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Synopsis A riotous journey through four waves of immigration from the 17th century to today. As the French Huguenots, the Irish, the Jews and the Bangladeshis in turn enter the chaotic world of Bethnal Green, each new influx provokes a surge of violent protest over housing, jobs, religion and culture. And the emerging pattern shows that white flight and anxiety over integration is anything but new. Fucking Frogs! My grandfather didn’t die in the English Civil War so’s half the population of France could come over here and live off the soup! Written with scurrilous bravura, Richard Bean’s great sweep of a comedy follows a pair of star-crossed lovers amid cutters’ mobs, Papists, Jewish anarchists and radical Islamists across four tempestuous centuries. Irish and Jewish, that’s the worst mix. You end up with a family of pissed up burglars run by a clever accountant. Running Time 2 hours 45 mins (inclu interval) Part of Travelex £10 Season
Richard Bean's England People Very Nice premiered at the NT Olivier last night (12 February 2009, previews from 4 February), billed as “a riotous journey through four waves of immigration … written with scurrilous bravura”.
Running as part of the seventh annual Travelex £10 season, England People Very Nice covers a broad sweep of English history, centred around the various migrant communities living in Bethnal Green. From the French Huguenots to the Bangladeshis, Bean aims to show that tensions caused by immigration are nothing new.
NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner directs a large ensemble cast featuring Olivia Coleman, Rudi Dharmalingam, Sacha Dhawan, Michelle Terry, Fred Ridgeway and Sophie Stanton, with design by Mark Thompson. England People Very Nice runs in rep until 30 April 2009.
Like the characters it portrays, the critics were divided over England People Very Nice. On the pro side, it was an evening of “enjoyable ebullience”, while for the cons, it left a “sour taste in the mouth”. One element that most agreed on was an appreciation of Bean's “disgracefully funny” jokes and the strong performances of the ensemble. However, enjoyment of the play seemed to boil down to a simple question of taste. For some it was neither “liberal, humane or interesting” in its attitude towards multiculturalism, while for others Bean's script is filled with “wisdom and humanity”. All in all, Nice, but not Very.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (three stars) - “There’s a simple-minded glee about racial stereotypes in Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice in the Olivier … that threatens to engulf the audience in despair and disbelief, but Nicholas Hytner’s inventive and fast-moving production just about keeps the evening afloat. And you can rationalise the cartoon caricature side of things in the fact that the cast is a crowd of detainees in an immigration centre putting on their own play about the waves of incoming nationalities over the years … Bean the playwright usurps Bean the glib pamphleteer in these latter scenes of street violence, gentrification (celebrating 'an eclectic mix' in Clerkenwell) and the resolution of the barmaid’s personal life and political prejudice. The very high level of acting extends to Elliot Levey’s clutch of fanatics, Tony Jayawardena’s blind imam, Olivia Colman’s earnest director ('We took a democratic vote to close all discussion on the script') and Aaron Neil’s imposing chief rabbi and svelte Bangladeshi bigwig.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (two stars) - “I generally admire Richard Bean … But his new work, dealing with the impact of four centuries of immigration on Bethnal Green, leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Far from rejoicing in London's ethnic diversity, it manipulates a series of comic stereotypes like a misanthropic 1066 And All That. Bean's framing device is a group of asylum seekers putting on a devised play about four waves of immigration … Bean shows that in each generation, love transcends the racial divide and 'laughs at the manufactured made-up madness of religion and culture'. The problem is that once we have got the point, the format becomes repetitive. But the play's prime flaw is that it substitutes generalised caricatures for detailed investigation of particular ethnic groups … while the gags come thick and fast, and the play theoretically pays tribute to Defoe's idea of 'that heterogeneous thing, an Englishman', the abiding impression is that Bean doesn't think much of our modern multiculturalism.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (four stars) - “At a time when Gordon Brown's ill-judged phrase about 'British jobs for British workers' has come back to haunt him, and the debate about multicultural Britain grinds fractiously on, Richard Bean's new play about immigration could hardly be more timely … In a broad dramatic style that owes a debt to Monty Python, the Carry On films and EastEnders, Bean tells the story of successive waves of immigration into the East End of London … In a neat framing device the play is presented as if it were a performance by the inmates of a present-day immigration centre as they wait to learn whether or not they can stay in Britain … But complacent Cockneys get it in the neck just as much as amorous Frenchmen, bog-Irish peasants, Jewish anarchists and today's radicalised young Muslims who pay court to hate-filled preachers. Beyond the often cheap, though disgracefully funny, jokes, there is wisdom and humanity in this play.”
