Performed in French, with English surtitles, Mohamed El Khatib’s A Beautiful Ending might be described as theatrical (auto)biography, or as journalistic experimentation, or an approximation thereof . . . I hesitate to throw an easy tagline at this knotty, sometimes variable account of a mother’s death. I can say, in spite of a few misgivings, that I am glad that it is on stage here in Birmingham . . .
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Unlike the sixties, the 1970s have yet to take on the mantle of sexiness and most things related to it are considered a bit naff . . . Round and Round the Garden is a pleasant enough diversion about boring people – or, at least, boring men – leading their hum-drum tedious lives as vets, estate agents and assistant librarians hoping for a bit of excitement and distraction by groping each other’s spouses . . .
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The Young Vic has made a name for itself in recent years for its bold interpretations and inventive staging – and this performance of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is nothing less than you would expect of a Carrie Cracknell and Lucy Guerin directed production. It aims to take Macbeth in a direction it has never been seen before, posing the idea that Duncan is a tyrant and that Macbeth’s deeds are a coup and for the good of Scotland – more a moral act than one of ambition on Macbeth’s part . . .
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I am constantly (pleasantly) reminded of theatre’s ability to connect with audiences on the flimsiest of pretexts and by the same token, the willingness of audiences to be entertained on the slenderest of devices . . . Using no more than a collection of simple conceits of the sort that occupy the labours of actors at drama school and the kind of silliness that infests umpteen fringe shows the length and breadth of the land the troupe have whisked up a concoction that flirts with incomprehension at every turn
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Apart from making the play a little more accessible to some theatre-going punters little has changed in terms of the overall arc of the play. Any temptation to concentrate on the love story has been resisted, with due weight being given to what Rebecca Goldstein has referred to as, ‘mattering’, that is that self-reflection of an individual’s worth; a question which has been troubling us since Homer’s Illiad . . . The music underlines the emotional journey that mirrors the intellectual struggle that finds its flowering in the meeting of two minds, which is the bedrock of Jane’s relationship with Rochester.
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Sarah Hamilton Baker is as good an advert to get involved with the REP Foundry as one might imagine. Her onstage persona (if it is indeed a persona) feels at once easy and improvisational, yet calibrated perfectly for this kind of show. She is effusive but never shambolic. . . She compels the audience to consider their own relationship to sex and pornography, educating them a little in the process, sharing her own experience, and all the while making them hoot, holler and occasionally snigger . . .
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