'The Crucible' at the National Theatre

Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' is the latest revival at the National Theatre. It has only just opened in preview so there are no production photos but there are some rehearsal photos. I read 'The Crucible' many years ago at school (it was on the 'O' Level syllabus and, judging from the audience, it is again) but had never seen it performed. It's not often performed and I'm not sure why not when I've seen several of Miller's other plays performed and they're all suitably wordy. 'The Crucible' is also rather wordy with lots of repetition.

I suspect we all know the outline of the play about the Salem 'witches', how the local girls of the town are caught dancing in the woods at night and word of evil spirits possessing them starts to spread. When the ringleader, Abigail, starts to use this to get back at women - and then men - in the town, accusing them of sending spirits to torment her, the other girls join in and what was a bit of fun becomes deadly serious. The townsfolk accused of witchcraft are gradually put on trial and, if they don't confess, are hanged. There are sub-plots and twists and turns on the way (it is a drama, after all), particularly farmer John Proctor who had sex with Abigail while his wife was ill and she's convinced that he loves her. He doesn't. Miller uses the historic events as a way of commenting on the contemporary wave of anti-communism (in American terms, anyone vaguely left-wing) witch-hunts under McCarthy in the '50s.   

When you walk into the Olivier Theatre you see a spectacular curtain of rain around the stage which looked fab but I've got no idea what it has to do with the play other than looking spectacular. Some people in the front row were complaining about being splashed by the falling water splattering off the stage. I loved the look of it but it was always a surprise when it started splooshing at different times throughout the production. I also liked the stripped back, mainly empty stage, emphasising that it's the action and the words that count. Well done to director Lyndsey Turner and set designer Es Devlin. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, is re-worked during the previews.

I liked Brendan Cowell as John Proctor but a bit more range of emotion would have been good and I really liked Eileen Walsh as his put-upon wife Elizabeth. I thought she was very consistent in approach and characterisation. Erin Doherty was suitably malevolent and innocent as Abigail, the ring-leader of the girls and I grew to like Fisayo Akinade more as his character developed (one of the few characters to actually grow throughout the play). It was also fun to see Karl Johnson as Giles on stage for the first time after seeing him on telly and in films for years. It'll be interesting to see how this play does as it finds it feet and the cast start to fully gel.

'SIX' at the Vaudeville Theatre

'SIX' is the new kid on the block, a musical about the six wives of Henry VIII but told from their point of view. It started life as a little show at the Edinburgh Fringe and grew and grew, making it in the West End and then America. It's loud, brash and very sparkly and, of course, very good. Most of the songs are bangin' choons with the Queens taking lead and backing vocals throughout with the four-piece band of women so there are ten women on stage and not a man in sight. I had no idea what to expect from the show but it has won loads of awards so it must be OK, right?

The lights went down in the auditorium, the lights on stage came on and the band started playing as the Queens arrived for the first song with the refrain of 'Divorced, beheaded, died... divorced, beheaded, survived!'. All in sparkly outfits, strutting around the stage in carefully choreographed moves on the stage, taking turns with lead vocals, never still, never quiet, a royal girl group. Then, beginning with Catherine of Aragon, they tell us their tales of life before and during their marriage to the King. The Queens have a competition to decide which of them suffered the most during their lives and the show is off and running.

As you'd expect, it's very much an ensemble show with the six Queens interacting and sparring, singing and pulling shapes, trying to score points over each other. It's actually really quite funny with some laugh out loud moments. It's quick paced and only slows down with a ballad from Jane Seymour about how she actually loved Henry. Gosh, you can learn something every day, can't you?

It must be a very tiring show to be in, constant singing and lots of dance and movement, so there are a few understudies for each role. I suspect it's a good training ground for a new type of musical. With all the lights and sparkle it must be very different to the original Edinburgh version written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss and they struck gold. As an idea it's not all that, the Queens competing for the suffering award, but it's how they did it that makes this show so good. 

There's also the moment towards the end when Catherine Parr - who survived - decides not to take part in the competition. The Queens had thought they were only known because they were married to Henry but, actually, Henry is only known because he was married to them. That's a big 'fuck the patriarchy' moment of empowerment and the audience erupted. The audience was probably about 80% female with lots of girls with their mothers and aunts. Good.

Many thanks to Amy Di Bartolomeo, Amanda Lindgren, Claudia Kariuki, Esme Rathero, Tsemaye Bob-Elbe and Meesha Turner for their energetic performances

Great staging, great lights and sounds and overall a great show. Go and see it!

'South Pacific' at Sadler's Wells

'South Pacific' by Rogers and Hammerstein is one of my favourite musicals but I'd only seen one production of it, the Lincoln Centre production that I saw in New York in 2010. I fell in love with that production and bought the cast recording. I saw it on the evening of snowmageddon, so while we were in the tropics in the theatre the city was covered in deep snow. 

That production came over for a season at the Barbican before going on tour so I saw it several times and thoroughly enjoyed it. Chichester Festival Theatre announced in 2019 it would stage a new version in 2020 with Julian Ovenden as Emile and I, naturally, bought tickets. Then everything stopped because of the virus. Enterprisingly, Chichester broadcast a recording of the production so I saw it online and later announced it would play over the summer 2022 in Sadler's Wells before going on tour, so I got tickets. 

