Review: Into the Unknown

The Barbican are currently hosting a huge exhibition exploring the genre of scifi. They're describing it like so:

The genre-defining exhibition of art, design, film and literature.

From the 19th century cabinet of curiosities, to the vastness of space. Through future cities, into the inner landscapes of human perception.
Uncover the mysterious lands of Jules Verne and Ray Harryhausen where Science Fiction narratives first took root. Venture on an odyssey into our solar system, with vintage artwork promoting Soviet visions of space alongside immersive work by Soda_Jerk. Visit a gallery of aliens, and stand alongside iconic spacesuits from a galaxy of blockbusters including Star Trek and Interstellar.
Imagine dystopian worlds with Margaret Atwood and 28 Days Later. Then, with nowhere left to explore but human consciousness, delve deep and experience the transformation and mutation of the body through the eyes of Jack Kirby and Ex Machina.
Curated by historian and writer Patrick Gyger, this festival-style exhibition consists of more than 800 works, many of which have never been seen in the UK before. Continuing across the Centre, it includes artwork from Isaac Julien, Larissa Sansour and Conrad Shawcross, and an installation from the creators of Black Mirror.

And it's incredible!

Into the Unknown is a glorious and detailed exhibition, filling the Barbican's Curve gallery to the brim and then extending its tendrils out through the whole building, with additional exhibits in the Foyer and the Pit theatre.

The amount of content in the main Curve space is immense: it's more than you can realistically take in in one visit. If you're a scifi fan, you'll feel like you've died and gone to geek heaven, but even if it's not your genre of choice, it's still a fascinating look at the evolution of design in the field.

The artworks outside of The Curve are intriguing, and offer a balance to the exhibition, making sure it rises above just being a collection of memorabilia. As a result, Into the Unknown feels exciting and relevant.

Overall, Into the Unknown is yet another example of how good the Barbican are at designing the 'experience' of art exhibitions, beyond just hanging things on walls. Highly recommended.

4/5: A whole other world of style and substance
The Curve: Barbican
Until 2nd September

Review: Woyzeck

So, my theatre production of the week was Woyzeck, currently running at the Old Vic.

They say:

The multi-award-winning Jack Thorne (This is England, Let The Right One In, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) breathes new life into Woyzeck, one of the most extraordinary plays ever written.
It’s 1980s Berlin. The Cold War rages and the world sits at a crossroads between Capitalism and Communism. On the border between East and West, a young soldier (John Boyega) and the love of his life are desperately trying to build a better future for their child.
But the cost of escaping poverty is high in this searing tale of the people society leaves behind.

And it was alright; Woyzeck, in this iteration, is at least okay, occasionally more than okay, often not.

Tom Scutt's set design is dynamic and exciting, whilst Isobel Waller-Bridge's music and Gareth Fry's sound design are in turns looming and magnificent. Further more, the first Act holds together beautifully, fulfilling some of the drive of Buchner's original play.

After the interval, however, things start to go awry.

When the plot gives way to Woyzeck's deteriorating mental state, John Boyega, who had hitherto been quite good in the role, over acts it terribly. There's a lot of writhing and gurning, which stereotypes mental illness in a way that is really quite problematic. It's like Jack Thorne and Joe Murphy felt it was necessary to signpost at every opportunity 'THIS MAN IS HAVING A BREAKDOWN!' when really a lot more subtlety would have served the piece better.

The performances of the rest of the cast - Ben Batt as 'Andrews' particularly - are more consistent, and I realise that in focusing on Boyega I'm buying into the 'big-stars-in-plays-in-London' vibe that is currently dictating the casting of a lot of major London productions.
In this vein, I am being critical. In the field of big-stars-in-plays-in-London Woyzeck is more engaging than Obsession (starring Jude Law) was at the Barbican, but it falls way short of Angels in America (starring, well, lots of people) at the National. Overall, then, Woyzeck manages to still be worth seeing.

It's not the best thing I've seen this year, but it's far from the worst. You probably wouldn't be disappointed if you saw it, and it's pacey enough to keep you on-board.

3/5: Worth a watch, though not a game-changer
The Old Vic
Until 24th June

Review: Common

Last night was the night for Common at the National Theatre.
They say:

An epic tale of England’s lost land.

