson, of course, in his usual insensitive way thought this would be no problem.

Presumably this is the Court's equivalent of a golden handshake. Thanks for your work here, and here's a free production to help you launch your freelance career. The Court shouldn't be doing this; that play with that cast could open in the West End without a problem. So why is the Court doing it? They'll say it bankrolls the rest of the season, but that's a poor argument. The Court's distinctiveness is as the new writing theatre. It is challenges by The Bush, The Finborough, The Soho and various other theatres outside London. The National and the RSC have serious new writing programmes. It needs to cleave to being what it used to call 'the powerhouse of new writing' or else its claim to funding will start to look very shaky.

# posted by  Theatre Worker : 31/7/06 9:06 am

 

That's true. What's curious about the Court's Seagull also is that it's adapted by Christopher Hampton, who has said in both the introduction to his collected plays and in an interview with Harriet Devine, that he could considers the Court to be somewhere for young, less well established writers and that is the reason he no longer works with them. Maybe the Stoppard changed his mind...

Also I heard that Rickson was also directing the new Caryl Churchill next season, which would mean he'll direct two of the three downstairs production in Cooke's inaugural season...

# posted by  Anonymous : 1/8/06 2:15 pm

 

I heard wrong. The new season's on the website. James Maccie D's doing the Churchill.

# posted by  Anonymous : 1/8/06 2:20 pm

 

It did seem unlikely, given his antipathy to that kind of work, and James McD's evident sympathy for that tradition. But that was a nasty moment...

Still, like the second anonymous commentator puts it, a new Caryl Churchill play! This is something to celebrate indeed, whatever the background foolishness at the Court.

# posted by  Theatre Worker : 1/8/06 6:49 pm

 

A new Churchill play is always something to celebrate. The rest of the season is of little interest though - a new Mexican play (the Court's International Programme has produced some of its most extraordinary dross of recent years), a new Meredith Oakes and a collaboratively written play about ID cards (celebration the 'tradition' of Lay By and England's England, both pretty awful even according to some of the writers). And apparently no YWF this year...
But what's coming up the Bush isn't of much interest either (Pumpgirl was dreadful). Along with the Churchill, the most promising new plays coming up are Dennis Kelly's Love and Money at the Young Vic and Conor McPherson's The Seafarer at the National - significantly neither are principally new writing theatres.

# posted by  Anonymous : 2/8/06 11:35 am

 

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