JANUARY - FEBRUARYS ----------------------------In this issue--------------------------------------- The Play's the Thing: Faustus as Victim and Villain 2002 NY Theatre Preview Letter from London: The play "What I wrote" breaking West End records, and Times Preview: Benedict Nightingale's annual look at what's planned across the pond Voices in Contemporary Theatre: The Beard of Avon... Willis White looks at staging the unstagable at Perishable Theatre, RI...Moondance 2002 Finalists...in depth: TACT and Look Homeward Angel Rubin's Corner: Status of tickets during the annual winter downturn and a Trio that rounded out 2001 CyberTheatre Monthly: 2002 Richard Rodgers Centennial Year and Introducing Stone Soup Theatre -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE PLAY'S THE THING Faustus as Victim and Villain Well, here we are already in November! This year has gone by too quickly and Caprice and I have been over-committed to other projects all year long. Because we have had such an extreme time shortage this year, and particularly the last few months, I have been revisiting old papers I wrote while in school to grace the pages of this column. It has truly been a unique experience to look back and see what interested me two or three years ago, and surprising to find I’m not making myself cringe by reading these. I have noticed that one of the themes I have been intrigued by these last few years is complexity of character. Call it the actor in me, but I love to discover unconventional approaches to understanding why some characters intrigue us, and what separates them from characters that do not last in our memory. I have found that as an actor, understanding all the different angles available to take on a character lets you define how to play that character. As that approach is more easily accomplished with classical characters (since more has been written on them by literary scholars), those are the characters that have graced this column for the last two months. Last month I gave you all a complex analysis of Lady Macbeth through the eyes of literary scholars and how that conflicts with portraying her on stage. This month I must be honest with you all, I can’t remember writing this paper on Dr. Faustus, nor do I remember reading the essays I have cited, but damn, I’m good. So, here it is…Dr. Faustus’ character examined in detail…apparently by me. A modern reader attempting to tackle Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus must overcome many obstacles in order to understand the play. First, Faustus is a highly complex character who constantly changes his mind at the slightest provocation of his conscience or other being. Second, the context is unclear to a modern reader. The religious background and political intensity is difficult to grasp from simply reading the text. However, to an audience member during the Renaissance, Dr. Faustus is full of political and religious statements, and Faustus himself becomes a much more sympathetic character if the reader has an understanding of Marlowe’s use of popular conventions of the era. One of the subjects found in Dr. Faustus that is often debated is that of Faustus as both victim and villain (Puhvel, Prieto-Pablos, and Hamlin). Because Faustus considers himself above common humanity he becomes a villain through his self-conceit. However, it is also our understanding as an audience that he is not above common humanity because he is obsessed with the trappings of this world. That obsession allows the audience to sympathize with him because he does not see this for himself. Scholars from many different angles (i.e. Hamlin, Keefer, Pinciss, Prieto-Pablos, and Puhvel) have discussed Faustus’ complexity of character. The arguments that have affected me the most upon reading are those by Martin Puhvel, Juan A. Prieto-Pablos, and G.M. Pinciss. Puhvel argues that it is Mephostophilis’ manipulation of Faustus that leads to the selling of Faustus’ soul and ultimate damnation (Puhvel 1). Prieto-Pablos believes that it is Faustus’ manipulation of Faustus that damns his soul through a complex analysis of Faustus’ self-reference (Prieto-Pablos 66). Pinciss neither agrees nor disagrees with either of these arguments, but he does include another angle to the complexity of Faustus. Pinciss believes that Marlowe’s exposure to Calvinist and anti-Calvinist movements at Cambridge as an undergraduate directly relates to the duality of Faustus’ character (Pinciss 249). All of these arguments, though seeming contradictory, compliment each other well, and if proven, can attribute to the genius of Christopher Marlowe. Puhvel’s argument for the manipulation of Faustus by Mephostophilis is well supported. During Faustus’ initial discussion with Mephostophilis about the realities of hell, Mephostophilis cleverly plays on Faustus’ own arrogance and tendency toward self-deification (Puhvel 2). Mephostophilis, although admits to the tortures of hell, never allows Faustus to believe that he will be subject to those tortures (ibid.). Mephostophilis establishes to Faustus that Faustus is superior to him by exclaiming “O Faustus, leave these frivolous demands/Which strikes a terror to my fainting soul!” (Act I, scene iii, 76-81). By making this statement Mephostophilis plays on Faustus' enlarged ego and leads him to believe that he is something above Mephostophilis (Puhvel 2-3). Mephostophilis states “Within the bowels of these elements/Where we are tortured and remain forever…” (Act II, scene I, 125-126) this is an honest description of hell except that Mephostophilis indicates “we” as if the torture only applies to beings like himself, not Faustus (ibid.). Mephostophilis’ manipulation of Faustus is at its height in the beginning of the play, when he is trying to draw Faustus to sell his soul. After Faustus agrees to give up his soul to the devil Mephostophilis’ job is almost done (ibid.). Occasionally Mephostophilis must put Faustus back in line when he attempts to repent, but this is the area where Puhvel’s argument becomes week. Puhvel attributes the constant changing of Faustus’ mind about repenting to Mephostophilis. However, even Mephostophilis cannot always control Faustus. For example, when Faustus repents in Act II, scene ii by exclaiming “If heaven was made for man, ‘twas made for me” (line 10) Mephostophilis does nothing to manipulate Faustus in order to change his mind (Puhvel 3). In fact, Faustus changes his mind about his ability to repent by entering debate with the Good and Bad Angels, which are essentially his own conscience (Puhvel 3). It is here that we begin to see the shift in Mephostophilis being the manipulator to Faustus as the manipulator. This is where Prieto-Pablos’ argument comes in to enrich the understanding of Faustus as a highly complex character. Prieto-Pablos argues that Faustus’ constant use of self-reference in the second and third person alludes to a kind of duality in character that causes the audience to see Faustus as both victim and villain (Prieto-Pablos 66-67). The argument asserts that, although self-reference in the third person was common at the time Marlowe wrote Dr. Faustus, Marlowe uses it unconventionally. The author broke down the many instances of self-reference in the first and third person and concluded that, although not always, when Faustus refers to himself in the first person the audience can sympathize with him, as if he is pleading for help. However, when he refers to himself in the third person he has become the villain (Prieto-Pablos 78). When Faustus alternates the use of first, second, and third person within the same speech, for example “Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin/To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess;/…/And live and die in Aristotle’s works./ Sweet Analytics, ‘tis thou hast ravished me:/.../ Then read no more, thou hast attained that end;/A greater subject fitteth Faustus’ wit.”