Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

This is a complete updating of Ibsen’s classic early feminist creation at the Almeida, and I really wanted to like it.   Romola Garai is Nora, who, in this iteration, is married to a financier with a city boy made good vibe, (including the recovery from addiction).  He is just about to make it big by selling his company.  Nora is an over-excited trophy wife when we first meet her, spending money that as her husband points out, they don’t have yet.  But she wants a good family Christmas and so Torvald (Tom Mothersdale) acquiesces.  But all is not as it seems.  Nora has secretly put them in debt to save her husband and family, but a blackmail plot and a flirtation make everything a lot more complicated.   I appreciate the attempt to bring it up to date,and it is ostentatiously of the moment, including the delight of a  financier recognising that war will bring in big money for him.  The question of how to be a woman in today’s world is still a ...

This is an absurdist play from the 1950s by Eugène Ionesco in which all the people in a town gradually turn into rhinoceroses, so a slightly unusual premise to get our heads around.  This was a new production at the Almeida by Omar Elerian, which stripped a lot back.  At the opening of the play we are faced with a bare set, with just a curtain and the simplest of raised stage, and the cast, all except Berenger (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) dressed in clinical white outfits, meaning that there are few clues to what is going to happen.  We open by meeting the Provocateur (Paul Hunter) , who acts as the host and master of ceremonies for the evening, getting everyone hyped up with some dance movements that he uses again and builds upon during the play.   Then we get into the play proper, with stage directions given out loud by the Provocateur, always reminding us that this is a play and that the cast (and the audience too) are following instructions.  I loved the way ...

The Almeida is running this Arnold Wesker play from 1958 about an angry young woman taking issue with the way her family has always done things, alongside a revival of Look Back in Anger about the quintessential angry young man*.   Despite the sparse set, the play stakes its claim as a kitchen sink drama from the start.  The first long scene is set in her sister's kitchen as Beatie returns home to Norfolk from London, full of opinions gleaned from her unseen boyfriend Ronnie. The play shows its age in the amount of words needed to establish the family relationships and something of  Ronnie's character too, through Beatie's parroting of his insights.  Ronnie is full of socialist ideals but is a bit disdainful of the working classes that he is so keen to lift up.   Beatie though is clearly inspired by him and is able to quote full paragraphs of his words and opinions, nicely highlighted in the play by Beatie standing on a chair to opine/preach with a ful...

My main reason for seeing this play was its amazing cast of Deborah Findlay. Gina McKee, Romola Garai with Anjli Mohindra and Harmony-Rose Bremner, all playing ‘Annie’ from small child to older age to create a powerful but playful story of a life.  The whole cast is on stage for the whole performance, with each age introduced with a tableau.  Annie strikes a pose for a snapshot to set the scene in front of a white sheet as a backdrop; a fresh page added for each chunk of the story with the narrative handed on from one iteration of Annie to the next.   This is a history of the last 60 years through one woman’s life, taking in politics and world events, cultural and sexual change through the decades with collective memories of different times but focusing on the intensely personal experiences of one woman.  I loved the depictions of moving through the generations, but with the essential woman still present.  It felt like it struck exactly the right note of li...

Jo (Justine Mitchell) is the first female head of a college, an ex journalist and firebrand feminist in her youth, brought in to improve diversity.  A student, Nikki (played by an excellent Phoebe Cambell), who plans to become an activist/ journalist herself has meanwhile begun keeping track of microagressions which are normalising what she identifies as a pervasive rape culture at the college.  She is spurred into action when she discovers a rape has taken place.  The play is a twisty windy exploration of the differences between different generations of feminists, particularly highlighted by the previous firebrand now trying to close down the issues to protect the institution she one railed against.  Added into the mix are the competing interests of individuals and institutions and an attempt to tease out the myriad implications of #metoo, trial by social media and shifting attempts to place blame.  It led to some interesting conversations in the interval and t...

I hold two concurrent but conflicting views about this play at the Almeida; firstly that it is a bit too clever for its own good with its Russian doll structure, secondly that it’s an enjoyable winding exploration of the nature of repression, propaganda, truth, art, and the role of the writer and theatre.  Overriding it all though are the great performances from the main cast, which are worth seeing whatever you think of the actual play.  The audience are greeted with what appears to be an immersive performance of a state sanctioned wedding, complete with orders of service on every seat, and a drinks and canapés table to the side.  Čelik (Jonny Lee Miller) as master of ceremonies opens the wedding between Adem (Micheal Ward)  and Mei (Tanya Reynolds).   However as soon as the state official leaves, the wedding halts and it is clear we are attending an underground performance of a play in a repressive state.  This play within a play shows the writer Ade...