THREE SHORT PLAYS

Phoenix Theatre Company at Christ Church

12.02.10

Chekhov very much the man of the moment – we celebrated his 150th birthday just the other week.

And it was his “Celebration”, a Joke in One Act, which was top of the bill in this pick'n'mix programme.

Successful banker Shipuchin [Neil Smith] is a stickler for style, but his world crashes round his ears, thanks to the interventions of his clerk – Andy Millward, holding our attention with his grumpy misogyny – and two women, his larger than life windbag wife [ a nice character study by Joan Lanario ] and a hilariously determined Irish suppliant [Faye Armstrong]. Michael Lewis's production convincingly charted Shipuchin's descent into weary, nervous collapse.

Hamlet's famous question is referenced in the Chekhov. We were up to speed with it, since we'd just seen Stoppard's brilliantly filleted Shakespeare, in which Millward played a surly Dane, supported by a hard-working cast including Leila Francis as both Gertrude and Ophelia, Reg Peters as a tragic Laertes, and Chris Wright as practically everyone else. No attempt at the world record here, with a deliberate pace marked by the slow change of scene, and a surreal trumpeter playing random hits from the repertoire. I liked the chairs for the encore, though here, I think, a manic pace is de rigueur.

The great Russian master of the 19th Century. The greatest dramatist ever, through the eyes of one of the 20th century finest dramatist. And Jim Sperinck. His Cobblers' Ball was a lame look at the melodrama, only partly redeemed by Rob Francis's laconic simpleton and Angela Gee's man-eating aristocrat.

EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR

National Theatre at the Olivier

14.02.09

I first saw this unique blend of music and theatre in 1977, when the limitations of the Festival Hall made it much more of a concert performance than it is in Tom Morris's imaginative staging.

Stoppard has said that the two elements are necessary to each other. Though his collaboration with Previn apparently consisted of his handing the script over with a cheery “Your turn, André !”

The strength of this new production are the involvement – sometimes very intimate involvement – of the young musicians of the Southbank Sinfoni, under Simon Over, and the three central performances of Toby Jones as the crazy Ivanov, Joseph Millson as the gaunt, haunted dissident Ivanov, and Dan Stevens as the Doctor who plays the fiddle.

Opinions were divided about Bryony Hannah's Sacha – a moving, well-observed characterization, but still a mature woman where, as I think Stoppard was trying to say tactfully, we needed an unsophisticated, clear-sighted child.

Dated ? Certainly the music would be done differently thirty years on, but the jokes are still fresh and funny, and the human rights issues still sadly relevant, and not funny at all.