Synopsis North London at Halloween, Max Villiers, a celebrity ghost writer, and his wife Harriet, a talented shopper, host a party. As Max connects his first plasma TV, the evening is hijacked by interference from the past. There are trick or treaters at the door and strangers on the brand new rug.
Charlotte Jones’ latest The Lightning Play received its world premiere on Friday (17 November 2006, previews from 9 November) at north London’s Almeida Theatre (See News, 29 Sep 2006).
Matthew Marsh stars as Max Villiers, a celebrity ghost writer who, with his talented shopper wife Harriet (Eleanor David), is hosting an impromptu Halloween party in north London. As Max connects his first plasma TV, the evening is hijacked by interference from the past, trick-or-treaters at the door and strangers on the brand new rug.
Also in the cast are Lloyd Hutchinson, Adie Allen, Katherine Parkinson, Simon Kassianides, Orlando Seale and Christina Cole. The premiere production, directed by Anna Mackmin, continues its limited season until 6 January 2007.
First night critics mostly enjoyed the play, although they felt Jones owed perhaps too large a debt to Edward Albee, Mike Leigh and Alan Ayckbourn for the drama’s mix of comedy and tragedy in a highly-charged social situation. Reviewers praised the performances of the cast – particularly those of Matthew Marsh and Eleanor David as the central couple whose relationship faces meltdown.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (4 stars) - “A play which starts as a domestic comedy deepens in tone and mystery, until some painful revelations and arguments have taken us from Alan Ayckbourn territory deep into Edward Albee. But Jones, who has written the play with consummate skill, a bitter twang, and some very good jokes, is very much her own playwright here, developing in accomplishment beyond the promise of In Flame and the achievement of Humble Boy…. The scenes are ingeniously interlocked within a progressive structure that simultaneously looks over its own shoulder. Anna Mackmin’s beautifully rhythmical production is set in a huge white room designed by Lez Brotherston and lit by Tim Mitchell to suggest other locations…. Marsh… sets the pace with his brilliant comic timing…. Eleanor David is beautiful, sexy and vulnerable as Harriet, while Adie Allen as Jacklyn confirms her reputation as a comic talent to treasure.”
Sheridan Morley in the Daily Express – “If you can imagine Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? rewritten by Mike Leigh, you will have some idea, though maybe not a lot, of what is going on…. Both the parents and each of their guests carry into the play a rambling, complex, overlapping backstory of considerable if wayward fascination, and although the play is entirely set in the living room, we also visit neighbourhood restaurants and the local park as well as various other locations often seen in flashbacks. The combination of Halloween and flashes of unexpected lightning suggests a mysterious, magical, mythical time in which anything can happen and often does…. Jones comes over as a writer willing to take her play anywhere the mood might lead her even if she herself often seems uncertain of its ultimate destination. The result may be dramatically untidy, but it is seldom less than compelling: hers is a genuinely original playwriting voice, and she often writes like a magic-realist novelist or a poet. What she is, of course, is a theatrical conjuror, and her cast have to be as quick on their feet as they are if they are to capture the play’s many fast-changing directions.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (3 stars) – “Charlotte Jones, as we know from Humble Boy, is a great entertainer. She creates lively characters and dialogue, but if I have any reservation about her highly enjoyable new play, it is simply that Jones, like her ghost-writer hero, is haunted by images from the past…. Jones works out her ideas with sprightly humour: Jacklyn is a particularly vivid character whom Adie Allen endows with a luminous eccentricity. I also felt for Matthew Marsh's Max, who hides his failures under a defensive irony. But, as the play progresses, the echoes become over-insistent. The socially catastrophic party suggests Ayckbourn, and the marital squabbles evoke Albee. There's even a hint of Macbeth…. Anna Mackmin's production is stylishly done and there are anchored performances from Eleanor David (as Harriet), Lloyd Hutchinson (Eddie) and Katherine Parkinson (Imogen). Jones is a good writer. I just feel that her Halloween play offers a few too many familiar tricks alongside the undeniable treats.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (3 stars) - If a dramatist sets a play on Halloween, as Charlotte Jones does at the Almeida, you can be pretty sure that the social masks will eventually come off and nasty emotions will go bump in the night. And so it proves in The Lightning Play, which begins as a not-so-funny drawing room comedy and, soon after a girl trick-and-treater has appeared at the door dressed as Harold Shipman, turns into a north London version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, complete with rudeness, rows and revelations about a defunct child…. But where’s the play? Jones answers that with the none-too-original dramatic device of bringing together a cross-section of people in an ad-hoc party…. Jones again displays her gift for characterisation, her generosity of spirit and her unfashionable interest in odd, slightly spooky events. But Anna Mackmin’s able direction couldn’t stop me feeling that the play lacks unity and coherence.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph – “The Lightning Play sees a return to form, though it doesn't have the contours of a classic West End hit like Humble Boy. Structurally, the piece is a mess, with excessive and clumsy use of flashbacks. And while Humble Boy was inspired by Hamlet, The Lightning Play seems to owe a heavy debt to both Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? without delivering the knock-out punch of either. Still, it's funny, touching and consistently entertaining, and perhaps it would be greedy to ask for more…. Insults zing about with entertaining malice, but the play also touches on spirituality, friendship and the corrosive nature of loss. Anna Mackmin directs a sprightly, elegant production that almost manages to conceal the play's uncertain sense of identity and direction, and designer Lez Brotherston has some tricks up his sleeve with his opulently elegant set. Matthew Marsh is both enjoyably sarky and unexpectedly moving as the husband, while Eleanor David plays his wife with elegant despair…. It's just a shame that with so much going on, there finally seems to be less to The Lightning Play than meets the eye.”
