Fiddler on the Roof - "the enduring songs take you on an emotional rollercoaster that is a joy"

After a sold-out successful run at the Chocolate Factory, this beautiful moving production of Fiddler on the Roof transfers to the Playhouse on the other side of the river for a thirty-two-week run and expands to fill the venue. The transformation of the stalls into the rural Russian village with a thrust stage is exquisite and creates a perfect setting for the emotional dramatic tale of a changing society with traditions breaking down and love blossoming. 

In some ways the structure of Joseph Stein's book and Jerry Bock's music creates a challenge for the director and cast. We are served with the best three songs in the first thirty minutes with the opening "Tradition" followed with "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" and "If I were a rich man" and nothing that follows quite matches these wonderful songs. They do elegantly set up the situation and the central characters and their relationship, so you start to care about them as a family with the central roles of Mama and Papa. The slow breakdown of tradition and matchmaking and the revolution spreading through Russia is the context for rest of the musical. But as the story gets bleaker, so the emotional connection with Tevye's family grows. In Trevor Nunn's direction he brings out every comic moment and every heart wrenching breakdown in the traditions. 

At the heart of the show is Andy Nyman as Tevye who holds centre stage especially in his conversations with God and in weighing up the arguments with great comic timing and shrugs yet also portrays the torment and anguish he feels. He delivers his songs well although largely speaking in tune. Opposite him is the wonderful Judy Kuhn as Golde his loyal long-suffering wife and together they deliver "Do you love me?" delightfully. His oldest daughters Tzeitel (Molly Osborne) and Hodel (Harriet Bunton) stand out in a very large ensemble cast.

Nunn's groupings are excellent and the choreography with Matt Cole recreating some of Jerome Robbins original routines look amazing in the big set piece moments like the Wedding and Bottle dance that ends Act One or the drunken dance in the bar in "To Life". The band slips down the steps from their raised platform to accompany the dancers and create magical pictures for the audience.

 The lighting design by Tim Lutkin skilfully illuminates Robert Jones's village roof tops and creates the atmospheric setting from the beautiful Sunset through the trees to the bleak winter of the finale. I don't think I have seen a more effective lighting design in the West End for years.

This may be a story of Jewish oppression in the last century but it's messages of love and hope in the face of adversity resonate strongly in today's troubled society and the enduring songs take you on an emotional rollercoaster that is a joy.

Nick Wayne 

    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

West End transfers of Emilia and Home, I'm Darling.

Emilia had a triumphant debut short run at the Globe in 2018, a perfect setting for a play that challenges the established attitudes and has a dig at Shakespeare global iconic status as a writer and now transfers into the harsher commercial world of the West End for a longer run. It will be interesting to see whether this overtly feminist writing by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm with an all-female cast, production team and producers can attract the wider theatre going audience at the Vaudeville.

Though it is a play that is about a little-known figure from Shakespearean times Emilia Bassano (1569-1645) who published a book of poems called Salve Devs Rex Judeaorum in 1611 to express her feminist views under a religious wrapper to get around male dominated publishing restrictions of the time, it is written very much as play for today. It is structured with set piece rages against the suppression of women by men as sound bites for a young rebellious audience and urges them to burn the (establishment) house down. The whoops of delight and raucous laughter from the audience tells you that it is resonating with the early audiences, so loud were they you could often not hear the next line as the cast did not allow enough time for the reaction to subside.

Malcolm has taken the book of poetry and the idea of the Dark Lady in Shakespeare's Sonnet to create a flight of imagination of her back story as a lover of Shakespeare, someone whose writing he stole for his plays and a creator of messages of hope for women of the society in a sort of rebellious WhatsApp group of the time. So determined is she to create this evangelistic campaigning saint that often she forgets to create a plot and drama that draws us into the story rather than be the recipient of a lecture. Only occasionally does she and Director Nicole Charles create genuine moments of absorbing theatre that hint of what this could have been. 