(Act I, scene I, 1-11, emphasis mine). Faustus shows a split in personality, one Faustus being much stronger than the other (Prieto-Pablos 81). Prieto-Pablos states that “This does not mean that there are two Faustus’s, strictly speaking; but the division of Faustus’ personality into two halves may be methodologically convenient, especially in terms of character-audience identification” (ibid.). The arguments by Puhvel and Prieto-Pablos, although appearing to contradict one another, are rather complimentary. While Mephostophilis does manipulate Faustus by inflating his ego, Faustus is also responsible for the manipulation of Faustus. Perhaps Mephostophilis understands the division of Faustus’ personality (the half that speaks in first person and the half that speaks in third person) and strokes the ego of the later Faustus to place him in charge of Faustus’ decisions. This would add considerably to the confusion of Faustus’ character and to his image as a tragic hero. When considering the complexity of Faustus’ character and the division between victim and villain in the same person, G.M. Pinciss argues for a further reason for this division beyond character-audience relationship. He argues that the controversy between Calvinists and anti-Calvinists at Cambridge while Marlowe was an undergraduate affected the author’s characterization of Faustus (Pinciss 253). Calvinists believed that the fate of each human was predestined, and therefore, Faustus has no control over whether he can achieve salvation. Anti-Calvinists believed that each human is given until the time of death the option to repent for their sins and achieve salvation (Pinciss 257). Pinciss claims that it is difficult to ascertain whether Marlowe argues for a Calvinist or anti-Calvinist position (ibid. 260). Because Faustus is unable to obtain salvation at the end of the play, though he is given many opportunities to do so, Pinciss argues that Marlowe takes a Calvinistic approach. However, Faustus is given many opportunities to repent, and his last opportunity comes from a plea from the Old Man, whose speech represents anti-Calvinistic ideals (Pinciss 258). In fact, Pinciss quotes Roma Gill as saying, “Marlowe’s God is more long-suffering than the God of the Elizabethan church and continues to extend mercy and forgiveness to Faustus long after the traditional God would have turned away” (Pinciss 259). Although Pinciss has difficulty understanding the confusing position taken by Marlowe, it is perhaps more understandable given the circumstances of the time the play was written. Pinciss argues that Marlowe was affected by the argument between Calvinists and anti-Calvinists at Cambridge, but he does not quite touch on how this argument affected the author, other than the argument being presented in Dr. Faustus (Pinciss 259). However, given the intense politicizing of religion at the time and the heated disapproval of any plays dealing with these religious controversies (Pinciss 260), I believe that Marlowe shows his genius in writing such a complex character in Dr. Faustus. Faustus represents both victim and villain, a tragic hero, and most importantly, both the Calvinist and anti-Calvinist viewpoints all in one character. I believe Marlowe was not only representing both arguments in his character, but he deliberately made his side of the issue unclear to allow his play to be performed. Because Faustus is given so many chances to repent and he is still damned at the end of the play, Marlowe plays both sides of the field to convince both arguments that he is on their side. By doing this Marlowe ensures that his play will be performed while less talented playwrights may have been denied with similar subject matter. Many modern readers may have trouble identifying with Faustus. He is one of the most complex characters in literature. In order for Marlowe’s play to be affective the audience must sympathize with Faustus as a victim of circumstance, thus relating the Calvinist, predestined, first person Faustus. But the audience must also be intrigued by the villain, the anti-Calvinist who controls his own destiny, the Faustus who has powers we ordinary humans can only dream of. But his power is an illusion of a human who believes he is above humanity and worldliness, when in fact, he is a prisoner of this world. He is the Faustus who speaks in third person pronouns and is manipulated by Mephostophilis and at the same time manipulates the victim Faustus. As Pinciss states, “Much as he may desire it, Faustus’ conception of himself prevents him from achieving justifying faith” (ibid. 258). The complexity represented by Faustus reflects the complexity of humanity. It is why audiences sympathize. It is why Faustus endures when lesser characters have been forgotten by time. Works Cited Hamlin, William M. “ ‘Swolne with Cunning of a Self-Conceit’: Marlowe’s Faustus and Self-Conception.” in English Language Notes v.34 n.2 December 1996: 7-11. Keefer, Michael H. “Right Eye and Left Heel: Ideological Origins of the Legend of Faustus.” in Mosaic v.22 n.2 Spring 1989: 79-91. Marlowe, Christopher. “Dr. Faustus”. The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, ed. W.B. Worthen. Harcourt Brace College Publishers: Fort Worth, 1996. Pinciss, G.M. “Marlowe’s Cambridge Years and the Writing of Dr. Faustus.” in Studies in English Literature v.33 n.2 Spring 1993: 249-261. Prieto-Pablos, Juan A. “ ‘What Art Thou Faustus?’ Self-Reference and Strategies of Identification in Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus” in English Studies v.74 n.1 February 1993: 66-83. Puhvel, Martin. “Mephostophilis’s Manipulation of Faustus.” in English Studies v. 71 n. 1 Feb. 1990: 1-5. