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Synopsis Saturday night outside Camden tube; god, strip bars, weed, crack, lost old men, unemployed actors and vegans all collide in a riptide of chaos on the streets of London. There’s Beth the reformed Christian and Erkenwald the hot-dog seller, old Ragdale on a quest to find his daughter, Mordechai Thurrock the actor-playwright and egomaniac, and Cockburn, Elliot and Clayton the dealers and junkies, whose trade both sustains and destroys the lives of those around them. In this vibrant and blackly comic play, a dozen private stories emerge, and their voices give utterance to a storm of subjects and feelings: pop culture and sexual fantasy, the ruins of empire and the delusions of religion, foreign oil and prehistoric London. Contains bad language, and strong content. World Premiere. Ché Walker, winner of the George Devine Award, and regular playwright for the Royal Court, brings to the Globe stage a panorama of contemporary London, encompassing the cruel and the tender, the gutter and the stars. Part of the Totus Mundus Season. Totus mundus agit histrionem is thought to have been the motto of the first Globe - 'The whole world is a playhouse'
Che Walker’s The Frontline isn’t the first new play commissioned by and premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe, but it is the first set in modern London staged at this address. The drama, set on a Saturday night outside Camden Tube station, opened last Wednesday (previews from 6 July) and continues in rep until 17 August, as part of the Totus Mondus season. (Artistic director Dominic Dromgoole’s commitment to new writing continues this season with Glyn Maxwell’s Liberty, which opens in September.)
Billed as a “modern, vigorous tale of London life on the edge”, The Frontline multiple narratives intertwine as characters including drug dealers, addicts, prostitutes and pimps mingle on the streets of Camden, revealing a picture of a fractured city and exploring issues of multiculturalism, drugs, sex and contemporary politics.
The 23-strong ensemble cast includes John Stahl, Naana Agyei-Ampadu, Ben Bishop, Trystan Gravelle, Paul Lloyd, Paul Copley and Ashley Rolfe, and the show features music by Olly Fox. Director Matthew Dunster is an associate director of the Young Vic, whose previous credits include Some Voices, The Member of the Wedding, Testing the Echo and You Can See the Hills, which opens at the Young Vic later this year (See News, 3 Jun 2008).
The heavy rain on Wednesday’s press night failed to dampen the mood of the critics, most of whom were generous in their praise for Walker’s “heaving social panorama”. The “outstanding ensemble” came in for particular accolades, although some felt the number of stories being told led to a “serious loss of narrative clarity”. However, most appreciated Dromgoole’s continued new writing policy and saw The Frontline as another “feather in the cap” of an “exceptionally strong season at the Globe”.
Triona Adams on Whatsonstage.com (three stars) – “The Frontline professes to tell a dozen different stories. Just the dozen? With a cast of 23, conversations run into, over and along each other and director Matthew Dunster has not orchestrated the necessary clarity. Many stories, though told, are left unheard … The thing is, it is very watchable. As lippy lap-dancer Violet, Jo Martin is matched only by fabulous Naana Agyei-Ampadu as her precocious daughter. Paul Copley works wonders with a potentially tedious role of a sweet but deluded man. Tristram Gravelle is all too believable as the actor begging an agent to attend the Ephemera Theatre. There is no weakness in the vast cast, the singing is okay and there are lots of laughs; so you don’t worry too much about half-written stories or the small violent tragedies that unfold.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (four stars) – “The best feature of the Globe, under Dominic Dromgoole's management, is the balance between classic and contemporary work. Che Walker acted here in Othello, but the key influence on his robustly enjoyable new play is not Shakespeare but Ben Jonson. Imagine Bartholomew Fair translated to the precincts of Camden Town tube station on a Saturday night and you get some idea of his work's topographical vigour … Some stories come into focus more sharply than others and the climactic murder seems under-motivated. But what plaits the play's disparate strands together is a conviction, possibly inherited from Peter Ackroyd, that London's past is visible in its present. Miruts talks of ‘this whole city swimming in the ghosts of madmen who feel they shoulda got a better deal’ … What Walker seems to have learned, from treading the Globe's boards, is that this is a space that demands constant action and tactile language. In this evocation of the Camden Town gang, he abundantly supplies both.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph – “The rain was bucketing down on press night, yet even those unlucky enough to be getting drenched in the yard seemed enthralled by this two-and-a-half-hour epic of contemporary London street life … There is a strong sense throughout of the cosmopolitan vibrancy, violence and sheer squalor of London at night … I have reservations about the piece. Walker finds it hard to maintain dramatic momentum with so many shifts between characters and narrative strands, while his bold trick of sometimes having several scenes running simultaneously means there is occasionally a serious loss of narrative clarity … But there is much more to admire than deplore. Matthew Dunster's production snaps, crackles and pops with energy, there are some strong songs backed by a jazzy, bluesy trio, tremendous fight sequences and the performances of an outstanding ensemble have an excitingly raw and edgy authenticity.”