The closing of Act 1 is a madcap portrayal of Emilia invasion of the Globe stage in protest at her words being stolen by The Bard although this may have lost something when being translated into a Victorian proscenium arch theatre. Then at end of Act 2 we get a dramatic moment as Eve is burned as a witch for promoting the messages written by Emilia before Clare Perkins as the older Emilia closes the show with a rebel rousing call for uprising that brought most of the audience to its feet. Indeed, it is Perkins who drives the show along as narrator and cheer leader with able support from her younger self played by Saffron Coomber and Adelle Leonce.

It is an interesting idea, but theatre should not be like being at a political rally but should engage with us in a more subtle and impactful way by moving us and having us care about the characters not just about the words they are saying. It was fascinating to go from a matinee of Emilia to an evening performance of Home I'm Darling just around the corner. 

Here is another new play first staged in the cosseted world of Arts Council funded National Portfolio companies transferring to the West End with commercial producers. Laura Wade explores the same feminist themes about the role of women as long-suffering wives and uses the fifties (as opposed to Shakespearean times) to contrast with the modern era. There is a powerful and moving speech by Sylvia (Susan Brown) which challenges not only her daughter Judy but also historical perceptions and attitudes.

However, it is Katherine Parkinson who is the star of the show as the smart fifties obsessed 38-year-old struggling to reconcile and understand the reaction of those around her to her own life choices. The writing is sharp and witty, the staging slick and well-choreographed and the characters well developed and believable. It challenges the audience by the interplays between the characters to think of the issues of #metoo campaign in a work setting and in personal relationships without lecturing and is so much more effective as a result.

Both efforts are to be applauded for the opportunity they provide for female writers, directors designers and actresses to challenge audiences and attitudes in the West End and it will be interesting to see which is commercially the most successful.

Nick Wayne

Emilia ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Home I'm Darling ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ian Mckellen on stage - UK tour ****

Many 80 years olds choose to celebrate their landmark birthday with a quiet dinner with friends and family and only royalty would undertake a national tour of the cities and towns of the UK. Of course, Sir Ian Mckellen is theatrical royalty and therefore it seems completely appropriate, if a little ambitious, to perform in 80 different venues across the length and breadth of the country in a Royal progress to mark his momentous year and amazing career.

We caught him in the 10th outing at the intimate Arts Theatre in the heart of London's West End and before he starts venturing further afield over the coming months .It is a performance of two halves , in the first he shares his early development as a young boy in Wigan , his first theatre visits to the three theatres in Bolton and on to his days in Cambridge doing 21 plays in three years with many illustrious fellow thespians starting out their careers. In the second he delivers a Shakespearean memory test calling on the audience to shout out the names of all the plays and then sharing memories or thoughts on each and of course delivering as only he can some of the best-known speeches.

There are many delightful highlights in the course of the one-hundred-and-fifty-minute show, much shorter than his recent magnificent performance in King Lear just around the corner at the Duke of York! We know he has remarkable stamina for his age, a wonderful clear distinctive voice and a relaxed stage presence but his comic timing and small insights into his life and views are the real revelation of the evening. 

When he reminisces about his role as Gandalf in the Lord of the ring films, you can see he relishes the fame and fortune they gave him but also the sparkle in his eyes as he recalls playing opposite Orlando Bloom. When he sits in a Director's chair and reads from his old school book you can imagine the ambition in the young boy already in love with the Theatre. He talks of his love of the wonderful Frank Matcham designed theatres he used to visit in Bolton, the Theatre Royal and Grand and you can see how they inspired him to perform. And when he mentions the great actors, he has known you can feel his sorrow for those no longer with us like the recently passed Albert Finney. 

He talks about coming out, of being the second openly gay man to be knighted, his sixties boyfriend Brian, the fight against Section28 and acting in the highly charged play Bent about the treatment of Jews and Gays by the third Reich. It is a powerful and emotional theme that now sits easily on a West End stage in a way it could not have done before his time.