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2002 NY THEATRE PREVIEW FURTHER THAN THE FURTHEST THING Manhattan Theatre Club, City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Stage Previews begin January 15, 2002 Opening night is February 5, 2002 www.mtc-nyc.org Written by Zinnie Harris and directed by Neil Pepe, FURTHER THAN THE FURTHEST THING begins on a remote island off the coast of South Africa.When a volcanic eruption forces the evacuation of the small group of islanders to an industrial town in South Hampton, the close knit family of refugees struggles to retain their customs in an unfamiliar world. As the play unfolds, old wounds are opened and a cataclysmic secret is revealed. AN ALMOST HOLY PICTURE The American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street Previews begin January 22, 2002 Opening night is February 7, 2002 www.roundabouttheatre.org Starring Kevin Bacon and directed by Michael Mayer, AN ALMOST HOLY PICTURE is the story of Samuel Gentle, groundskeeper for The Church of the Holy Comforter, who has heard God's call, but can't comprehend His mysteries. His sometime poignant, sometimes comic journey of faith is the subject of a luminous new play by American playwright Heather McDonald. This beautifully crafted drama was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award and won the prestigious Kesselring Prize, an award whose previous winners include Tony Kushner, Nicky Silver and Naomi Wallace. FOUR Manhattan Theatre Club, City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Stage II Previews begin January 29, 2002 Opening night is February 19, 2002 www.mtc-nyc.org FOUR, written by Christopher Shinn and directed by Jeff Cohen, focuses on the isolation and desires of four average individuals from a cross-section of American life: a successful father, a studious young daughter, a frustrated boy from a bad neighborhood and a shy and lonely teenager, at odds with his sexuality. The play takes place in Hartford, CT., on the Fourth of July in 1996, as the four characters pair off into two parallel relationships. THE DAZZLE The Gramercy Theatre, 127 East 23rd Street Previews begin February 15, 2002 Opening night is March 5, 2002 www.roundabouttheatre.org Written by Richard Greenberg and directed by David Warren, the cast o THE DAZZLE features Peter Frechette and Reg Rogers. In this new comedy, the eccentric logic that balances the lives of the Collyer brothers is forever altered by the entrance of a strange and beautiful young socialite. THE SMELL OF THE KILL Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44 Street Previews begin February 27, 2002 Opening night is March 17, 2002 Produced by Elizabeth I. McCann, Nelle Nugent and Milton and Tamar Maltz, THE SMELL OF THE KILL is a new comedy of revenge by Michele Lowe. A hit at the Berkshire Theatre Festival this past summer, THE SMELL OF THE KILL is directed by Christopher Ashley (Rocky Horror Show), with sets by David Gallo and lighting by Kenneth Posner, featuring a cast of three women who will be announced shortly. THE ELEPHANT MAN Royale Theatre (242 West 45th Street) Previews begin March 26, 2002 Opening night is April 14, 2002 Bernard Pomerance's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Best Play, THE ELEPHANT MAN, will return to Broadway in a new production starring Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, Charlotte Grey) in the title role, directed by Sean Mathias (Indiscretions, Dance of Death). Set in Victorian London, THE ELEPHANT MAN is a moving as well as entertaining telling of the story of the famous historical figure, John Merrick. The New York Times called THE ELEPHANT MAN an "enthralling and luminous play." TOPDOG/UNDERDOG Ambassador Theatre, 219 West 49 Street Previews March, 2002 Opening night TBA Suzan Lori-Parks' TOPDOG/UNDERDOG directed by George C. Wolfe, will begin previews at the Ambassador Theatre in March of 2002. A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity, TOPDOG/UNDERDOG tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers, whose names, given to them as a joke, foretell a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past and their obsession with the street con, three-card monte, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future. Further details to be announced soon. INTO THE WOODS Broadhurst Theatre, 235 West 44th Street Previews begin April 13, 2002 Opening night is April 25, 2002 www.intothewoodsbroadway.com Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Tony Award-winning musical, INTO THE WOODS which won the Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, is Broadway bound. The new production of INTO THE WOODS will star film, Broadway and recording artist Vanessa Williams as “The Witch” and John McMartin as “The Narrator/Mysterious Man.” The production will play at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles February 1 (opening February 10) through March 26, 2002, before it bows on Broadway in the Spring, 2002. INTO THE WOODS will be staged by the original director and bookwriter James Lapine. Blending five of Grimms’ famous fairy tales with an original story of a childless Baker and his Wife, who attempt to reverse a curse on their family in order to have a child, INTO THE WOODS features the stories of “Cinderella,” “Rapunzel,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Jack the Giant Killer” as it explores what happens after the “happily ever after.” THE MAN WHO HAD ALL THE LUCK The American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street Previews begin April 19, 2002 Opening night TBA www.roundabouttheatre.org Written by Arthur Miller, starring Chris O’Donnell and directed by Scott Ellis, THE MAN WHO HAD ALL THE LUCK is a charming story of the fate of a young Midwestern man whose fortune shines on him while it passes over everyone else around him. The play wrestles with the unanswerable - the question of the justice of fate, how it was that one man failed and another, no more or less capable, achieved some glory in life. Arthur Miller wrote the play in 1940, which takes place in 1938 during the time the nation was struggling towards the end of the Depression and Europe was beginning war. In 1944, THE MAN WHO HAD ALL THE LUCK became Arthur Miller’s first Broadway production. “The young film actor, Chris O’Donnell, is making a remarkable stage debut as David. He is physically perfect for the part and his comfort, solidity and easy charisma on the stage will be the envy of many more experienced players.” - Bruce Weber, The New York Times. HOUSE and GARDEN Manhattan Theatre Club, City Center, 131 West 55th Street Stage I: HOUSE, Stage II: GARDEN Previews begin April 26, 2002 Opening night is May 21, 2002 Visit The Manhattan Theatre Club online at www.mtc-nyc.org In a spectacular theatrical move, Manhattan Theatre Club's 2001-2002 season will end with Alan Ayckbourn’s new plays HOUSE and GARDEN, which will run concurrently on Stages I and II, with the cast moving between the two stages. In HOUSE, Teddy Platt is a wealthy industrialist in line to become a Member of Parliament. His wife Trish isn’t speaking to him because of his multiple infidelities. Mayhem erupts when Lucille, a French film star, arrives to open the town garden fete, which the Platts are hosting. GARDEN finds the Platts’ neighbors, Giles and Joanne