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (1 star) – De Jongh was unimpressed with the “drearily derivative theatrical cocktail…. ponderously directed by Anna Mackmin.” He said: “Ghostly things predictably occur… Jones contrives to bring social misfits to the home of Matthew Marsh's Max Villiers, ghost writer to super-trash celebrities and prone to pert wise-cracks and flippancies…. Awkwardly deploying flashbacks, Jones unnecessarily shows how Max, to his depressed wife Harriet's annoyance, comes to invite visitors. Katherine Parkinson's plain, pregnant young woman, sporting a silly voice, Adie Allen's lonely hippie, sounding almost as grotesque, and a very lapsed monk set the silly tone. In Albee-ish fashion the taboo subject of the Villiers' dead son is dragged into the open, while the party mood turns unbelievably rude and revelatory. Lez Brotherston's dysfunctional set with its unneeded, grand ceiling, could have funded five fringe productions.”
To see Kean act, said Coleridge, was like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning. Charlotte Jones’s much anticipated new play, her first theatre work since providing the libretto for The Woman in White, is similarly struck with the consequences of an electric storm.
It is Halloween, and the doorbell will signal an importunate child, trick or treating, or a new guest at the impromptu party arranged by the celebrity ghost writer, Max Villiers (Matthew Marsh), in his comfortable north London home. Max is trying to make his new 65-inch plasma screen television work, juggling remotes.
Increasingly, the screen is invaded by images of his daughter Anna when young, a daughter who is now a peace activist in Ramallah, like Rachel Corrie, en route to Burma. It turns out that Anna was a human shield from an early age, trying to save her younger brother in a gnarled old yew tree during a thunder and lightning storm fifteen years ago.
A play which starts as a domestic comedy deepens in tone and mystery, until some painful revelations and arguments have taken us from Alan Ayckbourn territory deep into Edward Albee. But Jones, who has written the play with consummate skill, a bitter twang, and some very good jokes, is very much her own playwright here, developing in accomplishment beyond the promise of In Flame and the achievement of Humble Boy (The Dark at the Donmar was, for me, a muddled misfire).
Max and his wife Harriet (Eleanor David) are in marital meltdown. That afternoon, Harriet has bought an East Anatolian semi-antique rug, made love to the salesman (Simon Kassianides), and nearly killed herself. She was rescued by Max’s friend, Eddie Fox (Lloyd Hutchinson), a former Carthusian monk who is now Max’s personal assistant and beer buddy.
Eddie has hooked up with Jacklyn, a slightly weird rambler (Adie Allen), on Hampstead Heath. Max, meanwhile, on meeting the subject of his next book, a pneumatic glamour model (Christina Cole), who reminds him, disastrously, of his daughter, has also encountered Anna’s old schoolfriend, Imogen Cumberbatch (Katherine Parkinson), heavily pregnant, who turns up at the party with her husband Marcus (Orlando Seale), a glib, but oddly repressed, civil servant from Surrey.
The scenes are ingeniously interlocked within a progressive structure that simultaneously looks over its own shoulder. Anna Mackmin’s beautifully rhythmical production is set in a huge white room designed by Lez Brotherston and lit by Tim Mitchell to suggest other locations – the heath, the restaurant, the rug shop – by changing the colour, and the temperature, of the stage. The family video plays an increasing role, too, in turning the screw to a crescendo of birth, loss and dismay.
Matthew Marsh, looking a little trimmer than he was in the other really fine new play he graced this year, The Overwhelming, sets the pace with his brilliant comic timing, playing Max rather like one of Simon Gray’s heroes, both lost in the past and befuddled in the present. Eleanor David is beautiful, sexy and vulnerable as Harriet, while Adie Allen as Jacklyn confirms her reputation as a comic talent to treasure.
