Man and Boy (and some women artists too)

Man and Boy at the Dorfman

I knew very little about this rarely performed Rattigan play beforehand but, for me at least, this one was a hit.  I last saw Ben Daniels being amazing in Medea a couple of years ago.  This time he plays Gregor Antonescu, a successful financier in 1934, with all sorts of financial interests including loans to the fascist movements in Italy and Germany, clearly moving in those circles.  We meet him at the moment his dodgy dealing has caught up with him and he seeks sanctuary in his estranged son’s basement apartment in Manhattan.  The murky world of the rich hits pretty hard in the light of the Epstein scandal, showing how disposable people are in this world, including his son, as he offers him up without his consent, to a closeted gay corporate boss.  In this world, people are no more than commodities and Antonesco states 'Love is a commodity I can't afford' .  What matters instead is how anyone or thing can help with the deal.  This gets more complicated when it becomes apparent that his son still loves his father despite the estrangement, and will do pretty much anything to support him.  In this staging at least,  this becomes almost as much a family drama as a moral one.  

I have to say the staging took some interesting choices.  It was set up as a cinematic melodrama, with the casting on the wall, names lighting up as they  arrive or leave the stage, and with a lighting rig lowering and raising above the central stage. Performed in the round, and with no pretence of realism, I  didn’t really understand why the cast were clambering up and down on tables, I assume it was trying to focus more clearly on the essence of the issues being explored, but actually that didn’t matter too much.  We were up in the gods, and couldn't see the wall which had all of the entrances and exits, but I think we were better off than the audience seated with their backs to the screen.  None of that mattered anyway as the main action all happened in the centre where everyone could see.  

Ben Daniels plays the financier father as an almost Richard III type baddie in the first half, both charismatic and menacing, then becoming something even more complex in the second half.  Someone described him as 'magnificent' and I think that is pretty accurate.  He held my attention all the way through, and Laurie Kynaston as Basil, his son, is also excellent, wearing his heart on his sleeve, whilst his father hides everything away.   Those performances are the centre of this version of the play, literally, as well as figuratively, giving it its heart.  I’m not sure it properly landed the case for the prosecution against capitalism but the performances are fantastic in this and it was an absolutely gripping couple of hours anyway. 

Yin Xiuzhen (Heart to Heart) and Chiharu Shiota (Threads of Life)  at the Hayward Gallery

I knew nothing about either of these artists beforehand but each of these exhibitions gave me lots to enjoy.

Yin Xiuzhen who is Chinese, works mainly in fabric, particularly clothing, using it to make the link between the personal and the global and the rise of capitalism, commenting on the destruction of climate and traditional ways of living.  We had a lot of fun trying to guess the mini cities in suitcases in the baggage reclaim.

And although it probably isn't very original, I did like the massive heart as a quiet space in the middle of the gallery, although it reminded us a bit of the sort of thing that was in the Millenium Dome exhibition.  

I loved the bookshelves, all tidy at the front, and messiness spilling out behind them. 

I have a thing about glasswork and ceramics too, and so I enjoyed her experiments with those, although I have no idea if there were supposed to be any significant points being made. (How did she make those glass blowing shapes in the middle of the flat panel?)

 

I can see why Chiharu Shiota was the other artist being exhibited, with her focus on thread, in huge walk through installations.  Firstly, it reminded me of those string pictures that were all the rage in the seventies, but I did enjoy the massive nature of them.  As the string is only stapled in place though, I was a bit worried that I was going to trip and bring the whole thing down around me.  

I liked the red string installations though and my favourite was the one full of positive affirmations, and particularly this cat.

 

I wasn't so keen on the black string exhibits which I found creepy although I don't think that is what the artist intended. 

The exhibition is on until May, and it is pretty kid-friendly; it was half-term and so there were loads of kids making the most of the space.  It is entertaining without being too high-falutin'- worth a visit if you can get a deal on entry.