Reviewing: Ink

This week involved a jaunt to Angel to see Ink at the Almeida. A piece of new writing, looking at the re-forming of The Sun newspaper into the brash, loud format we know today, Ink is dark, funny, and a masterclass in the creative rewriting of politics.

The Almeida say:

Fleet Street. 1969. The Sun rises.

James Graham’s ruthless, red-topped new play leads with the birth of this country’s most influential newspaper – when a young and rebellious Rupert Murdoch asked the impossible and launched its first editor’s quest, against all odds, to give the people what they want.

I say: Go and see it.

James Graham's writing, Rupert Goold's direction, and a fabulous cast make this play unmissable, as far as I'm concerned. The set and sound design are also a delight. In fact, I left the theatre beaming.

Ink explores the ideas of 'news' and journalistic ethics through the story of The Sun's first editor Larry Lamb (Richard Coyle), and his moral testing at the the hands of Rupert Murdoch (Bertie Carvel). The dialogue between the two men is rapid-fire, sweary, and sharp, and the performances of Carvel and Coyle are perfectly balanced.

The makeshift look of the set creates a strange sympathy for the team behind The Sun, which is quite an achievement, given that I, and probably most of the audience, fall distinctly within The Guardian's natural readership. The situating of the newspaper's first staff as underdogs is a clever way into making you rethink an institution that irrevocably changed the landscape of British journalism, and not for the better. Graham's script is brilliantly challenging in this respect - it allows you to take nothing for granted.

I loved Ink enough to be trying to make time to see it again, and that rarely happens. If you can get to it, you really should.

5/5: Brash, painfully funny, and terribly relevant
The Almeida
Until 5th August

Review: Hamlet

The short version of this review runs:

This is the best version of Hamlet I have ever seen on a stage. Go and get tickets for it while you still can.

Now, if you feel so inclined, the more detailed version...
 
... Many previous reviewers have already commented on Andrew Scott's brilliance in the role of Hamlet, but it's fair praise: he is astonishing. His performance felt so light, so vital, that it could have been of a text written yesterday. Having seen Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Kinnear and David Tennant in the role, I am still quite comfortable in saying this is the best iteration of Hamlet I have yet witnessed. Scott's version of the legendary character is both startlingly vulnerable and dangerously unpredictable.

However, this version of Hamlet isn't just the Andrew Scott show. No, the whole thing is a master-class in how to bring Shakespeare to a modern stage and make it feel relevant. Robert Icke's direction is inspired. The design, the staging, the lack of cuts that could have made it a shorter piece, the AV choices: everything works.
Particular design highlights included the use of news broadcasts, and introducing the ghost via CCTV, and the music direction - lots of Bob Dylan and some original Laura Marling - is properly spine-tingling.
The rest of the class stand up to Scott's brilliance, as well, and Juliet Stevenson's Gertrude takes Hamlet's mother in an unusually powerful direction. Her knowing death at the end was one of the striking-yet-subtle twists that made this production so incredible.

This proved to be a brave new Hamlet without a sacrifice of the original text. It made me excited about the theatre, and determined to try and rethink how to introduce Shakespeare to younger audiences (during working hours I'm an English teacher). 

If you can see it you must. It is a master-class in everything Shakespeare can be on a modern stage.

5/5: The flawless, classic, and contemporary Dane
Transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre
Until 2nd September

Review: The Treatment

The Almeida's current show is a revival of Martin Crimp's The Treatment, directed by Lyndsey Turner. In short, it goes something like:

New York. A film studio.  A young woman has an urgent story to tell.
But here, people are products, movies are money and sex sells. And the rights to your life can be a dangerous commodity to exploit.

In the viewing, what the The Treatment is, is a brilliantly dark bit of theatre. It explores ideas of stories, authenticity, and ownership, in a manner that is both morally ambiguous and uncomfortably funny. The treatment, as it were, of Anne, who is played brilliantly by Aisling Loftus, is brutally unsympathetic, and as a result it is no surprise when her reality reasserts itself over the film producers who have hitherto tried to exploit her.
The performances are great, particularly Loftus - who is absolutely beguiling as central character Anne - and disintegrating power couple Jennifer (Indira Varma) and Andrew (Julian Ovenden). There is also a great use of a large cast walking in and around the scenes, giving the action a kind of 'behind-the-scenes' feel, entirely appropriate to the subject matter.
The design is striking as well, with sparse sets and bold colours framing the action with a noir-ish vibe, though there are moments when the scene changes jar the pacing a bit, which prevents the show hitting perfection.
Overall, however, The Treatment is a great bit of theatre.
Highly Recommended!

4/5: A darkly funny downward spiral
The Almeida
Until 10th June