Mace, whose marriage is dissolving while two bumbling caterers wreak havoc, a backyard tent collapses, and Lucille (the actress), who has too much to drink. Both HOUSE and GARDEN will be directed by John Tillinger. THIS THING OF DARKNESS Atlantic Theater Company, 336 West 20 Street Previews begin May 8, 2002 Opening night is May 30, 2002 www.atlantictheater.com Atlantic Theater Company presents the World premiere of THIS THING OF DARKNESS by Craig Lucas and David Schulner. Two young men are about to begin their lives when the future crashes in on their comfortable surroundings. Who they thought they were is not who they become. And what they thought would happen comes out very differently indeed. Are we better off not knowing what lies ahead in the darkness? Or do we embrace it as Prospero declares “This thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine.” Lucas’ works include Prelude to a Kiss, The Dying Gual and Blue Window. LONG ISLAND SOUND American Theatre of Actors, 314 West 54th Street Previews begin May 10, 2002 Opening night is May 13, 2002 www.tactnyc.org The World Premiere of Noel Coward's LONG ISLAND SOUND will be presented by The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) Off Broadway in May, 2002. Revolving around an Englishman's observations and experiences as a guest of the smart crowd on the North Shore, LONG ISLAND SOUND began life as a 1947 short story, "What Mad Pursuit." Since Noel Coward was pre-occupied in America with the very popular "Tonight at 8:30," and it wasn't believed that an American play by Noel Coward would work for a West End audience, LONG ISLAND SOUND was never staged in Coward's lifetime. Referred to in Coward's diaries, the play was tracked down by archivist Barry Day who had been granted access to Noel Coward's unpublished papers in 1999 in connection with the centenary of the author's birth. Directed by Scott Alan Evans, LONG ISLAND SOUND features a cast of 20, including members of the TACT company. Founded in 1992, TACT is dedicated to the presenting eglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit with a focus on creating theatre from its essence: the text and the actor’s ability to bring it to life. TACT is lead by co-artistic directors Scott Alan Evans, Cynthia Harris, and Simon Jones. THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE The American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street Previews begin July 23, 2002 Opening night TBA www.roundabouttheatre.org With music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, book by George Abbott, and book updated by Nicky Silver, THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE will be directed by Scott Ellis. Based on Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, this outrageously funny musical comedy tells the tale of two sets of identical twins and the women who can't tell them apart. Set in ancient Rome, THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE contains some of Rodgers and Hart's most lovely and unforgettable songs, including such favorites as "Falling in Love with Love," "Sing For Your Supper," "This Can't Be Love," "The Shortest Day of the Year" and "You Have Cast Your Shadow on the Sea." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LETTER FROM LONDON The play "What I Wrote" is breaking West End theatre records Three months ago The Right Size were an obscure double act, now they fill houses with their take on Eric 'n' Ern Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent, Guardian It is the stuff of West End legend. Three months ago, outside the threadbare world of fringe theatre, Sean Foley and Hamish McColl were not just poor and obscure - they were poor and obscure and getting dangerously close to 40. Now Hollywood stars are queuing up for the privilege of appearing on stage to be mercilessly sent up by the double act known as The Right Size. The Play What I Wrote yesterday broke the record for the highest advance ticket sales of any play in West End history, beating the half a million pounds taken by Alan Bennett's The Lady in a Van, starring Maggie Smith. And this from an opening so unpromising that David Pugh, the producer who turned Yasmina Reza's gentle satire on pretentiousness, Art, into the modern Mousetrap, was beginning to doubt his Midas touch. "We had only £22,000 advance bookings which, if not the worst ever in the West End, is pretty close to it." But as soon as the first reviews and the first stories started to circulate of people wetting themselves as the hilarity builds to a pitch in the second act, the Wyndham's Theatre began to pack out. It has not been less than 98% full since. Not bad for a show that Foley and McColl first did not want to write never mind star in, putting Pugh off five years ago when he approached them with idea to do something based on Morecambe and Wise. And for once in the West End, a runaway success has not been about star power either - although every night, just like the Morecambe and Wise TV specials of the 1970s, there is the tease of who the mystery guest star will be. So far Ewan McGregor, Richard E Grant, Jonny Lee Miller, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Wilson, Jerry Hall, Sue Johnston and Maureen Lipman have obliged. Ralph Fiennes agreed to do three, but has had such a good time he has actually appeared 11 times so far, and booked himself in for another stint in February. "They are all the same," said Pugh, who has extended the run at least until April. "Everyone wants to do it again and again." On Wednesday night Michael Caine arrived unannounced and despite his legendary reluctance to tread the boards again went backstage to ask how many days' rehearsals he would get. Three hours, he was told. It may also have helped that The Play What I Wrote is directed by Branagh and that nostalgia always fills more theatre seats than new talent. But the critics are convinced that it is the inventiveness of The Right Size and their sidekick Toby Jones, who appears in a bewildering variety of guises including Daryl Hannah - "half woman, half kipper" - and as a pistol-waving member of the Morecambe and Wise Appreciation Society (military wing), that is the real secret of its appeal. Their approach to the holy grail of double acts is not a tribute, or even a skit of the Eric and Ernie's Christmas shows, but the real thing - only better. Full of music hall tricks, in jokes and surreal goonery, it uses one of Ernie's awful existential French revolutionary masterpieces, A Tight Squeeze for the Scarlet Pimple, to play out the tensions that flare within a double act when one person is so much funnier than the other. While The Right Size may not have registered to a wider public, they are far from unknowns, having won an Olivier award five years ago for Do You Come Here Often?, a show about two men stuck in a toilet for 25 years. In fact, the biggest irony of all for anyone who had watched the careers of Foley and McColl is that The Play What I Wrote is