LONDON Jamie Zabairi
FILM:
The British promotional machine is beginning to crank up a gear with Guy Ritchie’s new film
‘Snatch’, after the success of ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’. Brad Pitt is seen in town again with the premiere imminent.
THEATRE
Openings - Wednesday 9th August:
The New Alan Ayckbourn set of two plays ‘House’ and ‘Garden’. A cleverly written piece
playing on the same nights at the Olivier and Lyttleton. Every time an actor from ‘House’ leaves the stage, he enters the set of ‘Garden’ and vice versa. Also ‘Sholom Aleichem - Now You’re Talking!’ at the New End in Hampstead.
Friday 10th August:
‘The Works’ Battersea Arts Centre Opera Season at the BAC.
Wednesday 16th August:
‘Heights’ and ‘Wolf Kiss’ at the Triple Crown Pub.
REVIEWS
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Steppenwolf Theatre at the Barbican Theatre. Directed by Terry Kinney. Designed by Robert Brill
Gary Sinise heads this brilliant ensemble company, playing the rebellious RP McMurphy, against Amy Morton’s collected Nurse Ratched in Dale Wasserman’s staged version of the Ken Kesey novel. The powerful opening bars to Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Chile’ sets the scene for the mid sixties, belying the calm clinical set of the hospital ward. I am moved by the company, who perform with such intensity commitment and energy, it is hard to find anything that would weaken this production. The play itself, however, does feel slightly dated, with its misogynistic slant on psychotherapy: Misha Kuznetsov’s only line of ‘Fuck the wife!’, repeated at well-timed intervals. The ice-cool, impenetrable Nurse Ratched, playing Mother to her all-male patients. The other female characters providing a catalyst to the sexual tension that underscores the text.
Sinise’ portrayal of McMurphy is irreverent, creating a myriad of moments of play and interplay on stage that were hard to discern whether it was all a joke to the character or to the actor himself. The boundless energy that he brings to the role is only heightened by the moments of tenderness with Tim Sampson’s Chief Bromden. And the voiced-over inner monologues that the Chief has are part of an evocative photo-montage (which also serve as part of the scene changes) projected onto the back wall of the set, designed beautifully by Sage Carter, in collaboration with the sound designer Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen. The one moment that will remain with me will be Eric Johner’s Billy Bibbit, reaching for Ratched’s leg in a final act of pleading which leads to McMurphy’s betrayal. Simple. Sublime.
The Prayer Talawa Theatre at The Young Vic Studio. Directed by Michael Buffong. Designed by Ellen Cairns
On a bare grey set with one brown leather chair and a Formica dining table, the we knew that we weren’t in for an easy evening of light entertainment. Low lighting contrasting with harsh white lights on the painted floorcloth with it’s shattered glass image all contribute to the tension before the play even starts.
The play is a four hander, written by Grant Buchanan Marshall (who received the Alfred Fagon Award for this play in 1999 when it was first produced) and focuses on the domestic life of a small Jamaican immigrant family in the 1950s and, in the second half, the 1970s. The play opens with Mother, played by the dub poet Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze and the son Granville, played by Anthony Lennon, suitcase in hand attempting to thumb a lift of passing cars. We get to understand that her husband has a history of domestic physical abuse.
Father, played by Gordon Case a proud man, who has much to prove as a black man in London, newly arrived to the country with his wife and young child. A man who wants his family to succeed and puts pressure on Granville to do well. All Granville wants to do is learn how to play the trumpet. All Mother wants is a quiet life. It transpires that while the Father’s labours is proving to be fruitful (a union man, he gets elected by John, the trade representative played by Dominic Letts, to be union leader), the pressure he puts on his son also increases. At night, he makes sure the Granville knows his prayers by forcing him to learn The Lord’s Prayer by rote. Because of the pressure Granville often fails and instead privately makes up his own Lord’s Prayer which revealed the extent of the abuse that was going on. And the violence is thankfully choreographed not to look realistic, but by suggestion, looked even more violent than if Albie Ollivierre’s had used proper technique. It doesn’t detract from the play and isn’t gratuitously overdone.
