The Misanthrope - Roger McGough, after Moliere - Liverpool Playhouse 20/03/2013

I think even Roger McGough himself was nonplussed when asked to write an adaptation of Molière's Tartuffe for presentation at the Liverpool Playhouse during 2008, Liverpool's Capital of Culture year.

The result, however, became the stuff of legend, and was followed in 2009 by a second outing, the Hypochondriac, which was equally well received.

Those of us lucky enough to have seen these two productions have held a sort of hope that they'd do it again - and they have - for one last time, we're told.

The kind of farce, frippery and wordplay that worked in 17th Century France doesn't exactly translate easily, as others have discovered to their cost. It takes a man with the ear for it to do justice to creating a new English version of these plays, which retains the meaning but more importantly restores the sharp acerbic wit in a manner that really works. Luckily, Roger McGough has just such an ear, and the poetic voice to go with it.

As with the previous instalments of what has now become a trilogy, the production is directed by the Everyman Playhouse company's artistic director, Gemma Bodinetz, and she and her creative team have assembled a pretty much perfect cast for the task. There are one or two "McGoughiere" regulars and others new to the team, but they act together as a perfectly choreographed whole, and not just in the scenes that required a choreographer.

This work runs a little less amok than Tartuffe or the Hypochondriac, with less of the Brian Rix slamming of doors and running about and a little more time for us to savour the characters and the relentless wit of the text.

Colin Tierney in the part of Alceste, the eponymous misanthrope who refuses early on to conform to the required convention of speaking in verse, is wickedly funny, savouring his lines like delicate canapés. We can almost see him tasting the words as they roll from his tongue and his eyes do a fair bit of rolling themselves, adding a drop of relish to each line as he lets them hang in the air, visibly cringing on occasions when he lets loose an inadvertent rhyme.

But this is not a vehicle for one star, and the entire cast work as a well-oiled machine in some really splendid ensemble work, whilst the text allows for all the players to have space in the spotlight and develop their characters. Daniel Goode’s one-eyed Oronte is at times cringingly funny as he seems to embarrass himself more at every turn in his quest to woo Célimène. Leander Deeney and George Potts play a splendid double-act as Clitandre and Acaste, teetering close to the edge of falling into pantomime dame territory but never quite slipping over the edge. Watch out for some splendid business (sorry) with a pair of lapdogs, but don’t worry; no animals were harmed in the making of this production!

Completing the male line-up are Simon Coates as Alceste’s friend Philinte and Neil Caple as his manservant. Coates has appeared in all three of these adaptations and was most recently seen on this stage in The Alchemist. His deft delivery of advice to his friend in delicious verse is something I shall not forget in a long time. Neil Caple too was in the Hypochondriac and I also recall him from that Scottish play at the Everyman. Nothing so serious here, as he provides a foil to all the elegance and finery, his character struggling to find rhymes at the end of almost every appearance.

And what of our three ladies? Harvey Virdi as Arsinoé makes her presence felt as a powerful ally, or maybe adversary, to Célimène, distinctively decked in black. Alison Pargeter’s Eliante is a delicate flower, and at one point to be seen tending the garden, only to have her efforts trampled underfoot by... who would that be?

But it is probably Zara Tempest Walters who cuts the most commanding presence of all as the tale’s central love-interest, Célimène. I do hope that the two staff responsible for wardrobe maintenance have a copious supply of feathers, as with every move she sends flurries of them swirling into the wings, and into the front rows of the audience, her extravagant costume occupying more space on the stage than two or three of the other players put together. She manages to tread a line between seduction and coquettishness that keeps the rest of the cast on their toes throughout.

On the subject of wardrobe, how can our cast fail to get into character when dressed in such exquisitely detailed costumes? Sitting at the front of the stalls I was simply amazed by the attention to detail. The set, too, is a delight; allowing plenty of space for movement while setting the tone and atmosphere for the entire piece. The way it cleverly suggests an enclosed highly decorated interior but allows for a simple transformation to a garden is a both practical and effective solution to the rapid scene changes needed to maintain the pace. Designer Michael Taylor was also responsible for the Ladykillers here at the Playhouse and on tour, and his designs for this production, while less complex, are every bit as carefully thought through and detailed. Keep your eyes peeled at the very end, as the set gives up one last quirky surprise for the closing scene.

