Synopsis Roy Williams, Soweto Kinch and dance theatre director Liam Steel join forces to create an explosively physical evocation of sexual liberalism, gang culture and racial tension, based on Colin MacInnes' bestseller Absolute Beginners. Set in the summer of 1958 that ends with the Notting Hill race riots, Absolute Beginners paints a vivid picture of London's changing society and the emergence of a style-conscious youth culture, as teenagers blow away the cobwebs of post-war life and create the world anew. Not recommended for under 14s
The stage version of Colin MacInnes’ 1959 novel Absolute Beginners premiered last night (3 May 2007, previews from 26 April) at the Lyric Hammersmith in a physical production that critics found to be lacking “fire” (See News, 1 Dec 2006).
Liam Steel directs and Lizzie Clachan designs Roy Williams’ adaptation of MacInnes’ look at the first teenagers, celebrity, pop, jazz, and the 1958 Notting Hill race riots through the eyes of protagonist Photo Boy (Sid Mitchell), an arrogant youth who swaggers about London between photo-shoots, coffee bars, West End parties and Soho jazz clubs. The production, which continues its limited season until 26 May 2007, also features original music by MOBO award winner Soweto Kinch.
According to first night critics, Absolute Beginners portrays a changing London embracing style-conscious youth culture and teenagers “blowing away the cobwebs of post-war life … creating the world anew”, but seems to have lost some of its “snap, crackle and pop” during translation from page to stage.
Michael Coveney for Whatsonstage.com (two stars) – “Here is a fascinating project that doesn’t catch fire. The Lyric has taken the ‘art house’ route with all this, when what was probably needed was a touch of the old Joan Littlewoods, a bit of up-and-at-it rough and tumble. Director Liam Steel (formerly of DV8 and joint director of Stan Won’t Dance) and designer Lizzie Clachan (founder member of Shunt) place the action on an astonishing cityscape of primary-coloured abstract blocks and mobile trucks; drench it in a cool, bebop jazz score by Soweto Kinch, with a hint of Billie Holiday and an early override of Laurie London’s ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’; and frame it in a snapshot style that evokes the cinematic sequel of the 1960s, Antonioni’s Blowup. Julien Temple’s enjoyable but incomprehensible 1986 movie version of Absolute Beginners (with Patsy Kensit, David Bowie and Ray Davies) at least had a reckless energy missing in the performances here, none of which really pierce the glazed surface of the show and hit the back of the theatre. Sid Mitchell is a cute enough Photo Boy but, deprived of the Colin MacInnes whiplash wit and anger in the narration, he comes across as a cipher, as indeterminate as one of his own negatives.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (three stars) – “Perhaps because the cast is small, those riots are evoked in a stylised, balletic way, which deprives them of all danger. Indeed, Liam Steel’s production is shorter on atmosphere than it need be, largely because the set consists of stairs, landings and cubes that sometimes impede sightlines and never evoke the strange, chaotic, fascinating city that MacInnes described.”
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard - “The road from page to stage often proves to be booby-trapped with problems. So it sadly proves in this staid, mildly engaging adaptation by Roy Williams. The valiant Mr Williams cannot disguise the fact that for all Absolute Beginners' low-life vitality, its mixed black and white cast of cool bohemians and wide-boys trying to make it in the city, the novel remains resistant to theatrical treatment. In the novel Photo Boy's scathing, know-all, first-person narration and his lyrical love letter to London makes Absolute Beginners seem both a fine satire and an elegy to a vanished world. You cannot reproduce these devices or generate these emotions in a stage adaptation. The heart of the novel is torn out, leaving a vacancy that cannot or is not filled.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (two stars) - “I've not read Colin MacInnes' 1959 novel on which Roy Williams based this adaptation. Given the book's cult status, I cannot believe it doesn't have a bit more snap, crackle and pop than this rather bland show, which reminded me of a hygienic version of Lionel Bart's Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be. The show overlays the era with a faint air of cool romanticism. This is largely the fault of Liam Steel's production, which ushers us into a world of whores, pimps and hustlers, but portrays them so politely as to drain them of dirty realism. This reaches its apogee in the Notting Hill riots; confrontations with petrol bombs are reduced to little more than a choreographed rumble. The attitudes of the time are all there, but not the city's seething dynamic.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph - “Absolute Beginners seems to resist adaptation. One’s jaw often sags in disbelief at the clunky acting, the leaden yoofspeak dialogue and the way Williams has almost totally failed to find a dramatic focus for the show. This is also one of those shows when the director seems to have been far more interested in flashy design than in encouraging the cast to give deep and detailed performances. A tumescent, tumultuous novel has somehow dwindled into flaccid theatre. Viagra urgently required.”