not their funniest work. Earlier this year they toured with Bewilderness, about two men who disappear down the back of a sofa, and were sometimes rewarded with audiences of up to 50. Seven years ago they appeared at the Edinburgh Festival with Stop Calling Me Vernon, a show about two vaudevillians who cannot bear to leave the stage. Two years ago they lit up the Almeida in Lee "Billy Elliot" Hall's adaptation of Brecht's Mr Puntilla and His Man Matti. Pugh spotted their potential long ago and, having received the blessing of Ernie Wise before his death, refused to be put off when the pair would not do the show first time round. "Eventually, I just gave them 500 quid and told them to go away and see what they came back with. So they spent the weekend in this freezing church hall in Highbury and worked on a few ideas, and when they let me have a look I nearly fell off my chair laughing. I knew straight away we had to go into the West End and I gave them the money to develop it." The final piece of the jigsaw was getting Eddie Braben, the man who scripted the Morecambe and Wise show, on board with about a fifth of the gags. Foley and McColl met in Paris nearly 20 years ago when they were learning to be clowns at the feet of Philippe Gaulier; they had to go home after a month when they ran out of money. The Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner said: "An awful lot of what they do comes out of music hall routines and brilliant theatrical tricks they dream up with their designer, Alice Power. So much of what they do is about warmth and wonder, and although it is very postmodern too, with all those theatrical in-jokes, it doesn't come across as pretentious." London Times 2002 theatre preview Parting is such sweet sorrow BY BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE It's all change at some of our top companies, but the leavers are all determined to go out on a high. Our critic looks forward to a year of exciting new work and venerable classics The snowdrops probably won't emerge brown and wilting, but in one area of British life 2002 will have an autumnal feel from its start. For the theatre it will be a time of transition, a year of endings. Exit Ian McDiarmid and Jonathan Kent from the Almeida, exit Sam Mendes from the theatre he has made equally successful, the Donmar. And down at the National, Trevor Nunn will be deciding the guest-lists for his farewell party, for he'll soon be handing over command to Nicholas Hytner. But what's the best way to say goodbye to a top job in the theatre itself? With a bang, a whimper or something in between? Is there a temptation, especially if one has been financially embattled, to blow one's annual grant on a self-indulgent splurge of spectacularly improbable work? If I were a departing artistic director, I might irk the Arts Council by mounting a retrospective of plays by Jeffrey Archer, or terrify my board of management by programming a season consisting of some scabrous and obscure Howard Barker, an untranslated cycle of Latin work by the 10th- century nun Hrotsvitha, and a reassessment of John Home's Douglas, the verse tragedy whose triumphant Edinburgh premiere famously left one 18th-century Scotsman shouting, "Whair's your Wullie Shakespeare noo?" Well, there are no obvious signs of creative recklessness in the theatrical air. However, none of the more eminent leavers looks like exiting on a downbeat note. Take Nunn's National. In May, Peter Hall's production of The Bacchai (as Colin Teevan is scrupulously titling his adaptation of Euripides' most disturbing tragedy) joins a National rep which by then will also contain Moliere's Tartuffe and the fascinating-sounding Hinterland. That's the latest piece by Sebastian Barry, the author of Our Lady of Sligo and The Steward of Christendom, who has spent the last decade writing dark, haunting plays about Irish history — and is now turning his attention to a semi- fictional "father of the nation" called Johnny Silvester. Who now can fairly accuse Nunn of overcaution or of neglecting new work? The big event in the summer is his own production of the most ambitious enterprise even Tom Stoppard has attempted, a trilogy of plays tracking a group of characters through 19th-century Russian history. The piece's provisional title is The Coast of Utopia, but, if the author perseveres in his own playful yet serious style, it could be subtitled "Tolstoy with jokes". And before then Nunn will be presenting a smaller saga: the African-born, American-bred Pamela Gien's The Syringa Tree, which follows the fortunes of a black family and a white family in South Africa from the 1960s to now. This comes from off-Broadway, where it won most of the best-play awards for 2001. Twenty years ago, New York would have been a surprising source for a serious piece about the slow collapse of apartheid, for its theatre seemed hopelessly cut off from America's own social and political concerns, let alone those of the rest of the world. When I was a reviewer there, in the early 1980s, every other play seemed to involve fathers and sons wrangling about their tiny, fetid emotions on the back2 porch. But that's changing — and will, I hope, continue to change. I don't yet know which British theatre will be presenting Tony Kushner's Afghan play, Homebody/Kabul; but I do know who will be staging the latest piece by the equally exciting Neil LaBute. The Almeida, which has already staged his Bash! at its Islington headquarters and his Shape of Things at its temporary residence in King's Cross, presents his new Distance from Here in May, soon after the closure of the year's first major production, Oliver Ford Davies in King Lear. The subject, I'm told, is "young America on the brink of revolt", and the characters are angry, deceitful, funny, violent teenagers and adults living in the suburban wastelands. But it's Mendes's Donmar which is doing the most to promote fresh transatlantic drama this spring. American Imports 2002, its "season of hard-hitting new American work", contains pieces by dramatists with whom we're just a little familiar, Keith Reddin and Richard Greenberg, and dramatists with whom we're even less so, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Kenneth Lonergan and David Auburn. Actually, I saw Auburn's maths-drama Proof off-Broadway, and (I'm afraid) thought it a politically correct variant on Michael Frayn's much richer Copenhagen; but several other offerings look genuinely tantalising. I'm especially excited at the prospect of Greenberg's Take Me Out, which deals with sport, race and sexual politics and claims to be what until recently was a most unAmerican thing, an "epic". Before it became cocooned and insular in the 1970s and 1980s, the American theatre had a size and an intensity that was a reproach to us little Englanders. Indeed, Anthony Page's fine revival of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which last autumn followed O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and