He starts the second half with All the worlds a stage and the seven ages of man and then joyfully runs through the 37 plays Shakespeare wrote before settling at the end for a piece from Sir Thomas More , which contains a three page revision attributed to the bard which he played in 1964 at Nottingham Playhouse , claiming that he is the last actor to debut as Shakespeare part! However, the piece about Strangers also reveals his strong political feelings as it easily translates to the Trump Brexit world of today.

He is a natural stage presence, an engaging performer and one of the best speakers of Shakespeare lines and this Royal progression is worth catching if tickets become available if for no other reason to hail, Long live the King.

Peter Pan Birmingham Hippodrome- Dazzling Spectacular *****

Michael Harrison who directed this version of Peter Pan at the Birmingham Hippodrome recently said there are five elements to a successful Qdos Pantomime - Special effects, Stars, Script, Production values, and Marketing. There is no doubt that these elements are all present in this spectacular production and on a second viewing combine to make a near perfect show. 

The Special effects by Twin FX, Ian Westbrook and Flying by Foy here are what grabs the attention and there can't have been a pantomime this season with more invested in and packed into the production. From the opening scene with silhouetted characters appearing in the windows of the roof top set the magic starts. Then Smee (the irrepressible Matt Slack) is seen in a video flying over the rooftop that seamlessly becomes an actual bike to fly out over the audience and turn upside down. It is a great opening sequence. 

On arrival in Neverland we meet a charming Captain Hook (Darren Day replacing Jimmy Osmond who is sadly ill and proving he too can act as well as sing) who bursts into song with "Crazy Pirates" accompanied by a fabulous ensemble of ten and a wonderful animated parrot who speaks and flaps his wings in time with the chorus! Later he sails out into the audience on a huge rocking ship. As we know he fears the crocodile who bit off his hand and we meet the spectacular creature twice both to amazing effect at the end of each Act.  In between times there is some excellent use of video with a projected map of the island and of Tinkerbell (Kellie Gnauck) dying and of course the expected flying of Peter Pan (Jaymi Hensley), Wendy (Cassie Compton) and The Mermaid (Meera Syal). 

All these elements come together with the high Production Values to create an excellent first half which tells most of the Peter Pan story, incorporate the effects with some great songs and comedy like when Smee plays ball with Nana the dog or when Hook sings Donny Osmond's "Love me for a reason". There are good routines such as the Shirley Sure tongue twister which is very well executed by Hook, Smee and The Mermaid (and much better that the Dawn French version at the Palladium) and an excellent clever flags routine from Smee. There is a hint of the variety show that is too follow in Act 2 when the Neverlanders (played by the incredible Timbuktu Tumblers, who won speciality act of the year last year with GB Pantomime Awards) perform their routine.

But the Script which has already cut the Darling Parents in the Nursery, Wendy being shot by Tootles and Tiger Lily (an underused Imogen Brooke) being marooned largely abandons the storytelling completely in the second half. Instead it is a series Star turns with Darren Day and Matt Slack singing some seventies hits; Hook, the Mermaid, Smee and Tinks doing a routine weak "if I were not in Neverland" (done better in Cinderella at Manchester Opera house); Hook, Smee and Mermaid doing a music clip routine (done much better in Snow White at Swan Wycombe even if Matt Slack did write the original version) and Sascha Williams performing his astonishing Rola Rola circus tricks . In addition, for some inexplicable reason Jaymi Hensley, the Union J singer, appears to mime along to "Rewrite the stars". Thankfully at the end in tribute to Jimmy Osmond, Darren Day  performs a mini concert of "Love me for a reason”, "We going to party" and "Crazy Horses" to create a rousing finale.

The end result is another excellent Qdos Variety show which like the Palladium show is loosely linked by skeleton pantomime Script with fantastic Special Effects , strong Star performances from Darren Day / Jimmy Osmond and Matt Slack and a great ensemble , all slickly staged and lit in excellent Production Values and there is no doubt the fifth element , Marketing , clearly works as the show was strongly profiled on the BBC One show and is playing to full houses.