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (two stars) - “I have never had a more uncomfortable or unpleasant experience at the National Theatre than at the premiere of Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice. I hated this gross, cartoon history of English reaction to four centuries of refugees arriving in London’s East End … Bean’s play, although factually based, is not liberal, humane or interesting in its continual, wisecracking jocularity. It lacks the smack of conflict and avoids intellectual argument. It appears intent upon defaming refugees to England in terms of the malevolent stereotypes and caricatures you find in The Sun. Its invective is often funny, sometimes inventively so, but in the slick, cruel, abusive style that Bernard Manning perfected ages ago … Bean qualifies his negative blasts by engineering a romance between Ida’s daughter and the endearing Mohammad Sona Rasul (known as Mushi). The time-defying love affair takes a generation to bring to fruition, but it slightly helps counter the play’s negative slant.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (four stars) - “Who would think that unsexy subject, waves of immigration to Bethnal Green, could generate as much enjoyable ebullience as it does in Richard Bean’s new play? In they pour, sometimes beginning or ending as cartoons on the bleak timbering of Mark Thompson’s set: snooty Huguenots wincing at the 'foul-smelling swamp' to which they’ve fled, wild Irishmen escaping famine, Jews en route to sweatshops, Bangladeshis evading skinheads in the street. Think of a Horrible Histories for adults and you’ll get the feel of Nicholas Hytner’s sprawling but adroit production. And be warned. Some may find the scurrility offensive … It’s all presented as a play within a play, staged by asylum-seekers waiting for news of their fate, and that too emphasises that this is an unfinished story. The BNP makes trouble. Somalis join the queue. Will the Thames 'run with blood', to repeat a quote frequently cited in the play? It’s the sort of question a genuinely 'national' theatre should be asking.”
There’s a simple-minded glee about racial stereotypes in Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice in the Olivier – the first of the new season (the seventh) of Travelex £10 tickets productions -- that threatens to engulf the audience in despair and disbelief, but Nicholas Hytner’s inventive and fast-moving production just about keeps the evening afloat.
And you can rationalise the cartoon caricature side of things in the fact that the cast is a crowd of detainees in an immigration centre putting on their own play about the waves of incoming nationalities over the years, starting with a comic book representation of Romans bopping cavemen over the head with clubs to the trite accompaniment of a live folk group.
This sequence sets the visual tone of Mark Thompson’s design as a mix of extraordinary lighting tricks, paint book graphics, projections and animations (supervised by Pete Bishop and lighting designer Neil Austin) which suggest a mixture of Asterix, 1066 And All That and Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop at its fag-end and crudest.
The Romans are succeeded by the Huguenots, the Irish and the Jews in a carefree caper with repeated patterns of resentment at new arrivals filtered through the recurring love affair of Sacha Dhawan and the wonderful Michelle Terry in various guises. There’s feedback, too, on the grotesquely exaggerated sounding board of the Bethnal Green pub where Sophie Stanton’s hilarious, raucous barmaid greets each new mob with a cheery expletive, a joke with a good pay off when she is similarly disgusted by the absence of the Americans during the Blitz.
The other pub regulars are Fred Ridgeway’s chirpy Cockney philosopher and Trevor Laird’s passive Jamaican, prophesying “rivers of blood” from the start and finally withdrawing “home” to Barbados. But the second act stills the laughter as it comes up to date with the journey of Dhawan’s Bangladeshi Mushi – who invents the nation’s favourite dish, chicken tikka masala -- through the minefield of the National Front, Muslim bovver boys in Brick Lane and the blind fundamentalist imam with two hooked hands who demands one of Mushi’s twins as a religious saviour.
Bean the playwright usurps Bean the glib pamphleteer in these latter scenes of street violence, gentrification (celebrating “an eclectic mix” in Clerkenwell) and the resolution of the barmaid’s personal life and political prejudice. The very high level of acting extends to Elliot Levey’s clutch of fanatics, Tony Jayawardena’s blind imam, Olivia Colman’s earnest director (“We took a democratic vote to close all discussion on the script”) and Aaron Neil’s imposing chief rabbi and svelte Bangladeshi bigwig.
