Theatre review: The Sea
Now, was there some reason I was particularly looking forward to going to see The Sea last night?
What? Russell Tovey was in it? Well knock me down with a feather, I had no idea.
The Sea is supposedly Edward Bond's response to Shakespeare's The Tempest, much like his Lear was a response to, well, have a guess. But apart from opening with a storm at sea the parallels aren't that close. A small coastal town in 1907 is shaken up when a storm sinks a boat, drowning a local man and washing up his friend Willy Carson on the shore. The town's self-appointed, undisputed figurehead, Mrs Rafi, takes Carson under her wing while they wait for the inquest, and he starts a relationship with the drowned man's fiancée. But the deranged draper, Hatch, thinks Carson is the first of an invading army of aliens, and begins a paranoid crusade against him.
Technically a comedy, this is a very odd play - there's a strong absurdist slant, Bond mixing Shakespeare with Beckett and Wilde. The comedy comes in very broad farcical strokes, interspersed with philosophical musings - the play's main failing, as these tend to go on a bit and not really lead anywhere. But Jonathan Kent's production (the second in his trio as Artistic Director of the TRH for a year) is wildly atmospheric, Paul Brown's grey stone set and particularly Mark Henderson's shadowy lighting adding to the apocalyptic mood.
The big star names are Eileen Atkins as Louise Rafi, in her element as a wealthy dowager who makes Lady Bracknell look positively sympathetic, secure in her certainty that people of her class are duty-bound to oppress and terrify their social inferiors, and hilariously overacting in her vanity project of a community play; and David Haig as Hatch, being driven to financial ruin by Mrs Rafi's outrageous demands and losing his mind in the process, he's also doing what he's best at, frantically running around, sweating and becoming ever more desperate, until in a scene of grotesque farce he ends up stabbing a corpse in the belief that it'll hold off the alien invasion. Marcia Warren is very funny as Mrs Tilehouse, Mrs Rafi's sidekick, wildly fluctuating between adoration and hatred for her patron. And Selina Griffiths, who was recently very good in Cranford, plays another funny role here.
As for Russell Tovey, he plays Hollarcut, one of several "wise fools" in the story, sent by Hatch to spy on Carson. Largely a comedy figure (another actor here cast to his strengths) he emerges as the only person among the self-obsessed villagers to have any empathy, raging against the disrespect shown by everyone to the mentally-ill Hatch, and eventually demanding that Carson call him "Mr Hollarcut" in an attempt to salvage some respect for himself. Obviously I was predisposed to like him, but I do think he was excellent, and made what could have been one of many similar roles stand out as individual. Pics!
The other bit of male totty was Harry Lloyd, and after his excellent Doctor Who guest role last year I was looking forward to seeing him as well.
He's certainly very pretty but I was disappointed with his performance - his Willy Carson is strangely stilted, obviously a conscious decision, but for the most part it doesn't really allow you into the character, and only really works towards the end when it's employed towards some dry comic lines. Similarly, he and Mariah Gale as Rose don't have chemistry, which seems to be intentional as a distancing effect, but is still a bit odd. So overall this isn't your standard evening at the theatre. The play's uneven but it's worth seeing for the performances, which apart from a few glitches are great.
Oh and one more excuse to wax lyrical about Russell Tovey: As soon as he was out of character for the curtain call he was instantly in cheeky-chappie mode, chatting excitedly to Harry Lloyd before bounding off the stage like Tigger. How cute! OK I'll shut up now.
The Sea by Edward Bond is booking until the 19th of April at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
What? Russell Tovey was in it? Well knock me down with a feather, I had no idea.
The Sea is supposedly Edward Bond's response to Shakespeare's The Tempest, much like his Lear was a response to, well, have a guess. But apart from opening with a storm at sea the parallels aren't that close. A small coastal town in 1907 is shaken up when a storm sinks a boat, drowning a local man and washing up his friend Willy Carson on the shore. The town's self-appointed, undisputed figurehead, Mrs Rafi, takes Carson under her wing while they wait for the inquest, and he starts a relationship with the drowned man's fiancée. But the deranged draper, Hatch, thinks Carson is the first of an invading army of aliens, and begins a paranoid crusade against him.
Technically a comedy, this is a very odd play - there's a strong absurdist slant, Bond mixing Shakespeare with Beckett and Wilde. The comedy comes in very broad farcical strokes, interspersed with philosophical musings - the play's main failing, as these tend to go on a bit and not really lead anywhere. But Jonathan Kent's production (the second in his trio as Artistic Director of the TRH for a year) is wildly atmospheric, Paul Brown's grey stone set and particularly Mark Henderson's shadowy lighting adding to the apocalyptic mood.
The big star names are Eileen Atkins as Louise Rafi, in her element as a wealthy dowager who makes Lady Bracknell look positively sympathetic, secure in her certainty that people of her class are duty-bound to oppress and terrify their social inferiors, and hilariously overacting in her vanity project of a community play; and David Haig as Hatch, being driven to financial ruin by Mrs Rafi's outrageous demands and losing his mind in the process, he's also doing what he's best at, frantically running around, sweating and becoming ever more desperate, until in a scene of grotesque farce he ends up stabbing a corpse in the belief that it'll hold off the alien invasion. Marcia Warren is very funny as Mrs Tilehouse, Mrs Rafi's sidekick, wildly fluctuating between adoration and hatred for her patron. And Selina Griffiths, who was recently very good in Cranford, plays another funny role here.
As for Russell Tovey, he plays Hollarcut, one of several "wise fools" in the story, sent by Hatch to spy on Carson. Largely a comedy figure (another actor here cast to his strengths) he emerges as the only person among the self-obsessed villagers to have any empathy, raging against the disrespect shown by everyone to the mentally-ill Hatch, and eventually demanding that Carson call him "Mr Hollarcut" in an attempt to salvage some respect for himself. Obviously I was predisposed to like him, but I do think he was excellent, and made what could have been one of many similar roles stand out as individual. Pics!
The other bit of male totty was Harry Lloyd, and after his excellent Doctor Who guest role last year I was looking forward to seeing him as well.
He's certainly very pretty but I was disappointed with his performance - his Willy Carson is strangely stilted, obviously a conscious decision, but for the most part it doesn't really allow you into the character, and only really works towards the end when it's employed towards some dry comic lines. Similarly, he and Mariah Gale as Rose don't have chemistry, which seems to be intentional as a distancing effect, but is still a bit odd. So overall this isn't your standard evening at the theatre. The play's uneven but it's worth seeing for the performances, which apart from a few glitches are great.
Oh and one more excuse to wax lyrical about Russell Tovey: As soon as he was out of character for the curtain call he was instantly in cheeky-chappie mode, chatting excitedly to Harry Lloyd before bounding off the stage like Tigger. How cute! OK I'll shut up now.
The Sea by Edward Bond is booking until the 19th of April at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.