You will not have seen many better Pantomimes this year, perhaps the Qdos Production of Peter Pan at Richmond with the wonderful Robert Lindsey , but for largely smut free entertainment Birmingham delivers and will continue to do so until 27^th January.

I think I will have to see it again won't I!

Nick Wayne 

Five stars

Cinderella - You shall go to the ball in Manchester (5 stars) and Cinderella Woking (4 stars)

Cinderella is one of the best pantomime titles but sometimes it starts to feel tired and old fashioned with old gags about nine carrot necklaces, fox hunting and picking up sticks in the woods. It is very refreshing when the producers (Qdos) and writer Alan McHugh give it a lively update, telling the basic story but making space for a large amount of brilliant Panto business. When you see the same title within a few days by the same producer and writer you begin to see their production process. With 35 pantomimes in all to produce it is a machine-like production line that produces a basic script, selects main songs, slots in special effects and sets and then gest the local Director to incorporate the casts own business in the spaces left. The result is a fast-paced two-hour show In Manchester Opera house and Woking New Victoria where large segments are the same, but the shows differentiated by their cast. Both feature a smooth transformation from the kitchen with a pumpkin man into the flying carriage for a spectacular act 1 finale borrowed from the London Palladium production of two years ago.

Manchester Opera House driven along by a hilarious Ben Nickless as Buttons with wonderful support by two excellent Ugly sisters Connor McIntyre as Phelina and Les Dennis as Michaela. The Uglies work well together McIntyre constantly eyeing the audience with a wicked smile and reaching out to hold Dennis’s hand, Dennis delivering his lines in a dry way which is evil and yet likeable at the same time.

They seamlessly integrate Nickless's comedy and impressions into the show and from his first entrance out of the magic boxes piled on stage he holds centre stage and has the audience laughing and eating out of his hands. He interacts well with the Dames in a succession of scenes that steal the show, some great lap top gags, a lesson in wooing, an excellent Apple Watch routine, a fast show recap, a nice routine with a Teddy and a wonderfully timed "if I was not upon the stage routine ".  On his own he entertains us with his impressions (Michael McIntyre, Ozzy Osbourne, Alan Carr, Take That, and Jose Mourinho) and an old Elvis routine learned from a broken record.

He also has charming comedy scenes with Cinderella, a very good pantomime debut from Shannon Flynn, as he reviews his record collection to cheer her up instead of the usual imagined carriage routine and when he sings first with a guitar and then on a wall in woods with her and the Prince, Gareth Gates. There is a strong feel of a cast of equals working hard together to deliver the show.

There is also an excellent Fairy Godmother, by singer Hayley-Ria Christian who gets several very good songs with the ensemble most notably in the woods with a host of pantomime characters.

The sets and costumes are very good with a lovely Italianate perspective to the village for the opening song "At the opera house" and two toy dogs to accompany the Uglies entrance

This is a funny slick show with a good mix of silly and adult humour, great songs and dances and a little bit of magic but most of all it showcases Ben Nickless’s comedy talents perfectly.

The Woking New Victoria version is led by Craig Revel Horwood who is outstanding as Baroness Hardup (and replaces the Ugly Sister’s main business in Manchester with those roles relegated to smaller walk-ons). He is magnificent in “Look at me” and in the Dance competition at the Ball and his disdainful looks and his Strictly Come Dancing Persona is curiously loveable and detestable at the same time.

The comedy is lead by the wonderful Paul Chuckle who after 51 years of pantomime with his brother Barry (who sadly died earlier this year) plays Baron Hardup. He recreates all his famous Chuckle Brother routines with the help of Buttons, comedian Phil Butler. Just as at the Mayflower last year we are treated to the old routines of Goldilocks, If I were not at Hard up Hall, Costume making routine and the magic cucumber routine. He is held in such high esteem and affection that the audience love it and enjoy the familiar gags, faux corpsing and brilliant comic timing. Butler himself has a lovely moment making a rose out of a paper tissue.