Mary’s the best liar, rogue, thief and faker in this whole septic isle. And now she’s back.

As the factory smoke of the industrial revolution belches out from the cities, Mary is swept up in the battle for her former home. The common land, belonging to all, is disappearing.

... but I don't really know what to say about it.

I liked it less than Salome, for a start, because that at least was beautiful to look at: Common, was just a mess.

Once again, a production with a lot of potential was been let down by a shockingly poor script. The story was confused, the dialogue stilted and needlessly sweary, and this left me struggling to care about any of the characters.

Anne Marie Duff was very watchable, it's just a shame she only had DC Moore's script to work with. The language of the script itself was almost unbearably frustrating, because it could have been brilliant: the use of non-standard English and hyphenated coinages could have been a fascinating exploration of how meaning is made, but it fell well short of achieving such a lofty aim.

The pagan-inspired design of the villagers in costume could have been exploited more, and to great effect. It wasn't.
The whole piece felt too long and dull.

The music was great though.

It isn't very often I would tell you to avoid a production at the National, but I just can't recommend Common: your money would be better spent elsewhere.

2/5: A mess of untapped potential
National Theatre
Until 5th August

Review: Angels in America

This year, the National Theatre are staging a revival of Tony Kushner's two-part epic Angels in America. At just shy of eight hours long, it's difficult, if not 'impossible' to put on, so it is a rare treat to be able to see it in its entirety.
The National say:

America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell.

And?

I have never seen anything like it.

Angels in America, especially watched in one day as a double bill, is a huge theatrical feat. The cast are unreal - Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, Nathan Lane, James McArdle, Russell Tovey, et al - the stage design works on an epic scale, and Kushner's writing is incredible.

There are a lot of things one could choose to talk about with Angels in America, so I'm going to try to limit myself to mentioning a few highlights:

1. Andrew Garfield was a revelation: I have only previously seen him in bit parts and Spiderman, so the fact that he can really, really act, came as a shock. A pleasant one.
2. The wings of the Angel, which were created by a combination of physical choreography and puppetry, were a delightful bit of design/movement work.
3. Kushner's writing of convoluted, rambling monologues is masterful. The characters of Roy (Nathan Lane) and Louis (James McArdle) get very different speeches, but the delivery of Kushner's words by the respective actors was edge-of-seat brilliant.
4. Ian MacNeil's design work and Paule Constable's lighting designs were on a scale wholly appropriate to the magnitude of the text. When the National go all out at set design, they go all out at set design.

Really, I could go on and on.

I cannot recommend Angels in America highly enough. Especially if you can see the double bill. It is unlikely you'll ever get to see the like of this again, so do what you need to do to get a ticket!

5/5: A once-in-a-generation spectacle
The National Theatre
Until 19th August

Review: Life of Galileo

There have been a few revivals of Brecht's work over the past few months - not least The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre, and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui at the Donmar - and now it's the Young Vic's turn: they're mounting a loud, proud retelling of The Life of Galileo.

They say:

BAFTA Award-winning film director Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice) returns to the Young Vic after his celebrated production of A Season in the Congo.
Brendan Cowell plays Galileo following his acclaimed performance in Yerma. Galileo makes an explosive discovery about the universe with his new invention – the telescope.
Performed in-the-round on a stunning set designed by Lizzie Clachan (Yerma, A Season in the Congo), the show features original music by The Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands and projections by 59 Productions (Feast, War Horse).

Now, great CVs for the creative team do not necessarily equal a great production (see Salome as case in point). In this case, however, everything about Life of Galileo turned out glorious, from the performances to the music to the design to the projections of the cosmos.

Brendan Cowell, particularly, is a bold, mercurial Galileo, and watching him, you can't help but think they could power the whole theatre with his energy. The re-imagined Young Vic space gives him a huge arena in which to play out Galileo's ideas, and Brecht's politics, and the music direction gives everything a quick pulse.

Above the stage is a curved dome, used as a screen for projections of the universe.
It's a bit mad, in a beautiful way, but whilst the visuals are captivating, they aren't the only quirk of design used to keep things interesting in the ostensibly blank stage space. Retractable steps, re-purposed props, and the cast working in and out of the floor-seated audience means that the production is visually dynamic.

