Tom Stoppard wrote his play for actors and orchestra in 1977 at the suggestion of Andre Previn, who said he had an orchestra. (He did have an orchestra, it was the London Symphony.) The resultant short play, directed by Trevor Nunn, was a meditation on madness, music and incarceration in a Russian psychiatric hospital, where two prisoners share a cell.
Even six years after the premiere, Alexander Solzhenitzyn, the exiled dissident writer, told Bernard Levin that he never expected to return to his mother country. It is a sad mark of the way the world is that, long after the dissolution of Communism, the terror contained in the comedy of Stoppard’s conceit – the two prisoners are a madman with an imaginary orchestra and a writer convicted of “slander” – still reverberates.
I never thought I’d see the play again, and now that I have I’m not sure I needed to. The revival by Felix Barrett, artistic director of Punchdrunk, and Tom Morris, the NT associate director who is opening so many new doors on the South Bank, is curiously flat and disappointing. There’s not really a surprise element any more in the idea of a madhouse of musicians, even if some of them now cavort surprisingly around the music stands.
This “physical theatre” innovation replaces the real pain and anger of the dissident’s position, while the writer’s son, Sacha, who is taking lessons in geometry from a private teacher (Bronagh Gallagher), is played nonsensically by a female actor, Bryony Hannah; the optimism of Sacha’s incantatory pleading doesn’t bite as it once did.
Toby Jones is oddly subdued as Ivanov, the befuddled triangle player, and Joseph Millson blandly perplexed as the writer, Alexander, with Dan Stevens brightly manic as the alarmingly “normal” doctor and Alan Williams a strangely unauthoritative colonel in the last scene.
The sixty-five minutes skim by with some vintage Stoppard jokes and ironies, and the Southbank Sinfonia under Simon Over’s baton allow Previn’s music to rise tantalisingly like a mist, with a little taste of Prokofiev here and a brief quotation from the “1812” there. But the impression is fleeting, rather than hilarious or disturbing.
-Michael Coveney
Reader Reviews
Score
Comment
Date
Incredible. Stoppard is a genius. The director's interpretation includes an active role for the orchestra complete with dancing and stunts which heightened the emotional experience for the audience.Politically relevant and engaging with humor that underlined rather than detracted from the overall seriousness of the play. - Claire
23 Mar 09
A touch of Beckett set to musiic perhaps? A brilliantly conceived piece of theatre that is both thought provoking and moving. Given events in Russia at the moment it is extremely topical. Apart from the obvious plaudits one should give to the two leads Joseph Millson, Alexander and Toby Jones, Ivanov, who are superb, I would have to single out Bryony Hannah for her outstanding performance as Alexander's tortured son Sacha. Alexander is forced to share a cell with a genuinely psychotic patient Ivanov (the one who hears an imaginary orchestra) whilst both are held in a state psychiatric prison/hospital for political dissidents. Sacha struggles with the fallout. The part of Sacha required an actor with a depth of emotional experience way beyond the years of a boy actor of an age Sacha is meant to be. Hence the casting of a woman in a boy's role which was also done with great success in Coram Boy. I do hope this piece gets a chance to be appreciated by a wider audience when it finishes its run at the NT. I got the chance to see it only because a friend queued up VERY early on in the day on Monday to get two day seats. Go on - give it a try before it closes, you won't be disappointed, but remember to get there around 7AM, box office opens at 9.30! - rds
25 Feb 09
I thought this was a dated piece and very thin, even allowing for its brevity. Pinter could cram a lifetime into 60 minutes, but EGBDF is a three-chord trick that repeats and repeats and repeats. The idea of the orchestra is far more interesting than its execution, and I felt like I was waiting for Tom and Jerry to appear and do something interesting with a frying pan. That might have been funny at least - though most of the audience seemed willing to issue tentative laughter at the flimsiest excuse. Naff. - Ian
31 Jan 09
It feels like we are reliving the 1970s with short-time working, Britain on the verge of begging for funds from the IMF and Putin apparently determined to resurrect the Cold War. It is therefore appropriate to revive Tom Stoppard's play for actors and orchestra which offers a damning indictment of the Soviet regime's use of lunatic asylums for political dissidents. There are excellent performances from Toby Jones and Joseph Milson as the two prisoners/patients and especially Dan Stevens as a psychiatrist desperately trying to make sense of his role in the state's abuse. I was less impressed by the Katie Mitchellesque ballet of members of the orchestra being beaten up. The large orchestra adds enormously to this short piece and Andre Previn's score is reminiscent of Shostakovich, appropriately given that composer's experience at the hands of Stalin. Stoppard's accessible play is at times witty but more often chilling and does not feel at all dated as who knows what is still going on behind a rapidly drawing new Iron Curtain or in other dictatorships with appalling human rights records. - David Baxter
27 Jan 09
Tom Stoppard refers to this as a 'real play'. I would call it a sketch or, as Michael Coveney puts it, a meditation. I disagree with Mr Coveney on the production, though, as I thought the staging, design and performances were all excellent. Even 31 years on, it's an inventive and original piece, so it may be a sketch, but it's 4 stars for the idea and its execution! - Gareth James
27 Jan 09
Sit in the circle and you will get to witness some BEAUTIFUL images/moments on the Olivier stage. They've used the space brilliantly to tell what is a simple, yet compelling story. The physical theatre blew me away, but mostly the work of the musicians, both physically and aurally. I'm really glad I booked. - Paul
27 Jan 09
what a bunch of misers. we live in a world where political prisoners are smothered and silenced every day so this could not be any more relevant and the production!!! breathtakingly inventive, articulate and courageous. top drawer performances from some of this countries best stage actors. what coveny saw as bland in millson i cannot comprehend. i found his portrayal of a battered and shattered man clinging to the mast of his beliefs deeply moving. this is a great hour of totally terrific, useful theatre. - jimi
19 Jan 09
I really enjoyed this. A change from the usual!
I thought the use of teh orchestra was fantastic. Not the strongest play but as a piece with the physical performance, staging and music a real treat. - Caroline
19 Jan 09
This show is old hat and dated and has precisely ZILCH relevance today. It's peppered with old style Stoppardian bull and has no business being revived anywhere, never mind at the NT. The production however is sensational and inventive and makes a distinguished debut for Felix Barrett and Punchdrunk. The orchestra is also top class and brilliantly conducted but surely the planners can come up with better fare than this. - joesmith
17 Jan 09
Marvellous fusion of music,dance and acting. The theme of the artist (writer,musician) standing up against the state (in this case communist Russia)still has resonance today. The theme of state brutality as depicted is shocking, the interplay and use of the son by the authorities is very moving. Stoppard's writing can be funny too here, and the music by Previn rises to the occasion. Nice to see something decent at the National after so much rubbish. - kilburncat
Whatsonstage.com - London & the UK's
biggest and best discount theatre ticket and theatre news and reviews service. Covering London's West End, all of Theatreland and all UK theatre. The best
for London theatre tickets.