The result is a fun familiar show, true to the traditions of pantomime and suitable for the whole family and unless you too want to try the 3-hour drive between them, then I urge you to go to the nearest one to you!

Nick Wayne

Manchester Opera House 5 Stars

Woking New Victoria 4 stars

Summer and Smoke - "a dramatic and powerful platform for these wonderful young actors" ****

Tennessee Williams wrote Summer and Smoke in 1948, in between A Street car named under desire (1947) and A cat on a hot tin roof (1955). Like its better known plays its central character is a woman consumed by desires but Alma is desperately trying to control and suppress her feelings in pursuit of a higher spiritual satisfaction.

 This powerful modern feeling production which transfers from the Almeida is stripped back to a bare stage surrounded by seven open pianos, metronomes and chairs. They contain and underpin the action with haunting strains when played. The effect is to focus our attention on the two young central characters, Alma and John who inhabit the semi circular space like fighters in a boxing ring. Such focus requires performers of the highest quality and precision to sustain our interest and this production is delivered by two of the finest two young actors to debut in the West End in the last few years.

Patsy Ferran, who graduated from RADA in 2014 has astounded audiences in all her West End appearances, dominating the stage with her intense, physical and expressive acting. Here she completely inhabits Alma's complex uptight awkwardness as a preachers daughter who teaches music in the small town of Glorious Hill , Mississippi but hints at the passion that is boiling up inside her ready to explode if she lets her self control slip. it's mesmerising to watch from her first compelling breakdown at a microphone and she hardly ever leaves the stage.

 

Opposite her is Matthew Needham, who recently brilliantly played a gay man in Mike Bartlett's Cock at Chichester, here is the young redneck doctor’s son brimming with passion and desire for the young women of the Southern American town who becomes the obsessive target of Alma's suppressed desires. He talks of feeding his mind, his stomach and his sexual desire, while she is feeding her soul and this creates a desert between them.

When the summer of suppressed passion passes, a sudden dramatic shock (brilliantly played) to the community changes everything and her resolve weakens as the fires of her desire within her cloud her thinking.

The leading two are well supported by a cast of six others playing the family and other community members often without a change of costume. In particular I enjoyed Anjana Vasan who plays all the other young women in the town and Forbes Masson who plays both Alma’s preacher father and John’s Doctor Father, especially in the dramatic events of the second half.

Director Rebecca Frecknall brings a clear distinctive vision to the  production giving it an ethereal feel as if the action is all in the mind of Alma and keeps the action moving along at pace with a minimum of fuss which is reinforced by the spine tingling underscore .

This may not be Tennessee Williams greatest play but in the hands of Needham and Ferran it provides a dramatic and powerful platform for these wonderful young actors

Nick Wayne 

Caroline or Change - "moving and inspiring, reminding us of the changes that have been achieved over the last fifty years"

My review from Hampstead Theatre 

Tony Kushner's has magnificently created a musical of its time (1963) but at same time for today. As he explains in his programme notes, the play comes from sorrow, anger and grief but also hope learned from history which has shown us both the terrors and also the pleasures of change. It is about a period of American History, the time of JFK's assassination in streets of Dallas and close to 100 years since the American Civil war ended slavery: a time of race relation tensions and the civil rights movement of African Americans. It's highly charged emotional themes resonate with the global tensions of today and the desire for change with greater diversity and equality in every field.

It is powerful musical built around strong black female characters with soulful voices. At the centre of them is Caroline, the maid to the Gellman family, proud and hard working but struggling with her own grief and supporting her family of four children as well as adjusting to the societal changes. A twenty dollar bill becomes the catalyst for change in the Gellman family and for Caroline herself. Sharon D Clarke is awesome as Caroline , the maid of twenty two years who never smiles, bearing her sorrow with a stillness and pent up anger as she belts out her melancholy songs with emotion and strength while dreaming of being kissed by Nat King Cole. Her daughter Emmie (Abiona Omonua) reflects what is going on outside the basement that imprisons her mother and becomes the rebellious mouthpiece for change. She is full of energy, animated and sassy and the symbol of a more optimistic future. 

