Synopsis American playwright David Hirson’s rollicking 1991 play, La Bete, is a comic tour de force about Elomire, a high-minded classical dramatist who loves only the theatre, and Valere, a low-brow street clown who loves only himself. When the fickle princess decides she’s grown weary of Elomire’s royal theatre troupe, he and Valere are left fighting for survival as art squares off with ego in a literary showdown for the ages.
One of this summer’s most anticipated offerings, Matthew Warchus’ starry revival of David Hirson’s Moliere-inspired 1991 comedy La Bete opened last night (7 July 2010, previews from 26 June) at the West End's Comedy Theatre, where it continues until 4 September 2010 prior to an immediate Broadway transfer.
The play is billed as “a comic tour de force” and centres on Elomire (Frasier's David Hyde Pierce), a high-minded classical dramatist who loves only the theatre, and Valere (Mark Rylance), a low-brow street clown who loves only himself. When the fickle princess (Joanna Lumley) decides she’s grown weary of Elomire’s royal theatre troupe, he and Valere are left fighting for survival as art squares off with ego in a literary showdown for the ages.
Could this art live up to the expectations raised by such a luminous company and creative team?
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (three stars) - “Maybe the anticipation of seeing Mark Rylance, Joanna Lumley and David Hyde Pierce together on one stage in American playwright David Hirson’s La Bete, a theatrical comedy of rhyming couplets set in the 17th-century court of Languedoc, was too much… For what seemed, on its London premiere in 1992, to be a gorgeously explosive and unexpected treat - Alan Cumming played the Rylance role of a bumptious vaudevillian actor, Valère - now appears trite and over-extended, even at a playing time of just over 100 minutes … In a curious way, though, the excellence of Matthew Warchus’ production exposes the emptiness at the heart of the piece, which never really lives up to its own billing as a heated debate about the place of art, integrity and popular passion in the commercial theatre. It’s a shadowy gloss on several Molière plays, notably The Misanthrope, which, despite all its cleverness and facility of elasticated doggerel, remains just that: an insubstantial shadow and a theatrical sleight-of-hand."
Michael Billington in the Guardian (three stars) – “I'll say this much: David Hirson's piece of Broadway-originating, pastiche Molière seems less smugly self-admiring than it did on its first appearance in 1992 … David Hyde Pierce is very good at conveying Elomire's volcanic rage as his booklined study is colonised by Valere. But, although he captures Elomire's increasing Alceste-like isolation, he is given insufficient support by Hirson's text in enriching the character. I have no complaints, however, about Joanna Lumley's spoilt brat of a patron, who has undergone a gender-change since the original production, nor about Stephen Ouimette as Elomire's sidekick … Warchus' production is infinitely better balanced than the original. He allows us to see that Valere's work has a crude vigour, and that the principled Elomire, who argues that 'good verse conceals its artifice ideally', is dogmatic. But, even if there is now a hint of dialectical debate, Hirson's play still contains two fundamental flaws. We actually get to see Valere's lowbrow art, whereas Elomire's credentials as a serious artist have to be taken on trust. Valere himself, set up as a boorish idiot, is also miraculously allowed to turn into an articulate spokesman who impresses the patron by talk of 'the slipping standards of our shallow culture'.”
Libby Purves in The Times (five stars) - “We've waited for this one, in wondering hope … It's a tough gig, raising that much expectation, and it's no common play … it defies categorisation. You are forced to laugh all through and then confront a bleak unresolved ending to the central question … Rylance, of course, shines. Who else could hold us, hysterical yet horrified, for the first half of David Hirson's headlong play as he preens and digresses, a compulsive deluded entertainer rebuilding the very language … At one stage, standing on the table, he declares 'God love the critics! Bless their picky hearts!' Much nervous laughter in the stalls. But why pick? It's grown-up panto, it's clever, it's quite deep, it could not be better done. You may hate it, but you'll never see anything quite like it again.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (two stars) –“This is a play which begins brilliantly only to turn dismally flat as it runs out of comic invention and momentum. The first 35 minutes are blissfully funny as Rylance comes on as the pretentious street entertainer and delivers an extraordinarily long monologue, extolling his own genius, with occasional moments of false modesty, while revealing himself to be an egregious ass … This is high definition comic acting of an exceptional order, bursting with grotesque detail and energy, while also proving unexpectedly endearing. Somehow even Rylance's knees seem both hilariously funny and strangely touching. But after that it is downhill all the way as the play turns into a more serious debate about art, ethics and the power of patrons … Initially promising, it becomes so self-regarding and ultimately arid that our initially joyous laughter dies in the throat.”
Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard(three stars) – “'This is turning out to be my night,' says Mark Rylance’s character in this revival of David Hirson’s 1991 play, but in truth it’s Rylance’s night from the very start … The play doesn’t sustain its initial bravura, though, and for all the inventiveness of Matthew Warchus’ production, it feels repetitious. The writing is in places technically remarkable, yet not genuinely dramatic. Elomire’s hostility to Valere is numbingly reiterated. The intervention of the Princess, a punk version of Miss Havisham, is frankly tedious, and the role seems wrong for Joanna Lumley. Hyde Pierce is dry and clipped as Elomire, and there’s a nice turn by Stephen Ouimette as his sidekick, but this is Rylance’s show. That makes its development into a battle of ideas, in its rather stodgy second half, disappointing.”