The only place the relentless pace stuttered was towards the end, where some of the monologuing seemed to drag a bit as the politics Brecht originally explored now seem dated. This is a minor drawback, however, and the fact remains that this is a fabulous production, and well worth your time.

Definitely one to catch.

4/5: Big, brash, bold and beautiful
The Young Vic
Until July 1st

Review: Salome

Well. Salome then. The National Theatre tell us it is:

The tale retold.

The story has been told before, but never like this.

An occupied desert nation. A radical from the wilderness on hunger strike. A girl whose mysterious dance will change the course of the world.

Now, where to start.

This production frustrated me to a pretty extreme degree, but let's deal with the positives first.

Firstly, the acting was brilliant: Isabella Nefar, as Salome so-called, is mesmerising as the still, calm centre of the storm. In fact, the whole cast are strong, and under movement director Ami Shulman's use of slow, dream-like choreography, they seem like a giant, classical artwork come to life.

Secondly, there is the ethereal music. Yasmin Levy and Lubana al Quntar as the 'Women of Song' lend their phenomenal vocals to the whole show. Their contributions are both technically astounding and utterly beautiful.

Thirdly, the design work is also amongst the best I've ever seen. Susan Hilferty, along with lighting designer Tim Lutkin, have created a setting so beautiful it makes the play worth seeing, despite the work's major drawback (which I will come to in a moment). Falling curtains of sand, billowing cloths, props that are used and re-purposed all give the production a properly epic and classical feel (anachronistic weaponry aside). It is a stunning sight.

However, the script.

The script was diabolical. I seriously do not think I've ever seen dialogue that poor in a major production ever. It was just dire. I felt sorry for the actors, who were doing an amazing job with what they had but were playing to a half-empty auditorium. It was embarrassing for everyone involved; I'm not sure how the script passed any kind of quality control. Yaël Farber directs well, but if I were unaware of her previous successes, I would question whether she should be trusted with the writing bit too. As things stand, I think this just has to be written off as a lesson learnt. Hopefully.

Salome is worth seeing for the design, and for the truly haunting music, but the scripting makes it painful. Go to it prepared, but do go to it.

3/5: Could have been perfect. Wasn't.
National Theatre
Until 15th July

Review: Obsession

Tonight's theatre offering was Obsession, directed by Ivo van Hove, and staring Jude Law, at the Barbican. They say:

Jude Law plays the magnetically handsome, down-at-heel Gino in a new stage adaptation of Visconti’s penetrating social drama directed by Ivo van Hove.Drifter Gino, powerful and graceful as a puma, encounters Giuseppe and his much younger, trapped wife Hanna (played by Halina Reijn) at their roadside restaurant and petrol station. He and Hanna are so irresistibly attracted to one another they begin an affair while plotting to murder her husband. But the crime does not unite them in this chilling story where passion can lead only to destruction.
Visconti’s first feature film Obsession (1943) gave rise to Italian neorealism, a cinematic movement highlighting the struggles of ordinary people in a time of upheaval. As Van Hove’s fourth Visconti production, it features a company of Dutch and British actors led by Law, whose charismatic stage and screen performances have established him as one of the foremost actors of his generation.

When you look at the setting, you know it's Van Hove right away: a beautiful, stripped back space that will, you suspect, get more messy as the play progresses.

That is pretty much a metaphor for the whole production, really.

Obsession could have been brilliant, but the pieces don't fit together. Even Jude Law and Halina Reijn's chemistry couldn't carry the mismatched space/music/dialogue, which is a shame because they're really good. The moment of intimacy they share near the beginning is one of the most erotic things I've ever seen in a theatrical production... but then we are left to observe a series of discontinuous vignettes that don't hold together as a whole.
There's the representation of a car that is lifted up and down, spraying oil on the actors. The thing with the accordion. The bit at the end with the seascape, which is beautiful, but totally out of keeping with everything else that happens. The random nudity. The treadmill. You find yourself wondering how a director who, when on form, is so utterly brilliant could also throw these things together and call it a play.

On the whole, Obsession isn't a complete disaster, it's just frustrating. It's kind of worth seeing for Law and Reijn, but there are better things on in London right now. If you have spare time and money I can half-heartedly recommend it, but beyond Law and Reijn's performances, there are a lot of things amiss.

3/5: Moments of beauty caught up in a bit of a mess
The Barbican
Until 20th May