As Caroline grapples with her feelings and religious beliefs while going about her arduous daily routine in the Gellman's house, she finds herself in a flight of fantasy talking to the domestic appliances. A bubbly, agitating Me'sha Bryan is the washing machine, a sexy, dynamic Aka Mitchell is the dryer and the trio of T'shan Williams, Sharon Rose and Carole Stennett are a supreme like portable radio shimmying across the stage in long gowns, tight bob haircuts and radio antenna headdresses. They are supported by a strong ensemble.
There are delightful performances from the young boys in the show especially on the night I saw it by Aaron Gelkoff as Noah Gellman who has such as a pivotal role in the show and explores the emotions of a distant father, a new step mother and overbearing grandparents. The tension mounts and then explodes when Caroline and Emmie are asked to serve the Gellman family Chanukah party and Noah misses Caroline's presence in his house.

Director Michael Longhurst and designer Fly Davis have done an excellent job creating the Gellman's home simply slickly and effectively including the physical divide in the family and use the two revolves a raised balcony and flying moon to great effect. There is wonderful positioning and blocking in the critical scenes to heighten the relationship tensions.

The music throughout by Jeanne Tesori is a joyous eclectic mix of styles of the fifties and sixties with Jazz, Blues, Motown, Soul, spiritual and even a Christmas Carol blended together with a minimum of dialogue. My personal favourites were the "Laundry Quintet" with its delightful harmonies, "Roosevelt Petrucius Coleslaw" which closes Act 1, "Santa comin' Caroline" which opens Act 2 , "1943" which reveals her backstory , and then the closing emotional crescendo of "Lot's Wife" and "Salty Teardrops".  All of them feature Caroline, Emmie or the domestic appliances in engaging entertaining delivery and choreography and capable of being show stoppers. The final "Epilogue" by Emmie and her brothers brings hope and optimism.

The overall effect is moving and inspiring, reminding us of the changes that have been achieved over the last fifty years, encouraging us to embrace change- even if it hurts- and showing the power of family love to support change. It is fantastic that this delightfully original show will reach a wider audience when it transfers to the Playhouse in the West End in November.

Nick Wayne

Four stars

Guys and Dolls Concert at Royal Albert Hall

The Guys and Dolls concert at Royal Albert Hall promised to be a brilliant event, an A list cast, the thirty one piece Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, the wonderful cavernous amphitheatre and the delightful music and lyrics of Frank Loesser. Yet it somehow fell short in delivering what I regard as one of the greatest Musical theatre pieces ever written. The memory of Richard Eyre’s 1982 glorious NT production and Michael Grandage’s enjoyable 2005 revival hung over this concert version and it failed to reach the level that the recent excellent Camelot concert at the London Palladium reached. This is at least in part due to the venue itself which tended to dominate the whole evening as the performers sang before the huge organ pipes and sitting in row 11 of the stalls  (£70 seat) seemed to be one hundred metre from the stage. You almost wished for a TV screen to see the faces of the cast!

However the wonderful score did fill the venue especially during the overture which swirled around the roof space and occasionally the choreography and performances brought the concert to life as in Adelaide’s Bushel and a Peck, a fabulous Luck be a lady dance routine using two levels of the stage and the show stopping Nicely Nicely Johnson’s (played by the wonderful Clive Rowe) Sit down, you’re rocking the boat. In these well produced numbers the stage filled and focused our attention down to the performances. At other times the performers looked lost in the vast stage.

The other drawback of this style of presentation, neatly avoided by the Camelot Concert was the story telling and character development with just three days of rehearsal. The narrator, the talented Stephen Mangan, did not have a witty damonesque enough script to work with and the performers although they did use New York accents never got a chance to perform the songs as anything but themselves.