Maybe the anticipation of seeing Mark Rylance, Joanna Lumley and David Hyde Pierce together on one stage in American playwright David Hirson’s La Bête, a theatrical comedy of rhyming couplets set in the 17th century court of Languedoc, was too much.
For what seemed, on its London premiere in 1992, to be a gorgeously explosive and unexpected treat – Alan Cumming played the Rylance role of a bumptious vaudevillian actor, Valère – now appears trite and over-extended, even at a playing time of just over 100 minutes.
We get the point very early on: a decadent court theatre needs a shot in the arm. The argument is put forward in an astonishing tour de force by Rylance, spitting, burping and farting through his headlong monologue for well over half an hour.
But once the parameters of the play are set, and Joanna Lumley’s subdued but fickle princess – transformed from a flouncing, much funnier prince played by Timothy Walker in the Cumming version – presides over the contest between Valère and the wiped-out dramatist, the evening becomes repetitive and, dare one say it, even rather boring.
The dramatist, Elomire, an anagram of Molière, is portrayed by David Hyde Pierce as a distinctly reticent, and subtly inflected, writer first of all trapped in his lair – the library design of Mark Thompson, breathtakingly well lit by Hugh Vanstone, is an extravagant marvel – and then compelled to face the truth of his shortcomings by this intrusive, comic vandal.
The situation reflects the real one of Molière touring the southern provinces in 1654 with a motley crew including the well-known Béjart family, here represented by Stephen Ouimette and Sally Wingert; they, and a few others including Liza Sadovy as Catherine De Brie and Robert Lonsdale as Rene Du Parc, are seen in a painterly representation of a celebratory banquet at the start and as a well sculptured little crowd towards the end.
In a curious way, though, the excellence of Matthew Warchus’ production exposes the emptiness at the heart of the piece, which never really lives up to its own billing as a heated debate about the place of art, integrity and popular passion in the commercial theatre. It’s a shadowy gloss on several Molière plays, notably The Misanthrope, which, despite all its cleverness and facility of elasticated doggerel, remains just that: an insubstantial shadow and a theatrical sleight-of-hand.
My view of this play lay somewhere between the two extremes - Cassox's "what on earth is this rubbish doing in the West End?" and Joe Spiteri's "A brilliant night at the theatre". Isn't that the great thing though about the theatre and why we keep coming back, even when we're suckers for punishment! I loved watching and listening to Rylance's virtuoso performance - no one could look particularly good on that stage against his tour de force except, perhaps, Stephen Ouimette who came off the best last night, but then he is a supreme stage performer. Hyde Pierce had a good stab at it and to a greater degree got away with it unlike Ms Lumley who stood out like a sore thumb and upset the balance to such a degree that even her fellow actors looked aghast at her delivery. One of my companions nodded off half way through and another decided it was the worst thing he'd seen in years yet I rather enjoyed it. I think it will work in NYC after all Geoffrey Rush had a big hit there recently with Exit The King and I hated that! So there we are? Last night I sat well back from the stage as I didn't want to pay too much but even then my seat cost fifty pounds - YES, FIFTY BLOODY QUID! The seats in the row in front of me were £70! and according to Cassox, below, some were priced at £90.......that's outrageous! Perhaps we all should have boycotted it? Maybe then the producer, Sonia Friendman, would have had to think again about charging such outrageously exorbitant prices? - rds
12 Aug 10
4 Stars
Rhyming couplets are usually my bete noir so it is a measure of how successfully Matthew Warchus has naturalised David Hirson's text that the script does not feel forced or srtificial with none of the unnatural emphases that befell The Misanthrope. The play itself is not really up to much: it starts off promisingly as a very funny confrontation between the high art principles of Elomire and the populist drivel of the cretinous Valere, but then descends into a failed attempt at something more serious. What makes La Bete so memorable are the performances of an Anglo-American cast (far better integrated than the Bridge Project) and in particular the leads. I've never quite understood the fuss about Joanna Lumley and she is no more than adequate but David Hyde Pierce is very good indeed as Elomire, even if you never quite forget that you're watching Niles Crane in a long wig. Mark Rylance though is a force of nature, completely submerging himself into another remarkable performance. His virtually unstoppable 25 minute near-monologue is quite astonishing, a feat of remarkable memory as well as bravura acting. Rylance has created another memorable character to set alongside Rooster Byron and Ham and will surely feature in the award lists on both sides of the Atlantic. - David Baxter
05 Aug 10
What on earth is this rubbish doing in the west end? This is a contender, quite seriously, for one of the worst plays ever written. Of course it will have it's admirers, These academic curiosities often do. It try's to be the very thing that it both hates and admires simultaneously, That commercialism and art cannot exist simultaneously. Unfortunately it fails on both counts (or is that four? Who cares?) and we are subjected to 1hour and 45 mins (without interval) of excruciating tedium. Not even Mark Rylance (putting in an admirable performance a bit like a more special and objectionable Jonny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean) can save it, even if his 30 min (yes 30 MIN) monologue at the top of the show is very funny. The point of David Hyde Pierce is lost. Why such an actor would agree to be in a play where he just mopes about the stage silently not really saying anything and forgetting to do acting and be the 'star' vehicle, frys my brain. Jo Lum, bless her, cant act, or rather she can act 'ok' but when placed against Rylance, just looks a bit amateur.
