Three Films

I seem to go to the cinema quite rarely these days. I see the big Marvel films like 'Black Panther' and 'Avengers: Infinity War' but that tends to be about it. So it was quite a surprise to find myself seeing three films in three weeks about three people.

'The Happy Prince' is the culmination of Rupert Everett's love affair with Oscar Wilde and tells the tale of what happened to Wilde after he was released from Reading prison and went to live in exile on the Continent. I saw Rupert Everett play Wilde in 'The Judas Kiss' a few years ago and that production apparently helped to get this film off the ground. With all the production agencies, producers and assistant producers in the credits at the end, he's obviously put in a lot of work to raise the finance to get the film made.

Rupert not only plays Wilde but he also wrote and directed the film, clearly a labour of love. The film took a little while to get going but it was worth it and I loved bookending various episodes in Wilde's life  by him telling the story of 'The Happy Prince' to a couple of street urchins.

'McQueen' is a documentary about the short life of Alexander McQueen and his rise to prominence in the fashion world before his death at the age of 40. The film is a thing of beauty in itself, very elegant and measured. There is lots of footage from the time as British fashion took off in the '90s, with clips of Isabella Blow and others who were all at the centre of it with McQueen.

There was also footage of some of his spectacular fashion shows and a gob-smacking moment when robots open fire with paint onto a beautiful, pristine white dress the model is wearing. That was a wow moment and I preferred the dress after the paint job (such clever robots). The thing that was missing for me was the lack of explanation or exploration of what went wrong to rob him of his joy - drugs are mentioned and there's footage of McQueen speaking about cocaine, but nothing about what set him off on that path. The film ends with his suicide the night before his mother's funeral - all that creativity snuffed out by success and money. If you get a chance to see the film then please do so, it's well worth seeing and is beautiful in its own right.

'Carrington' is a film from the '90s about the artist Dora Carrington and her love for Lytton Stratchy. That puts her into the Bloomsbury group of artists. She was a star pupil at the Slade School of Art before the First World War alongside Stanley Spencer, Paul Nash and others. She wasn't bothered about exhibiting her work, she painted because she wanted to paint for herself and for Lytton and that's probably why she isn't more well known. The film was screened as a one-off at the National Gallery.

Carrington is played by Emma Thompson and Lytton by Jonathan Pryce and it's a strange and touching tale of their platonic and deep love for each other, having their own lovers but always coming back to each other and sharing their joys, tears and lives. It ends with Carrington's suicide after Lytton dies.

Three films about three people, all artists, all dead while still young (Wilde was 46, McQueen was 40 and Carrington was 39) and all have left their own legacy. There's currently a year-long season of Oscar Wilde plays in the West End, the V&A put on the big exhibition about Alexander McQueen a couple of years ago so what we need is a big exhibition of Carrington's works. She was prominent in 'The Crisis of Brilliance' exhibition a few years ago but it's time for a proper retrospective exhibition - yes, Tate Britain, I'm looking at you.

'Amadeus' at Chichester Festival Theatre

Yesterday we got the train down to Chichester in rural West Sussex to the shiny new Chichester Festival Theatre for the matinee performance of 'Amadeus' with Rupert Everett in the lead as Salieri. I've never seen the play or the film so I didn't know what to expect but I was hit quite forcefully by Rupert's tireless performance and his rage at God.

'Amadeus' is the tale of Mozart's period of living in Vienna as an adult after touring Europe as a child prodigy. Mozart escapes the authority of his father and marries for love in Vienna while continuing to seduce as many women as possible. Salieri rules the music scene in Vienna as the court composer who is driven to distraction by the perfection of Mozart's music and plots his downfall.