The big success of the night is the cabaret artiste Meow Meow as the hot box girl Miss Adelaide; she was perfectly cast, used the stage well and provided most of the best comedy moments in her business and songs as she tottered around the stage in her outrageous costumes and large wig.  Musical Theatre specialists like Lara Pulver as Sarah Brown stood out especially in If I were a bell and I’ve never been in love before and Paul Nicholas as Arvide Abernathy in sweet lament More I cannot wish you.

Jason Manford as Nathan and Adrian Lester Sky Masterson showed they can both hold a tune in Sue me and Luck be a lady respectively but seemed to be well within their full capabilities and I feel would have shown more with more rehearsal and a more intimate staging. The amazing Sharon D Clarke as General Cartwiright was wasted in the limited singing role so we never really heard her powerful voice. There was a nice cameo from Sevan Stephan as Big Jule.

These concert versions are an excellent way of refreshing interest in the classic musicals and giving performers a chance to shine with limited time commitment but to fill the vast Albert Hall more is needed as in the Showboat staging referred to in the rather expensive £10 programme. Nevertheless the large audience seemed to enjoy the experience and gave it a rapturous response and I hope neither the producers nor the performers will be put off from doing another musical concert in 2019.

Nick Wayne

Three stars.

Height of the Storm - "See it twice to fully appreciate the quality of the direction and writing."

Christopher Hampton, who has successfully translated Florian Zeller's French plays before for the West End, says in the programme that it was only when he sees Zeller's plays a second time that they become clear. So having seen this interesting play in Bath last month I was excited to see it again at the Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End to find out if it was correct. I can report that it is absolutely true, as the complicated jigsaw of clues unfolds on a second viewing you can follow the action and begin to understand what we are seeing and more importantly appreciate the quality of the performances and production.

Like in the highly emotional and moving play about dementia, The Father on which the writers collaborated all is not what it seems and for a while we struggle to follow or even work out who is telling the story.

When the curtain rises on the wonderful set by designer Anthony Ward of a grand duck egg blue kitchen of a French countryside house with Andre staring out of the window in the half light as his daughter Anne enters we soon get a sense that not all is right in the family. In the scenes that follow we see time slips, character switches and changes in intensity which seems on first viewing deliberately written to confuse and mislead the audience. This may be intended as it explores the confusion of feelings of dementia in parents and the grief from the loss of a family member or two.

Director Jonathan Kent guides us through this confusion of memories and reality with visual clues and lighting changes that add to the verbal clues within the script. The storm of the title has taken place the night before we first meet them but is also a metaphor for the storm that has hit the family and the impact of the “situation” the two daughters are dealing with.

It is hard to imagine two more appropriate actors for the central roles of the long married couple Andre and Madeline. Jonathan Pryce conveys the tender affection for his wife with a gentle quiet authority. His stillness and slow deliberate movements convey the loss he feels and the confusion of dementia. Eileen Atkins is his wife Madeline, drifting in and out of scenes, fading into the darkness but when centre stage she is in charge, organising and caring for him and the family. Their years of life experience are etched on their faces and in the looks they share with each other. Their dependency on each other is clear. As she says to him in a promise they will always be together.

Amanda Drew and Anna Madeley are their daughters Anne and Elise who arrive at the house from Paris to deal with "the situation" by looking at Andre's old diaries, recalling past conversations and planning for the future. We observe their interactions with their parents in a series of short scenes which create the jigsaw pieces that we need to assemble to understand the play. James Hillier plays a man lurking in the background or on his phone about a house sale in perhaps the strongest clue of all of what we are seeing.

The exquisite lighting design by Hugh Vanstone captures the sunlight streaming through the kitchen windows and subtly fades across the room to create a sense of half life enabling characters to fade into the shadows. On a second viewing he subtle lighting changes help distinguish the switches from realities to memories in each scene.

By the end of this intense moving production each audience member will have view of who has died but on a second viewing there appears only one logical explanation for the switches we witness  and if that logic is true it makes the whole thing incredibly powerful and wonderful. This is a play you should go and see for the quality of the production and the performances of Pryce and Atkins but you should see it twice to fully appreciate the quality of the direction and writing.

Nick Wayne

Five stars