Structurally this piece is a bit messy but I honestly didn't care as there is so much to enjoy here. Charlotte Jones's raunchy, witty dialogue positively crackles, while her grasp of wacky English eccentricity means that the dramatis personae is fascinating and delightful. On top of that, there is a beautiful set by Lez Brotherstone and a top notch cast led by Matthew Marsh, Eleanor David, Lloyd Hutchinson, Adie Allen and the adorable Katherine Parkinson. There's also a heart-catching coup de theatre at the end. Strange, unsettling, frequently hilarious...I would definitely recommend this. - 89.145.233.212)
19 Dec 06
There was a surprisingly poor house for tonight's performance - less than half full, which meant that my Dress Circle tickets were unexpectedly upgraded to good seats in the Stalls. Impressive, well-judged performances all round, especially Matthew Marsh, when he revealed the vulnerability and weaknesses behind his flashy, wise-cracking exterior. The only flaw in the evening was the stupid old fool in the seat in front of me who treated his wife to a running commentary during the closing minutes of the play (and the dramatic coup de theatre), despite my pleas to ask him to be quiet. To you, sir, I say: I'd be very happy to see YOU struck by lightning. - 84.9.87.168)
13 Dec 06
Two stars is all I can bring myself to give this play. Where do I start? Well lets start with the main protaganists Max(Matthew Marsh)and Harriet (Eleanor David). It has been a long time since I have had the misfortune to see two actors look so uncomfortable and unconvincing in their parts on a professional stage. It made the junior players in this trite piece by the author, Charlotte Jones, look good. And believe me that took some doing given the material they have to work with. Ms jones has lined up the usual suspects to lampoon. The Essex girl of course, then any regional accent West Country and Belfast are always good for a laugh - and of course, to round off, the upper class twit Marcus(the best performance in the play and some one to watch for I feel)- but how droll is that! One must sympathise to a degree with the director (Anna Mackmin) who needed something to make these characters less two dimensional than they are already. Even Max is given to doing Ted Heath shoulder heaves when he sees images of his lost child in the giant plasma TV which dominates the set. Moments I suspect the author wanted us gripped by but instead melt away as this play ulimately does. It seemed to me I was watching a rather poorly plagiarized version of Albee's masterpiece "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". The lost child, the bitter invective flying around as thick and fast as the drinks, the embarrased couple subjected to the same mauling the protaganists give each other. But Albee is a master. He didn't need to populate his stage with unnecessary characters as this author has done. Now get this - there is even an homage to "Little Britain" when Imogen's (Katherine Parkinson) waters break - full-on centre stage - which left the "Islington" audience completely flummoxed. Come on Ms Jones give US a break! How this play got past first reading I do not know. But for it to go on and get the huge investment the Almeida have put into it is just beyond belief. There is, surprisingly, a coup de theatre in the final moments of the play but not from the writer but the designer (Lez Brotherston) whose magnificent set this play does not deserve.
- 172.202.69.213)
25 Nov 06
I saw this play in previews and I am still thinking about it. The wit in the first half was so effortless and true that I was totally unprepared for the darker mood in act two - by the end i was in tears and I didn;t really know when i had started crying - I was totally absorbed. In a West End full of either commercial rubbish or pretentious dull plays, this shines out as an exciting but powerful night. I loved it. - 84.64.120.40)
20 Nov 06
I shalln't spoil it by describing this play. I found it intriguing, original, cleverly structured, witty and it held my attention throughout. This is much edgier than her wistful Humble Boy; it's refreshing to see a playright with such range. The dialogue crackles and most of its delivery (particularly by Matthew Marsh) is spot on. Les Brotherson's design and Anna Machin's direction are first class. Another great night at The Almeida. - 193.35.134.150)
17 Nov 06
Beautiful, funny and profoundly moving! I have a season ticket for the Almeida and had not seen one of Ms Jones plays before, so was wonderfully surprised by this delicate but hilarious account of friendship, bravery and loss. The play is set in a middle class Islington household but soon ventures into weird and wonderful territory as Halloween night unfolds and the dinner guests become more and more unstable. I loved Jones' heightened use of language and character and the very clever device of a large flatscreen tv that dominates the set. The cast are brilliant. I fell in love with Eleanor David, and Adie Allen and Katherine Parkinson (from The IT Crowd) were hilarious. The end had the audience on their feet and cheering at the first preview, and had me in tears, which was unexpected as I had been laughing so much. A very rewarding evening - 86.132.106.224)
16 Nov 06
This play is a mess - but (mostly) a watchable mess. The writer makes her characters act oddly (but sometimes amusingly) for a couple of hours, and then has them (with no other justification than having drunk a couple of glasses of wine) confess their darkest secrets to everyone else to account for the odd behaviour. Apart from these confessions, nothing significant happens at all during the play (except for two events shown in flashback). Nevertheless, three very watchable actors play three elegantly written (except when the writer's straining to manufacture a plot she clearly has little interest in) and captivating characters (three of the other characters are played as, and, to a degree, written as, loud caricatures, the other two are short cameos). Matthew Marsh as the compulsively wisecracking Max and Lloyd Hutchinson as his hopeless but devoted friend Eddie manage to kick the play into life even where the plot dwindles into chat. The barbed dialogue, though not always justified by the situation, often has energy and wit. The set does some interesting things at the end of the play, but the price is paid in the first half, where it forces an awkward staging for the flashbacks. - 62.252.0.10)
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