Simon Edge in the Daily Express (three stars) – “The characters … including a Scottish hot-dog seller, a voluptuous lap-dance club owner, a crassly mismatched gay couple and various multi-hued drug-dealers, gradually emerge from a Babel of interwoven dialogue that puts the Globe’s difficult acoustic sorely to the test … An hour in, the lack of focus is frustrating. A gag involving a struggling playwright is flogged to death through endless repetition, and it’s a relief when, in the second act, the characters are at last allowed to tell us stories with some suggestion of depth … There is a host of strong performances, including Jo Martin as the club owner, Naana Agyei-Ampadu as her bratty daughter and Beru Tessema as a pimp-rolling Ethiopian, while sausage-vendor John Stahl rises bravely above his dialogue. But there isn’t enough imagination in Matthew Dunster’s direction to give this street pageant the vibrancy it needs.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (four stars) – “Che Walker’s Frontline has its faults, but the play, the songs, Matthew Dunster’s superbly orchestrated production and an all-electric cast of 23 combine to bring to life the sleazy sub-world around Camden Underground station … Walker, a moral but not moralising dramatist, knows how drugs can wreck lives – and, indeed, gives us a climax in which a young dope dealer is sadistically shot by the local Mr Big, a vicious racist played by Robert Gwilym. A climax and not a climax, for the overall idea is that the bustle of the human anthill continues regardless. This means that the play is impressionistic though not exactly plotless … It’s scattered stuff, not made easier to follow by the often overlapping dialogue, but lively, funny, extremely well written and with its serious, combative moments. Walker knows that London is a city of crack, knives, guns and conflict between, among others, Somalians and Ethopians. ‘We’re on the frontline with a broken heartbeat’, sing the cast – and the play proves them more or less right.”
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (three stars) – “Walker has both a genuine, comic flair and a gift for individualising types as they exchange insults, shape up for fights and long for love. Whether it is Golda Rosheuvel's Beth, who has exchanged an addiction to heroin for one to Jesus, Paul Copley's crazy old Ragdale, convinced that each passing girl is his daughter, or Naana Agyei-Ampadu's loud-mouthed teenager, Baby Doll … each of The Frontline people bears conviction's stamp. Matthew Dunster's first-rate edgy production, beautifully acted right down the line and bolstered by touches of hottish gospel, the blues and rap, captures the hustling turmoil, aggression and neediness of these street people. Unfortunately, though, The Frontline lacks any developing plot-lines or binding theme. It lacks the smack of action. A drug deal that goes wrong leads to murder but that comes as almost an aside … (The play) works as a brilliant series of unrelated sketches.”
The clue is in the programme. A three-page interview with writer (vaunted George Devine Award winner Che Walker) then nine pages of notes, from Universal Kinship to Marmite, must be a record. It certainly explains why this engaging piece is such sprawling mess.
A typical night outside Camden Tube: The Frontline professes to tell a dozen different stories. Just the dozen? With a cast of 23, conversations run into, over and along each other and director Matthew Dunster has not orchestrated the necessary clarity. Many stories, though told, are left unheard. We knew that Mahmoud made an appeal to a youth only because said youth said so. What we heard was an oh-so hilarious comparison of Marmite to British democracy.