I was born in Bethnal Green and lived there during its 'Jewish' period. It was good to hear English spoken as it once was there - none of this prissy hiding of one's feelings. The audience was a total pain when I saw the play - most hated it - all too middle class for my taste. The theatre building is, as ever, dreadful - what a 'fucking' mess the National Theatre building is - what makes it worse is what it could have been had they used better materials. - Excelsior
23 Jul 09
The first thing you notice is the vast number of empty seats in the Olivier, the controversy surrounding EPVN seems to have scared off even the National's loyal audience. Richard Bean seems to believe that if he is offensive about everyone then that makes it acceptable. In the first half he just about gets away with it mainly because his script is genuinely funny in a 1066 And All That kind of way, even if much of the laughter is tinged with guilt. Most of the second half loses all humour and gets bogged down with an incomprehensible sub-plot about donating a boy to a mosque. The casually expressed racism is far too raw to be anything to laugh at. Till Death Us Do Part was meant to be a satire on the East End but Alf Garnett became a role model to some and I fear EPVN falls into the same trap. - David Baxter
30 Jun 09
Well, I'm with the 'love it' contingent. It could do with a bit of editing and amplification would help (I dread to think how much was lost by the time it got to the back of the Circle) but it's an historically accurate rumbustious satire that makes you think, makes you guilty, makes you talk about something real to your chums and it's exactly what the RNT is for. - Gareth James
21 Jun 09
The worst show in London - no the Country... ever ever ever. So bad we didn't even make it to the end. The intention, I believe, was to highlight - via comedy - how the English react any time we've had waves of immigration over the years, so it was always going to be contentious. But for me, I didn't have a problem with that. Indeed, it wasn't really racist - it was just mind-numbingly boring and puerile.
And nearly 3 hours of drivel as well! Is Nicholas Hytner capable of Directing shorter shows? The best things I've seen in the West End over the last month or so have have all come down at about 90 minutes. Take note National Theatre - please.
As if things weren't frustrating enough - none of the cast were radio-miked-up, which in a huge theatre with a thousand or so people is a disgrace.
- James - Kent
24 Mar 09
Well! I suppose our beloved NT has to try out new "plays", doesn't it? YES! of course it does, but once again dear ol Nick is off on one! OK, it had its moments I guess. I particularly liked Sophie Stanton, the fowl mouthed barmaid Ida, with her...Fucking Frogs, Fucking Irish, Fucking Jews and, with images of WWII, the oh so tantalising "Fucking (long pause) - all expecting Germans, but got instead ....Yanks! All terribly unPC, but it seemed to work, some of the time anyway. A grotesque version of Cavalcade then? Noël would be turning in his grave! It was a packed house with the audience seeingly to be enjoying it, although I did catch a quite a few mumours of discontent on the way out and noted a many empty seats after the interval. But it certainly got bums on seats in the first place. Whether it is justified for the NT to spend valuable resources, time and energy on this is debatable, but to corset the artistic director would not be advisable either and so we must be prepared to take the bad with the good. England People Very Nice? - rds
21 Mar 09
Dear Joe Smith, Do we really need to know that "Avid loser" is an anagram of Ivor Slade? I was foolish enough to try and find an anagram of Joe Smith and you know what there isn't one anywhere remotely interesting enough to repeat here - now is that significant or what? PS: Just in case you were wondering I am not Ivor Slade. - ???
16 Mar 09
This IS PC at its very worst, you idiot. - Coral
16 Feb 09
BEST PLAY I HAVE SEEN FOR AGES.Sharp writing plenty of bite.As an emigrant I do not need to read the bleeding heart disapproval of the po faced PC brigade for this play. - stefan gibson
16 Feb 09
The easiest reaction to
this piece of theatre is to accuse it of trivialising multiculturalism, Islamism, Judaism - in fact any religious belief at all. What, in fact, the play does do is to hold a mirror to every religious and ethnic belief and say "calm down dear, it's a belief system, which is respected, tolerated and understood and welcomed".
Now, let's put it in a mixer and celebrate the mongrel race we are and, for goodness sake, laugh at ourselves- everyone one of us. The play doesn't have an exclusive 'go' at blacks, whites, browns, yellows, reds or greens. It gawps at the established mongrel Britishness of our society and says 'it's ggod, it's bad, it's complicated but fundamentally it's ok. As a Celt I was sent up, as an Irish immigrant I was laughed at as a British citizen I was poked. Belt up naysayers, get your chip off your shoulders and LAUGH. - Chunka Munka
13 Feb 09
Saw this last night and it is nowhere near as bad as people are suggesting. It is coarse, bawdy and naive, as many people are when it comes to immigration, but it nails the infantile nature of prejudice and its lack of perspective brilliantly. - JJE
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