The production is beautifully lit by Paul Keogan, while Peter Coyte’s music and Fergus O’Hare’s sound design add the finishing glossy touches. These three have previously worked with Gemma Bodinetz, between them including Streetcar, Macbeth and Tartuffe.

The Misanthrope runs to 9th March 2013 at Liverpool Playhouse and is then touring until 1st June.
See www.everymanplayhouse.com or www.ett.org.uk for details and tickets.

The Four Seasons - Liverpool Philharmonic Hall – 21/02/2013

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, JS Bach: Orchestral Suite No.1 in C, WF Bach: Concerto in F minor for Harpsichord - Giuliano Carmignola: violin, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Ottavio Dantone: conductor/harpsichord.

I am not very keen on Baroque music in general, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons has been piped down so many phone lines at me that I have developed a special aversion to that work in particular.

However, I had a ticket as part of my subscription, so I braced myself and went along. And guess what? I actually enjoyed it.

Violin soloist Giuliano Carmignola, in his Phil debut, gave a stylish reading of the four concertos that make up The Seasons without ever becoming overindulgent. The string orchestra (configured 6/5/4/3/2) was augmented by both chamber organ and archlute, with conductor Ottavio Dantone giving lively and sometimes almost demonic direction from the harpsichord.

Now these are quite substantial forces for such a work, but with Dantone’s imaginative use of sound and texture and the way in which Carmignola played with rather than against them, resulted in a very lucid, well balanced effect. Mr Carmignola also seemed to enjoy the passages in which he had dialogue with other string soloists from the orchestra. There was a freshness of approach that brought out some very striking rhythms and colours. By the time we reached the opening of Winter I began to wonder whether Bernard Herrmann had ever heard it played like this, as its vertiginous phrasing at times put me in mind in of his score for Psycho. Enthusiastic applause drew a reprise of a single movement as an encore.

Prior to the interval, the same 20 strings began the concert joined by two oboes and a bassoon, with harpsichord continuo, in the 1st orchestral suite by JS Bach. Ottavio Dantone clearly loves this music and directed it with a lightness of touch that again gave us a sense of the excitement of hearing it for the first time.

Something that I actually was hearing for the first time was the remaining item in the first half, the harpsichord concerto in F minor by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Johann Sebasian’s eldest son. For this the wind players disappeared for an early bath and the violins and violas dispensed with their chairs to perform standing. Again Dantone directed from the keyboard and gave an elegant yet sprightly performance of the concerto. In a hall this size, designed for a full symphony orchestra, a harpsichord does struggle to fill the space as it might in a smaller recital room. Nonetheless the ensemble had clearly worked at the dynamics to avoid submerging the soloist in all but a very few places.

It was a very welcome surprise to see the return of Thelma Handy leading the orchestra after recovering, I am told, from an injury that has kept her absent since before Christmas.

All of this made for an unexpectedly delightful evening, and made me reassess my opinion of some repertoire I have been avoiding for some time.

For details of future events at Philharmonic Hall, visit: www.liverpoolphil.com

Sink Or Swim – Spike Theatre at the Playhouse Studio – 18/02/2013

Liverpool based Spike Theatre Company are celebrating their 15th anniversary with this, their 20th original production, which runs for one week only in the Playhouse’s intimate Studio Theatre prior to a tour of eight further venues until mid-March.

Forget Jerome K Jerome. This “Three Men in a Boat” saga is more Life of Pi without the tiger as our hapless protagonists, shipwrecked and adrift in a lifeboat, try to figure out how to survive. Whilst Swab Hand Bottle (Graham Geoffrey Hicks) and Able Seaman Jim Black (Paul Duckworth) seem to relish the added flavour from the weevils in the ship’s biscuits, Officer Gideon Oliver (Shaun Mason) doesn’t care for the taste and chucks the lot overboard. And so it goes for the 70 minutes of the single act, with the twists and turns of life at sea providing everything from slapstick to genuine pathos, with some surprisingly dark humour in between.

From the witty shadow play of the opening to the surreal and unexpectedly moving close, it is performed and directed with skill and expert timing. The trio of performers (all of whom are also credited as “devisors”) act instinctively together. On the opening night which I attended, an adhesive related problem, that caused one of our crew to lose bits of himself in the last ten minutes, resulted in the sort of ad-libbing that only comes from a group of actors who really know their craft. The ensuing hilarity subsided just in time to allow for the emotional payoff of the closing scene.

