The Hudsucker Proxy Liverpool Playhouse 5th June 2015

Is Norville Barnes really gonna jelly-up the sidewalk?

You could spot audience members who knew Joel & Ethan Coen's film because they were the ones chortling to themselves a split second ahead of the delivery of the gags. Other than a neat theatrical framing using the prologue, Simon Dormandy has remained reverently faithful to much of the screen text and narrative in his adaptation for the stage, making a very theatrical piece of cinema into a very cinematic piece of theatre.

However, taking it as theatre in its own right, this new adaptation co-produced by Liverpool Everyman Playhouse and Nuffield Southampton (where it premiered last month) stands as legitimately on the stage as though it has been born there, and those who have not seen the original neednt feel they have to revise beforehand.

In a nutshell, and with as few spoilers as possible, when company president Waring Hudsucker takes a dive from the 44th floor of the Hudsucker building (45th if you count the mezzanine) the board replace him with the seemingly witless mailroom assistant Norville Barnes in order to depress the stock. When he comes up with a stroke of genius that foils their plans, they have to resort to desperate measures to achieve their goal.

Not only has Simon Dormandy written the adaptation and co-directed with Toby Sedgewick, but he has also had to step into the shoes of Clive Wood, who was to have played Vice President Sidney Mussberger before having to step down following an incident in rehearsals. If the play gets the continued life it deserves beyond its current run we may yet get to find out what Clive Wood made of the role but, as it is, its hard to imagine a better fit for the part than Dormandy. For the same reason Tim Lewis, whose lead character is the lift-operator Buzz, adeptly takes a role originally rehearsed by Liverpool's own Nathan McMullen.

There are some excellent characterisations from a cast who all play multiple parts, and its hard to pick highlights, but watch out for Rob Castell's astonishingly malleable face, Tamsin Griffin's platinum blonde, Nick Cavaliere's swagger, David Webber's all knowing clock man Moses, and Sinead Matthews' wily but affecting Amy Archer.

Holding it all together is a magnetic central performance by Joseph Timms as Norville Barnes, whose fortunes rise and fall faster than the elevator. He is brilliantly cast in the part and fills the role with naive optimism and tremendous energy.

The production is made in association with Complicite, whose trademark physicality is visible in so many scenes, and the inventiveness of movement and the deft use of props and performance space keeps the piece rattling along with as much precision and clockwork as the great timepiece at the top of the Hudsucker building.

The look of the play is every bit as stylish as the acting is slick with Dick Bird's complex set, in which physical scenery blends with mapped video projection from Tim Bird. This allows for some brilliant cinematic touches, such as the rolling of the presses as a news item hits the front page. It also means that scene changes are as seamless as if they were on the screen. The whole look and feel captures the era perfectly.

Apply the final gloss of lighting and sound design from Paul Keogan and Gareth Fry and what you get is almost 2 hours of fast-paced theatre that delivers a morality tale with its tongue firmly in its cheek and is a joy to watch.

The Hudsucker Proxy continues at Liverpool Playhouse until 27th June.

Joseph Timms - Photo © Clare Park

Catch 22 – Liverpool Playhouse – 27/05/2014

“Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for.”

Another great example, like 1984's room 101, of a novel from which the precept has transcended the work itself and even become part of our language.

Everybody knows a Catch 22 situation when they find one - I recall once trying to help someone get a Council Tax exemption on the grounds of severe mental impairment. The thing was that, at the time, if you were able to complete the form then you automatically disqualified yourself.

This is parallel to (if less life-threatening than) the situation that Bombardier John Yossarian finds himself in as he tries to get himself sent home before being ordered on yet another flight. Trouble is, if he has the presence of mind to ask for it he’s clearly quite sane, unlike the unhinged Colonel Cathcart, the neurotic Chaplain Tappman and the completely certifiable flight surgeon Doctor Daneeka.

Cathcart keeps increasing the number of flights each member of the squadron must undertake and Yossarian’s efforts to remain grounded become ever more desperate.

Joseph Heller adapted his novel for theatre in 1971, a decade after the book’s publication, but productions have been few and far between. While the difficulties of bringing the problematic timeline to the stage remain clear, this new production from Northern Stage makes a good fist of it. There are still difficulties in keeping a hold of the narrative threads, but characterful performances from a great cast and fast-paced direction from Rachel Chavkin do manage to hold us with them throughout – no mean feat, as the play runs for over three hours.

The cast of nine actors all play multiple roles with the exception of Philip Arditti, who is outstanding in the role of Yossarian. There are times when we think he may have lost his marbles but for the most part he appears the sanest of them all. With huge amounts of dialogue to deliver but the most continuous narrative line, he holds the show together.

Impossible to mention them all, but highlights of characterisation have to be Michael Hodgson as Cathcart, David Webber’s Major Major and Doc Daneeka and Geoff Arnold’s Chaplain. Daniel Ainsworth and Victoria Bewick also deliver some strong emotional scenes.

The timing is excellent and it needs to be; there are some comic exchanges that could almost come from Sgt. Bilko and even a couple of surreal dance episodes, all of which intercut seamlessly with the darker and more sinister material.

The set for the production is by Jon Bausor and lit by Charles Balfour. A cut open shell of a bomber aircraft appears almost to have crash-landed in the corrugated steel hangar that fills the stage and vegetation and debris sprout out from under its wings and fuselage. From a high viewpoint you see the scale and detail of the set, while from stalls level it becomes a more enclosed space. It affords a variety of performing levels, including a representation of a treetop eerie for Yossarian to perch and contemplate – and possibly cool off.

This is undeniably a very awkward work to dramatise, but Chavkin’s approach to Heller’s troublesome adaptation makes it work, and it proves to be both a thought provoking and entertaining evening.

Catch 22 from Northern Stage is at Liverpool Playhouse until Saturday 31st May.

The production continues touring via Southampton, Oxford and Derby, closing in Richmond on 28th June.

Catch 22 - Photo, Northern Stage