The Iceman Cometh into the West End, is still at the Lyric — and, thanks to formidable performances by Ned Beatty and Brendan Fraser, is still reminding us of Broadway's one-time strengths. With revivals of Mamet and Shepard, of Lillian Hellman and still more Williams, the Donmar has also been foremost in drawing our attention to this heritage. But I'm looking to the National and next autumn for the coming year's most striking classic American revival. That's Nunn's own production of A Streetcar Named Desire, with the vibrant Glenn Close aiming to demonstrate her range by playing the most famous of Williams's faded roses, or cracked Southern belles, Blanche Dubois. Will 2002, then, be yet another year in which star names come to dazzle, illumine, or at least provoke debate about their strengths and limitations on stage? Could be. Jude Law appears in Marlowe's Dr Faustus at the Young Vic in March, and the same month Kenneth Branagh returns to the theatre for the first time in aeons, playing Richard III for the fast-rising Michael Grandage at Sheffield's Crucible. Jerry Hall, who has recently been crusading for the clitoris in The Vagina Monologues, will be playing one of the artist's inspirational ladies in Picasso's Women a bit later. By then Vanessa Redgrave, a rather solider star, should have opened in Peter Hall's revival of Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan at the Haymarket. But will Sean Bean's Macbeth materialise at the New Ambassadors in the summer? Will Nicole Kidman appear opposite Simon Russell Beale in Mendes's revivals of Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya at the Donmar in the autumn? Will Jessica Lange play the fragile Amanda in yet another Williams classic, The Glass Menagerie, in the West End in late 2002? Put your autograph books on hold. All those names and times, while quite likely, await confirmation. In 2001, as in several recent years, I felt unable to select any best new musical in the various awards I helped to judge. That's less likely to be the case in 2002. I saw the Broadway production of The Full Monty, which comes to the West End in March, and thought that the film's transposition to the stage and to far-off Buffalo surprisingly successful. That will be followed in the summer by Bombay Dreams, a show about Bollywood that has a score by the gifted A. R. Rahman. But who knows? Boy George's Taboo, a show that "revisits and redefines the 1980s" and (by its own admission) "delves deep beneath the surface", may leave us definitively wowed when it opens in a new venue imaginatively called the Venue on January 29. Oh, yes, and then there's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium in April: a musical adaptation directed by Adrian Noble, who is, of course, interesting and important for another reason. He continues to preside over the RSC as it makes crucial and controversial changes, prime among them its impending withdrawal of the permanent London base it had, at least in the winter months, at the Barbican. I suspect that the company will continue to preoccupy and worry me in 2002; yet every time I've settled down to write something grimly elegiac about its fortunes, Noble and his colleagues have thwarted me with a genuinely fine play or production. In 2001, for instance, Stratford saw both A Russian in the Woods, Peter Whelan's warm, lively account of a national serviceman in postwar Berlin, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Martin McDonagh's outrageously sanguinary comedy about Irish terrorism. Thankfully, each of them gets a showing at the Barbican Pit before the RSC leaves the Barbican Centre in May. Nor can I say I'm put off by the company's other plans for 2002. These include three late Shakespeare plays at a restored Roundhouse: A Winter's Tale, The Tempest and Pericles, respectively directed by the able Matthew Warchus, the gutsy Michael Boyd and Noble himself. Moreover, it's difficult to accuse the company of failing to attract top acting talent, as I've done in the past, when Sinead Cusack will play Cleopatra and Harriet Walter Beatrice in Much Ado at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 2002. Again, it's absurd to say it lacks boldness when one considers the season of seldom performed Elizabethan and Jacobean work that Edward Hall will launch in the Swan in April. I've enjoyed Marston's Malcontent in the past, but I've never seen Eastward Ho!, the satire that led to Jonson's imprisonment in 1612, and I'm unfamiliar with Massinger's Roman Actor, Fletcher's Island Princess and even Edward III. Who wrote Edward III in the mid-1590s? There's some evidence that Shakespeare had at least a hand in its composition. Tennyson thought he wrote the play, and so do some modern scholars. By giving us a full-dress opportunity to decide if this is wishful thinking, the RSC is surely doing what an RSC should. Are we entering the year when Noble's company recovers its reputation? That alone would make 2002 a memorable year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VOICES IN CONTEMPORARY THEATRE Beard of Avon, American Conservatory Theatre Sometime around 1590 a company of traveling players happens through the sleepy village of Stratford-upon-Avon. Their plays win the heart of the village daydreamer, Will Shakespeare, who has a talent for rhyming and a vivid imagination. Leaving his wife and home, Shakespeare joins the troupe of actors to journey to London, where he's chosen by Edward De Vere, the earl of Oxford, to pose publicly as the author of De Vere's plays. Soon Will Shakespeare, the "Beard of Avon," has become William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, and the talk of Queen Elizabeth's court. This smart and witty comedy in the spirit of Shakespeare in Love by San Francisco playwright and A.C.T. alumna Amy Freed takes on the "authorship controversy" surrounding Shakespeare's plays and reaches a conclusion that renews our faith in the possibilities of theatrical collaboration. By Amy Freed Directed by Mark Rucker January 10–February 10, 2002 Geary Theater, San Francisco WHEN NO ONE ELSE CAN OR WILL PERISHABLE DOES.... THIS TIME THEY'RE STAGING THE "UNSTAGEABLE"! Staying true to their mission of producing new and adventurous theater, the Award Winning, Providence, RI, company is mounting another world premier e. Conceived by the author, Emily Jane O'Dell, in a workshop with Pulitzer Prize Winner Paula Vogel; the assignment being to write a play that was impossible to stage -- the new play is entitled THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: PART DEUX (a new jersey play). Leave it to Perishable to take up the challenge and present a fully staged version of the new script. Think about this for a moment -- "What would happen if the entire city of Paris were literally uprooted and dropped upon the state of New Jersey?" An ambitious social satire, the play examines American prejudices and proclivities with hilarious results. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: PART DEUX is a dark comedy that takes its cue from the absurd premise that Paris unexpectedly falls into the Garden State and the French move in next door. Cultural differences are immediately apparent when the French try to simultaneously assimilate to their new surroundings and continue living their lives as they are accustomed. All the while a stranded airliner is circling continuously overhead, but the American passengers cannot decide whether to land in Paris or New Jersey. Sexual proclivities are examined with an eye to the absurd and even the Miss America pageant is skewered with Ms. O' Dell's satirical wit. Completing the titular prediction, The French Underground rises again, taking the Louvre as headquarters and striking blows for French freedom. Emily O'Dell is a playwright, director, actress, choreographer, and Egyptologist. Her current projects are What The Eunuch Saw, which recently received a New York reading and is featured this month in the Brown University New Plays Festival, and The Last Days of Moses, a collaboration with Isaac Hurwitz and composer Benjamin Toth. Last year, Emily performed her one-woman show, Zelda, as part of the Brown University Solo Fest. At Brown University, Emily studied under Paula Vogel, Aishah Rahman, and Charles Mee, majoring in English (with honors in creative writing) and Egyptology. She received the 2001 Weston Award in Playwriting and is currently an MFA candidate in the Brown graduate playwriting program. Emily plays the Javanese gamelan, and she is doing epigraphic work in the western cemetery of Giza, Egypt. Perishable Theatre's award winning Mainstage has dedicated their 2001-2002 season to the Celebration of Women in Playwriting. In conjunction with the 10th Anniversary of their International Women's Playwriting Festival, Perishable is bringing to Rhode Island five world premiere works from some of the nation's most innovative female playwrights. Hailed as "the premiere venue for new plays in Rhode Island, critics praised Perishable's productions for their "All around smart acting and consistently canny directing". Dubbed "the most professional small theater in Rhode Island" by the Providence Journal, Perishable offers audiences a chance to experience the thrill of live theater ... up close and very personal. Award winning director, writer and actress, Willis-Whyte has performed Off-Broadway, in films and, on television. Named to Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities and Who's Who in American Advertising, Willis' full-length drama (with period music) In The Footsteps of Moses; the Story of Harriet Tubman, was produced earlier this year in New York, by Animated Theaterworks, Inc.. Her latest work, a trilogy of integrated one-acts is entitled Kelly's Way; the story of one woman's patriotism, is scheduled for production early in 2002. It is a story which is based on actual events which took place in Ireland and the US between 1922 and 1961. A past member of AFTRA, Actor's Equity, and SAG, Willis (who is) a native New Yorker, now makes Providence, RI her home. Moondance 2002 Finalists: STAGEPLAYS BEAUTIFUL HILLS OF BROOKLYN, Ellen Cassedy FIREHEART, Kari Ann Owen FREUD'S GIRLS, Dori Appel GETTING ALONG, Ernest Leong HUMANS REMAIN, Robin Rice Lichtig LEGEND OF THE BULLY-PROOF SHIELDS, Arthur Kanegis LOVE-IN-IDLENESS, Elizabeth Bove ON THE FENCE, Lois Ferrari SATIN DOLL, Ann Eskridge SHATTERED SECRETS, Libbe S. Halevy VOW, THE, Laura-Lea Cannon & David Tresemer WAWATAY, Penny E. Gummerson For more information visit www.moondancefilmfestival.com IN DEPTH: TACT and Look Homeward Angel (based on the novel by Tom Wolfe) The Actors Company Theatre's (TACT), Scott Alan Evans, Cynthia Harris and Simon Jones, co-artistic directors, next offering will be Ketti Frings' 1957 adaptation of Thomas Wolfe's sweeping autobiographical novel LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL. There will be three concert performances, January 18 at 7:30PM; January 20 at 2PM; and, January 21 at 7:30PM at the New York Historical Society (2 West 77th Street at Central Park West). Following the January 20 matinee there will be a Talkback with the cast and director. Free wine receptions follow the Friday and Monday performances. LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL features a cast of 18 including TACT company members Nora Chester, Jack Koenig, James Murtaugh, Margaret Nichols, Mary Bacon, Simon Billig, Darrie Lawrence, and Lyn Wright as well as guest artists Jamie Bennett, William Wise, Paul DeBoy, and James Prendergast. The production will have original music by Christopher Dietz and will be directed by TACT co-artistic director Scott Alan Evans. The play chronicles 17-year-old Eugene Gant's struggle to escape his battling parents and to discover the world beyond the repressive boarding house in which he was reared. Although Eugene's story provides the play with a focus, LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL tenderly illuminates the desperate needs, loves, and fears of his mother, father, and a wide range of characters that populate this early 20th century small southern town. LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL, seething with a desire for freedom from home and escape from family that is only matched by the violence of the family members' love for each other, is a play of epic scope. It touches fearlessly on love and death, but at the same time it approaches its characters with a quiet and sympathetic tenderness that allows for tremendous insight into what drives them. When LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL was first produced on Broadway in 1957, John Chapman of the Daily News proclaimed it a play which ranked "with, perhaps above, Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' in strength and compassion." John McClain wrote in the New York Journal American that Look Homeward Angel was "quite simply, one of the best evenings I've ever had in the theater" and Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times christened the opening night "a triumphant occasion in every respect." LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL ran for 564 performances and won the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and New York Drama Critics Circle award. The original Broadway cast included the 25-year-old Anthony Perkins, returning to New York from Hollywood where he had recently finished filming "Desire Under the Elms" with Sophia Loren and "This Bitter Earth" with Jo Van Fleet, who also starred in LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL as Eugene's mother. Perkins and Van Fleet received universally rave reviews for their work in LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL as did Hugh Griffith for his portrayal of Eugene's larger than life father, and George Roy Hill for his "unerring direction." Founded in 1992, TACT is dedicated to the presenting of neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit with a focus on creating theatre from its essence: the test and the actor's ability to bring it to life. Plays are presented in concert performance. They are fully rehearsed, minimally staged presentations that allow the audience to be part of the creative event, with original incidental musical scores commissioned exclusively from the Manhattan School of Music. For more information on TACT and the rest of the company's season go to www.TACTnyc.