The cast perform in American accents (apart from Jo Lum... bless) which hints at a 'made for broadway' audience, who i cant quite work out will like it or not. It's a bit special and incomprehensible, especially if you keep falling asleep. A bit like these very sentences. Avoid at all costs, which at £90 a ticket wont be difficult.
- Cassox
20 Jul 10
Mark Rylance never fails to mesmerize! He is the best stage actor this country has without doubt. Superb performances by the whole cast, but Rylance steals the show - as with Jerusalem, Boeing and every piece of Shakespeare he has ever acted in. I simply must see this again! - Luci Sims
13 Jul 10
Producer Sonia Friedman must still be pinching herself to check she’s not dreaming putting together a show with a national treasure (Joanna Lumley), a major US TV star (Frasier’s Niles – David Hyde Pierce) and the hottest stage actor of the moment (Mark Rylance). Add in a young director who can (almost) do no wrong, Matthew Warchus, and a great designer like Mark Thompson and you’re guaranteed to sell out 10 weeks in London followed by the same in New York, whatever the reviews. Not very prolific playwright David Hirson must think he’s in the middle of a lifetime of Christmases with a guaranteed commercial success for his mediocre verse play which won awards but made no money 18 years ago.
Such is the world of theatre.....
This is not a great play, it’s an OK play which is often funny but very uneven and often too glib for its own good. When it sparkles, it SPARKLES but there are many moments when it doesn’t. The unevenness comes from one role which overpowers all others and dialogue which goes from hysterical to dull and back many times during the uninterrupted 100 minutes. So you’re thinking ’he hated it then’ – well, no, I enjoyed myself! Anthony Ward’s extraordinary library has three walls of books that go much higher than most of the audience can see – trust me, I was in the front row and I saw how high it goes (I also saw where the wigs met the foreheads and Mark Rylance’s very knobbly knees!). Rylance is again astonishing, squeezing many many more laughs out of the dialogue than you’d get if you read it. He eats, drinks, farts, dances, falls…..it’s another very physical creation that you know no-one else could pull off. Playing ‘straight man’ to this must be really tough, but David Hyde Pierce pulls that off too, as does the other ‘straight man’ Stephen Ouimette. Joanna Lumley’s role is important but small, but her verse speaking is impeccable, she looks regal and hey, it’s just great to see her on stage again. You have to feel sorry for the remaining six actors who will have to watch this masterclass eight times a week for 20 weeks, spending most of the time in the wings with their knitting and suduko, but they shared the cheers in the very unstarry curtain call. It won’t change your life, and the world won’t end if you don’t go, but there’s much to enjoy and its 100 minutes of fun with wigs and books. - Gareth James
10 Jul 10
Rylance was, as usual, fascinating and amazing to watch. Hyde-Pierce was good. Lumley was... well, herself, the part was pretty crap though.
The play itself is a real turkey, it goes nowhere and says nothing that isn't up-itself or platitudinous (or both), without Rylance in it I would have walked out after an hour (as in fact several people did, the night I saw it) and saved myself the sheer tedium of the last half. - mym
09 Jul 10
A brilliant night at the theatre. The play was funny and excellent set. Everyone was good and special merit to Joanna Lumley (a small but effective role) and David Hyde Pierce BUT the night was for Mark Rylance--his acting and timing is just brilliant and how does he remember so many words and have loved his performances the last times I have seen him on stage in Jerusalem and Boeing-Boeing. A truly superb actor and joy to watch. Good luck to them for the New York opening later this year. A great night out. - Joe Spiteri
08 Jul 10
Agree about Mark Rylance, one of the best actors I have seen on stage. Thought David Hyde Price was good as was Joanna Lumley but it,s true kept thinking of Patsy. Overall though it's well worth going to see and is very funny. - Jean Shelton
06 Jul 10
Wow, what a performance by Mark Rylance. An absolute tour de force. Swept Niles and Patsy away - and that was kind of the problem - the shadow of Niles and Patsy loomed large over David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumley. Not their fault at all, mind. Anyhow a fantastic evening. - Simon Martin
Opened 15 Oct 1881, designed by Thomas Verity and originally gas lit. 780 seats. An Ambassadors theatre since 2000 and renamed The Harold Pinter Theatre in September 2011 in recognition of the wide range of Pinter's plays that the theatre has hosted.
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