It's the old, old story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl and then boy get's the girl back. It's set on a south Pacific island during the Second World War with America at war with Japan. It opens with the ending of a party held by one of the French plantation owners, Emile du Becque, and we meet his special guest, the American nurse Ensign Nellie Forbush. We follow the twists and turns of their romance and then after another party Nellie finds out that Emile has two children from his previous marriage to his indiginous wife and she breaks it off. In a sub-plot we see that a young lieutenant Cable falls in love with Liat on the fabled island of Bali Ha'i. but he can't marry her because she's indiginous. Emile subsequently volunteers to spy on the Japanese with the lieutenant, both facing almost certain death. I'll leave it there.

There's a lot more going on in this show with Bloody Mary making money selling local crafts to the USA navy, Seabee Luther Billis, the eternal chancer, also trying to make money in any way he can and has a crush on Nellie, Cable's background at home where he's expected to join the family firm of lawyers and, of course, the racism that bubbles just under the surface and becomes blatant with Nellie's reaction to Emile's children and Cable's refusal to marry Liat, Bloody Mary's daughter.

As soon as you hear the start of the overture you know you're in for a treat with lush music and beautiful songs, like 'Some Enchanted Evening', 'There is Nothin' Like A Dame', 'Younger Than Springtime' and the heartbreaking 'This Nearly Was Mine'. 'You've Got To Be Carefully Taught' is a powerful song about the  racism Cable feels, knowing it's wrong but unable to overcome his feelings. He speaks for Nellie too.

I liked how this production gives the Cable/Liat sub-plot more prominence by having Liat on stage a lot more. She both opens and closes the show with her dancing as well as the Bali Ha'i sequence. After her gentle dance at the start we're thrown into war with a dozen marines coming down ropes out of nowhere and onto the stage, spotlit and running round to set the scene before we head into the island's hills to meet Emile and Nellie. It was a surprise opening but worked really well, reminding us that everything we're going to see is happening against a background of war. 

I loved this production. Directed by Daniel Evans, set designed by Peter McKintosh, choreography by Ann Yee and music directed by Cat Beverage with her live orchestra. Julian Ovenden was great as Emile and I loved that he sang in his French accent. Julian has a really powerful voice and I first heard him in 'Grand Hotel' nearly 20 years ago. Nellie was played by Gina Beck who also has a lovely voice and a steady southern American accent. Joanna Ampil played Bloody Mary and she gave us a lovely, evocative version of 'Happy Talk'. Rob Houchen was OK as Cable but lacked oomph. Dougie McMeekin was OK as Billis but seemed a bit too young for the part. I really liked the grace and moves of Sera Maehara as Liat. 

Daniel Evans does good work. I first saw him as an actor along with Julian Ovenden in 'Grand Hotel' at the Donmar Warehouse and then in other productions, including playing the lead in 'Sunday in the Park with Georges' in both London and New York and I saw both. He then became artistic director at Sheffield Crucible Theatre and then at Chichester. I wonder what his next move will be? As for Mr Ovenden, he has a great voice and stage presence and should do more musicals (the good ones, obviously). The show is now on tour so go and see it - you won't regret it.

'Edvard Munch: Masterpieces from Bergen' at The Courtauld Gallery

The latest exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery is a selection of 18 works by Munch from the KODE Art Museums in Bergen, Norway, that have never been seen before in this country. The last Munch exhibition I attended was a few years ago at the British Museum and it was full of despair and death but, from the images used for the publicity for the exhibition, I suspected this exhibition might be a bit different. And it was. There was colour and light, such as this 'Self Portrait in the Clinic' from 1909 when he was recovering from a breakdown.

One of the first paintings you see is 'Spring Day on Karl Johan' from 1890 when he was experimenting with Impressionism and this looks like he was influenced by a Seurat painting. This is one of the main boulevards in Oslo painted with small dashes of colour. Munch was still a young man when he painted it and trying to find his own approach to art but I think it's nice to know he was influenced early on by the colours and styles of the Impressionist masters. He might have even been happy when he painted it.

Another early painting that caught my eye was 'Morning' from 1884, distinctly showing his early influences. The overall composition and the delicate colours are very different from later works. A young woman is getting dressed in the morning, sitting on her bed and looking towards the window, one foot still bare. It's a gentle image, painted when he was only 20 years old.

I puzzled over 'Children Playing in the Street in Asgardstrand' from 1901-03. I don't know what the children are supposed to be doing but it looks like they're lying down while the girl looks out at the viewer. The notice beside the painting suggested the girl is on the cusp of moving from being a young child into adolescence. I don't really see where that is coming from but I can get the leaving innocence and childhood behind thing, growing up and no longer playing with her friends. One of Munch's regular themes was transition so maybe this was an early example of him finding his way. Still, the painting is light and airy and that's a good thing.

It was nice to see another side to Munch and see these paintings on show for the first time in this country. It was a pleasant surprise to see so many bright, colourful paintings. There were other paintings on show that are instantly recognisable as by Munch, using his regular themes and darker colours but I liked the brighter, lighter ones best. A final one, 'Youth' from 1908, a bather on the beach in northern Germany with the Baltic Sea in the background.