Kevin Pollard’s small but perfectly formed set and Josh Keogh’s excellent lighting design (his first professional credit) should continue to work perfectly on the forthcoming tour.

If you’re up for a great evening of inventive, imaginative and splendidly crafted theatre, try to get a ticket for this if you can. As I write, all but one remaining performance at the Playhouse are completely sold out. Visit: www.sinkorswim-spiketheatre.com to find tour dates and details.
also see www.everymanplayhouse.com for what's on at the Playhouse and Playhouse Studio.

Rigoletto – MetOpera Live – 16/02/2013

Giuseppe Verdi – Rigoletto - New York Metropolitan Opera Live in HD at FACT Liverpool.

This new production of Rigoletto, which opened on 28th January 2013, has been made for the Met by Michel Mayer, a broadway director making his first venture onto the opera stage. The Met told him that they were happy with the opera being reset in a new location and era as long as it followed the original plot line scene by scene.

Mayer took the decision of moving the action from 16th Century Mantua to 1960s Las Vegas, on the basis that he felt many of the characters and plot drivers translated well from one to the other, the Vegas of the Rat Pack mirroring many of the same decadent and immoral aspects of society.

The scene is set in and around a casino, owned by the Duke, and many of the characters are modelled on specific individuals from the Rat Pack era.

In the opening act, surrounded by gaming tables and wall to wall neon, Piotr Beczala’s Duke delivers “Questa o quella” singing into a prop microphone, to the delight of the casino customers. In the scene where Gilda is abducted she is carted off stage in an Egyptian style sarcophagus which had earlier carried a cabaret artist into the casino and when, in the final act, she is delivered to her father on the verge of death she has been bundled into the boot of a car.

There are some stunning vocal performances from this excellent cast, most notable among which are Željko Lučić as Rigoletto and Diana Damrau as Gilda. Lučić is very familiar with this role and sings it with tremendous authority and great stage presence. Damrau’s Gilda has a sensitivity and frailty and we really sense her feeling of isolation, hidden away in her father’s apartment, although she looks rather more likely to be his sister than his daughter. Also noteworthy is Štephan Kocán’s outstanding Sparafucile, whose deliciously dark portrayal of a contract killer is quite chilling.

Michele Mariotti directs the Met Orchestra in a stylish and detailed account of Verdi’s score, while some of the tempi are broad to the point of being relaxed (especially in Gilda’s arias) and occasionally lose much of the expected tension.

The settings are visually striking, with gaudy colours and flashing neon in abundance, and the equally flamboyant costumes certainly have a look of the intended period.

On the whole I was undecided whether the production entirely worked. The juxtaposition of the text, sung in its original Italian by transformed characters in ’60s Vegas, was something that never quite felt believable. Michael Panayos and Paul Cremo have written an adapted set of subtitles for this version which attempt to bend the text to fit Mayer’s new interpretation of the story, but this didn’t really help a great deal. The fact that we could hear the cast singing lines that clearly didn’t fit the scenario did unfortunately sound very incongruous.

It was in the last act that the production came into its own. The very much more impressionist set design, with a backdrop comprised of a massive abstract neon curtain, allowed us to concentrate more on the drama on stage. Clever use of flashes of white among the sea of blue light created the thunderstorm that accompanies the increasingly dark developments of the plot. It was in these closing scenes that we finally began to care about the characters, and with Rigoletto’s final cries of anguish at the fulfilment of the curse Verdi’s intended sense of tragedy was restored.

My feeling was that this production would have been more successful had it been performed with a new English version of the text to match the concept. Leaving the original Italian intact while changing the character roles so much was a little too much of a stretch of credulity. That said, I much prefer to hear these pieces sung in their original language.

With eyes closed this was an aurally satisfying performance, albeit lacking a little drive in some dramatic passages. It was very satisfying visually too, but the two experiences did not quite belong together.

For the HD cinema relay the cast interviews showed that even some of the key players were a little unclear as to exactly who or what they were basing their characters upon. Željko Lučić, on being asked how he found singing such a familiar role in a new setting, told Renée Fleming that he had “nothing against” this new production and that he had approached playing the part exactly as he would in any other version.

Direction for the screen was good, with a sufficient number of long shots to give us a sense of the full scale of the staging and not too many of the extreme close-ups that are occasionally overused. The sound was well balanced and gave a good sense of atmosphere, although the extended passages for offstage band at the opening lacked some presence.