Lennon’s portrayal of the Granville growing from 8 to 28 is well observed. From the excitable naïve child, the stubborn 11 year old, to the weary man, is deftly handled. In one of the only moments of respite for the character, Mother has convinced Father to buy Granville a trumpet and in the closing to the first half we hear the wonderful strains of Miles Russell’s emotive trumpet playing out ‘Amazing Grace’.
The second half reveals a plush sofa and an occasional table that is laden with crystal glasses and a whiskey decanter. Jean, now draped in bright pink velvet caftan and white fox -fur, it is the 1970s and there is an air of comfortability about. Gordon has succeeded in his life that he is being presented with an OBE for his services to the union. They are waiting for a taxi to pick them up and take them to the ceremony. The doorbell rings and it is Granville, wild-eyed and angry, ragged in dirty clothes and a scar on the corner of his top lip. In this brilliant final scene Marshall raises the stakes in this conflict by making Granville an outcast with a gun out to right the wrongs that were put on him all those years ago. The cast handles the subject matter with the energy and intensity that it deserves, with the almost unblinking Jean Breeze providing lighter moments with a performance of strength and integrity with flashes of humour. And a stare that would pin you to the back wall at 100 yards.
© 2000 Jamie Zabairi ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The year 2000 has not been a good one for the Norwegian film industry’s national organization Norsk Film AS. According to “Dagbladet”, one of the country’s largest newspapers, the organization’s last four films sold only 10,000 tickets combined. Even when one considers the population of Norway at just about 5 million, this is a dismal number for the directors to face. There has even been talk of canceling the organization’s government subsidy.
The newspapers like to say Norwegians pick on Norwegian films. Perhaps they do. After all, Norwegians have excelled in many of the arts: Ibsen is fundamental to contemporary theater, Grieg highlights a period of music history, and Munch’s “The Scream” has even been parodied on American sitcoms. Where are the great Norwegian filmmakers?
One could say that Norwegian filmmakers could never hope to compete with the familiar names and big budgets of American films (which overwhelm the theaters here), yet Norwegian films are rarely able to match the distribution of other Scandinavian films. Why? I don’t believe it is for lack of talent.
Norwegian films have broken through now and again. For example Orion’s Belt, 1985, directed by Ola Solum won several awards, and in 1997, The Pathfinder, directed by Nils Gaup earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film. It was filmed in the Sami language and is a powerful and haunting depiction of a Sami folktale. Hamsun, directed by Jon Troell in 1996 is a co-operation between Danish, Swedish and Norwegian filmmakers. Though long (two and a half hours) and heavy, the film is quite good. Junk Mail, directed by Pål Sletaune in 1997 was popular and well received by the critics. There is also exciting work being done in the active grassroots milieu on both the west and east coasts.
Very many of Norsk Film AS’s offerings the last decade have been intellectual, “art” films. Few even claim to seek a mass audience. In general, I do think Norwegian films tend to exist in the shadow of Ingmar Bergman. Liv Ullman, his companion and colleague for many years, has enhanced his influence on Norwegian film. Even the recent children’s film directed by Vibeke Idsøe (1996) Hunting the Kidney Stone was curiously moody and oppressive despite the wonderfully fun costumes (Remember HR Pufnstuf?). Considering the country is smothered in darkness so much of the year, maybe this explains why (for the moment) the audiences would rather line up for Mission Impossible 2.
August 26th is the first day of the annual international film festival in Haugesund. In the course of 7 days 100 new films will be screened. Among them is Liv Ullman’s latest film, Unfaithful, which was written by Ingmar Bergmann . The closing film for the festival is Aberdeen directed by the Norwegian Hans Petter Moland and starring the Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking the Waves).
But by way of a light summer film by a Norwegian… Our hope lies with the cult writer Erlend Loe and his film Detekter directed by first-time director Paal Jackman, and Odd Little Man, a nostalgic comedy based on Odd Børrentzen’s memoirs and directed by Stein Leikanger.
We hope there’ll be something Norwegian for everyone this time around.
© 2000 Ren Powell ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Don Bridges Australia
Claudine Jones San Francisco
Michael Bettencourt Boston
Jamie Zabairi London
Ren Powell Norway
Steve&Lucille Esquerre New Orleans
august 2000
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