Here is a fascinating project that doesn’t catch fire. Colin MacInnes’ brilliant 1959 novel about the first teenagers, the new television age of instant celebrity, pop and jazz, and the Notting Hill race riots of 1958, is a cool classic of swaggering style and front-line reportage.
The unnamed narrator in Absolute Beginners is a true participant in the scene he observes – “they’ll make musicals one day about the glamour-studded 1950s,” he remarks acidly, and prophetically – swinging through London (before it was “swinging”), from photoshoots to coffee bars and jazz clubs in Soho to low dives and parties on his own West London patch of “Napoli”.
The Lyric has taken the “art house” route with all this, when what was probably needed was a touch of the old Joan Littlewoods, a bit of up-and-at-it rough and tumble. Playwright Roy Williams has done some deft filleting, using much of the original dialogue, structuring the rising racist temperature through Photo Boy’s – that’s the only name we have for him – adventures and confrontations, and providing a good strong conclusion.
Director Liam Steel (formerly of DV8 and joint director of Stan Won’t Dance) and designer Lizzie Clachan (founder member of Shunt) place the action on an astonishing cityscape of primary-coloured abstract blocks and mobile trucks; drench it in a cool, bebop jazz score by Soweto Kinch, with a hint of Billie Holiday and an early override of Laurie London’s “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”; and frame it in a snapshot style that evokes the cinematic sequel of the 1960s, Antonioni’s Blowup.
Julien Temple’s enjoyable but incomprehensible 1986 movie version of Absolute Beginners (with Patsy Kensit], David Bowie and Ray Davies) at least had a reckless energy missing in the performances here, none of which really pierce the glazed surface of the show and hit the back of the theatre. Sid Mitchell is a cute enough Photo Boy but, deprived of the MacInnes whiplash wit and anger in the narration, he comes across as a cipher, as indeterminate as one of his own negatives.
Photo Boy’s pursuit of Crepe Suzette (bright and pretty Joanne Matthews), the spade-digging girlfriend who sets him a financial target of £500, is an insufficient spring for a drama, as opposed to a novel. Like a buffeted pinball, Photo Boy links up with Mr Cool (Micah Balfour), sexy lesbian Big Jill (Rachel Sanders, who doubles as his sluttish mother), out gay Hoplite (Tom Stuart) and silver-suited mogul Vendice (David Sibley, also doubling as poor old Dad, who urges Photo to live his life for him).
Richard Frame lounges around as Photo’s slothful brother Verne (aka “Jules”) and sharpens up as Ed the Ted, a dead ringer for the 1950s boxer Freddie Mills, one of the race riot hooligans who shake Photo to his core: he doesn’t understand why his friends are behaving this way. But despite his humane, conciliatory gesture of welcome to a magnificently robed African student (Tosin Olomowewe) in the airport finale, you never feel that Photo’s tolerance is symptomatic of a post-War teenage urban liberalism, something we still desperately need more of today.
I had trouble posting my comment - below - and when it did log the bloody thing reduced my 5* rating to a 3* which is wrong. So I have returned to add the proper 5*s to this extraordinary piece of theatre. - rds
18 May 07
OK - 5 may seen extra generous, but having just got back from NYC after 15 shows in 10 days this came as a complete revelation. In the past two weeks I have seen millions of dollars splashed around on stage. Nothing though could have prepared me for this. I was completely bowled over by Lizzie Clachan's simply superb design. The play however is not in the same category. But, having said that, it still made for a thought provoking, challenging, and at times very entertaining evening. And the night I went, all for a fiver! That's ridiculous! In the cast particular credit should go to Sid Mitchell, who I first saw in Burn/Citizenship at the NT. He is a charismatic performer who ably held this somewhat patchily written piece together. Apart from the problems with the writing anyone who would like to see something new, imaginative and stimulating and at times thrilling in the theatre today - just get yourself over to The Lyric Hammersmith - you won't be dissappointed. - rds
18 May 07
the stagig was fantastic and is always moving and showing somthing more but the acting is slightly off. Some actors are very bland and kill the atmosphere. the riot should have been more like the book and not in dance. the music was great and kept in with the 1950's style jazz. - Katherine Cossins
09 May 07
I loved everything about this show. Roy Williams has long been a favourite playwright; now he delivers an excellent adaptation which manages to respect the book and its period yet seem contemporary and relevant. He has been well served by the director and designer(s)(amazing set!) and a very good ensemble led by a terrific central performance by 'narrator' Sid Mitchell. A treat ! - Gareth James
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