Simplistic ideas get laughs but little scrutiny. Camden seems peopled by a stringently diverse bunch of pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, and born again Christians, most with golden hearts (except the Christians who are an alleluia away from drug abuse and violence.) With the first of some embarrassingly inane songs the ensemble look like a sixth form drama project or an eggy Lionel Bart number with skunk instead of fresh muffins.
All this confuses the audience who clapped and whooped at every “fuck” regardless of context. Watching a Globe audience try to get down with the kids is as butt-clenching as watching your dad dance, and on Globe seats your butt is already occupied. More importantly, in this hilarious, heavy-handed appreciation of colourful London life many poignant moments are lost. When the audience cheers a 16-year-old wanting to become a whore like her dear mama, and when it giggles as a man takes a stand against a callous murderer, something has gone wrong.
The thing is, it is very watchable. As lippy lap-dancer Violet, Jo Martin is matched only by fabulous Naana Agyei-Ampadu as her precocious daughter. Paul Copley works wonders with a potentially tedious role of a sweet but deluded man. Tristram Gravelle is all too believable as the actor begging an agent to attend the Ephemera Theatre. There is no weakness in the vast cast, the singing is OK and there are lots of laughs; so you don’t worry too much about half-written stories or the small violent tragedies that unfold. As to Walker’s nerves about his use of heightened language and his perceived “connection” with Shakespeare? Ah, bless.
- Triona Adams
NOTE: The above review dates from July 2008 and this production's original run at the Globe.
Whatever it's merits The Frontline is a very odd choice for the Globe, particularly for a sunlit matinee. The overlapping dialogue prevents much coherent narrative, some of which is very repetitive, especially as much of it is lost in this acoustic minefield. There are moments of wit and storylines worth following mainly revolving around Jo Martin and Mo Sesay who are excellent as a lapdancer and her pacifist bouncer. However Che Walker comes dangerously close to glamourising the seedy parade of drugs and violence. Some of the writing is infantile reaching a nadir with the song "The War on Drugs is a War on Blacks" whilst reinforcing rather than challenging stereotypes. Matthew Dunster is an associate director of the Young Vic and with a firmer directorial hand The Frontline could very effective further along the South Bank. - David Baxter
12 Aug 08
Loud, Brash & full of stereotypes BUT it works! This was a real treat! The setting, the rain and the twilight all add to the atmosphere of the darker corners of London. The cast really threw themselves into the performance and gave a memorable performance. Recommended. (Performance 10 August 2008, evening) - Paul
11 Aug 08
This is probably the best non-Shakespeare play the Globe has ever put on. It's a fairly plotless slice of life with overlapping tales and dialogue. It takes a while to atune your ears and concentrate (not aided by the notoriously noisy Globe crowd) but it gradually draws you in. Prostitutes, drug dealers, hot dog salesmen, evangelicals, transvestites, struggling fringe theatricals, Asian restauranteurs, rough sleepers, the deranged......somehow you learn a lot about their lives. There's good music and there are excellent performances, but the great thing about this play is it's energy. It fits the Globe like no other modern play yet has, and even the rain seemed to enhance the experience! - Gareth James
04 Aug 08
This is a show not to be missed - best play/musical I've seen for a long time! Extremely vibrant, touching and really hits you in the heart. If you want to be moved and experience the rawness of real people that makes you laugh and cry at the same time suggest you get down to the Globe. Well done Globe - a real treat! - Yee Liu Williams
22 Jul 08
I was disappointed. the acting was splendid but the acoustics were terrible, (theres's nothing more irritating to an audience than strain either your eyesight or hearing) - not helped by overlapping dialogue -what is one expected to listen to? The characters were one 'street cliche' after another. Nor was it lluminating, one is more 'entertained' by the real thing available for free on a daily basis outside any tube station. - mavis welsh
A rebuild of Shakespeare's original Globe theatre close to the original site. Society of London Theatre member. Note: Booking opened March 3rd 1996. Tickets for performances range from £5 (standing in the yard) to £37.50 for the best gallery seats). Induction loop facilities. Wheelchair facilities. Extensive education programme. Restaurant, cafe and bar. Dark during the winter but the museum and venue remain open. One of the few London venues with Sunday performances. The Globe Theatre Season runs from April to October. The Globe Education Centre is located in Park Street and runs an educational autumn season.
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