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RUBIN'S CORNER Broadway Slows for the Winter Broadway is experiencing its annual winter downturn, with four well-regarded show closing this month. Dance of Death with Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren, Headda Gabler with Kate Burton, Neil Simon’s 45 Seconds from Broadway and the all-star revival of “The Women” will all close shortly. Here is a list of show that will run in January and February Aida – the Elton John-Time Rice adaptation of the opera. Tickets are available Beauty and the Beast – The animated Disney film brought to life. Tickets are difficult Cabaret – Molly Ringwald stars in the Kander-Ebb musical. Tickets are available Chicago – The Tony Award winning musical now starring George Hamilton. Tickets are available Contact – The dance musical and Tony winner. Tickets are difficult 42nd Street - Award winning musical revival. Tickets are difficult Les Miserables - Musical now in its 14th year. Tickets are available Noises Off - Backstage comedy about a touring group of actors. Tickets are difficult Proof – Tony Award winning drama now with Jennifer Jason Leigh. Tickets are available Rent – Prize winning pop-rock musical. Tickets are available Sexaholix - John Leguizamo’s one man show. Tickets are difficult The Full Monty – Unemployed guy put on a Chippendales show. Tickets are difficult Phantom of the Opera – ALW show now in its 13th year. Ticket are available The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife – Valerie Harper, Tony Roberts and Michelle Lee in this very funny show. Tickets are available Urinetown - A towns toilets are under the control of a greedy corporation. Tickets are difficult. Trio rounds out 2001 The theater offerings this month were a trio of musicals that arrived within days of each other. Broadway is back with three new musicals. Manna Mia, Thou Shalt Not, By Jeeves are now playing in New York Mamma Mia, the 2 year old hit London musical, has finally arrived in New York after a trip that took it to Canada and LA. Louise Pitre, Judy Kaye, and Karen Mason lead a large cast through 22 ABBA songs. If you have not heard of this group, you have heard their songs. “Dancing Queen”, “”Honey, Honey”, “Voulez-Vous”, and “Money, Money, Money” are just a few of their hit song which is hung on a nice story about a young women looking for her father. It seems even Mom is not sure who is dear old dad, so she invites then all to her wedding. Good direction, lighting, and choreography add to the fun of the evening. The best part is yet to come. As the evening ends the entire audience is dancing in the aisles. As everyone leaves the venue they say, “What a wonderful night of theater”. Thou Shall Not is a new musical by Susan Stroman, David Thompson and Harry Connick, Jr. This Lincoln Center Theater Production is based on “Therese Raquin” by Emile Zola. Susan Stroman, the director of The Producers, does the direction duties and the chorography for this musical. She tries very hard with an interesting opening scene and a decent Mari Gras. However, the bad music and lyrics of Mr. Connick ultimate make this a painful evening. After a murder and two suicides the hero returnsa to do a “Frank Sinatra” type song. The audience begins to laugh its way out of the theater as quickly as possible. Craig Bierko, so good in The Music Man, seems embarrassed in the part. Kate Levering, who stared in 42nd Street, tries hard, but she too is beat up by the music. By Jeeves, the Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, has finally made it to Broadway. I reviewed this production in London about 3 years ago. It came to the U.S. via Goodspeed Opera and the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. The production, although it now has some American overtones, is still a small funny musical. John Scherer plays Bertie Wooster and Martin Jarvis plays Jeeves. Both give a spirited performance and lead a good supporting cast. Mr. Ayckbourn has directed a quick moving and door slamming farce. This early Webber score allow you to come out humming a couple of the numbers. I guess that two out of three good productions is a good batting average especially for a Yankee fan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CYBERTHEATRE MONTHLY CyberTheatre Monthly Richard Rodgers Centennial www.RR2002.com It's 2002...The Richard Rodgers Centennial Year Begins! January 11-13: ME AND JULIET ("Musicals in Mufti") at the York Theatre Company; Rodgers & Hammerstein's 1953 valentine to the theatre, not seen in New York in more than 25 years. January 18-20: ANDROCLES AND THE LION at the York; the world stage premiere of Rodgers' 1967 TV musical based on the play by George Bernard Shaw, book by Peter Stone January 24: Maureen McGovern begins a year-long series of engagements with her concert, WITH A SONG IN MY HEART: A RICHARD RODGERS CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, at the Barns at Wolf Trap, VA. January 25-27: BY JUPITER at the York; Rodgers & Hart's 1942 musical comedy featuring "Nobody's Heart" and "Wait Till You See Her" February 4: The Juilliard School presents a gala benefit honoring Richard Rodgers and Chairman Emerita Mary Rodgers, hosted by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer; guest stars to include Glenn Close, Michael Feinstein, Michael Hayden, Audra McDonald, Bernadette Peters and Karen Ziemba. February 14: ISN'T IT ROMANTIC?, a Valentine evening of Rodgers & Hart love songs, with Rob Fisher serving as musical maestro with guest stars to be announced; at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. February 23: Previews of OKLAHOMA! begin at the Gershwin Theatre; the award-winning Royal National Theatre production is presented by Cameron Mackintosh, directed by Trevor Nunn, choreographed by Susan Stroman. Stone Soup Theatre www.stonesouptheatre.net Stone Soup Theatre is a company that unites all forms of theatre artists to work in a unique, collaborative experience. It is a home for young, talented theratre artists in the community to expand their creativity and contribute to productions, staged readings, workshops, and community outreach. Stone Soup Theatre Company has three primary goals: to develop actors in a creative and supportive environment to develop a collaboration between directors, actors, designers, dramaturgs, and playwrights to create more roles, both on and off stage, for women in theatre We wish them well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002, Mersinger Theatrical Services