The story is told in flashback with Salieri an old man in a wheelchair who transforms into his younger self with a smudge of paint on his eyebrows, a dark wig and throwing off his dressing gown. He is transformed into the upright Salieri of his youth encountering Mozart for the first time and having to run from the salon because of the sheer beauty of Mozart's playing. Salieri had previously made a pact with God that he would become a great composer but, somehow, God has undermined this pact by throwing Mozart into the mix and Salieri comes to see this as a war against God who uses Mozart as his weapon.

In typical Faustian manner, as Salieri's star rises Mozart descends into drunkenness and poverty, eventually dying. But years later it's Mozart's music that is played everywhere and not Salieri's so his last throw of the dice is to claim that he killed Mozart so his name will live forever linked to his hated Mozart. It seems to have worked.

Rupert Everett is the star of the show, on stage the whole time in what must be an exhausting performance. He is haughty, charming, feeble when old and vigorous when in his prime. His is a commanding presence on that stylishly baroque stage with minimal scenery or props, a piano on stage much of the time, a few chairs, chandeliers in the air and glass sliding doors all delivering an impression of opulence and grandeur fit for the Austro-Hungarian Emperor in the 1780s.

We have the potty-mouthed, childish Mozart as the enfant-terrible and genius of music stamping round the stage talking about shit and spanking, bringing challenge to the musical establishment of the court and city of Vienna, so wanting to please but continually failing. Joshua McGuire is the grotesque of Mozart for most the play before he becomes a figure of pity in the final scenes, desperate to please but never able to do so. Jessie Buckley plays Mozart's long-suffering wife and very good she is too, clearly the more adult of the two lovers but also capable of descending into lewdness.  She plays a nice line between long-suffering wife and harlot and in the final scene we see her selling Mozart's scores by the note.

I thought the whole cast were great, with the twin chorus gentlemen in grey appearing and disappearing in a blink with news about Mozart, repeating what they say and swirling round in frock coats. Simon Jones was great as the Emperor, not engaged and avoiding any and all arguments or need to make a decision (I missed his dressing gown though).

I hope this production transfers to the West End soon. It's a short run at Chichester and is only on for another two weeks and is definitely worth seeing.

Theatre Trips February-March 2013

It's occurred to me that I've been depriving you of my visits to the theatre this year, and there have been several. Where shall I start?

Merrily We Roll Along @ The Menier Chocolate Factory

Another Sondheim production from the Choccy Factory. It's struck a vein of gold with it's Sondheim productions, with 'Sunday In The Park With George' and 'A Little Night Music' not only transferring to the West End but also to Broadway, so I had high hopes for 'Merrily'. I saw a concert version of it a few years back so was familiar with the outline of the play.

It's a bit of an oddity in that it heads back in time rather than forward. It opens at a Hollywood party for the director's first blockbuster and from there we head back to when he and his partner had a success on broadway, further back to when they were a revue troupe and, further back to when they first met. From the swaggers of life, excess and success we later see them as young, idealists and hopeful.

I prefer the younger characters and felt the older versions of themselves were just plain unlikeable and that influences my view of the production. They were too shouty, too full-on and in your face and, if not unpleasant, at least not very nice. And why were they mic'd up? The Choccy Factory is a small venue that means you don't - or shouldn't - need microphones. I don't know if it was the play or the cast, but I wasn't terribly thrilled by it. Or, perhaps, it was the '70s setting moving back into the '60s - not terribly attractive costumes? I liked Jenna Russell who I've seen in Sondheims before (most recently in 'Into The Woods' and in 'Sunday In The Park') but that was about it. She does good drunk heckler.

It's another success, of course, and is transferring to the West End so you can see it for yourself and make up your own mind.

Privates on Parade @ The Noel Coward Theatre

This production of 'Privates on Parade' has now closed but I thoroughly enjoyed it from it's opening barrage of foul language to the closing scene of boarding a ship from Singapore back to Old Blighty. I've never seen it before but sort of know what it's about and that 'It Ain't Half Hot, Mum' was a sort of comedy telly series version of it.

It's the tale of a private posted to a concert party in Malaya at the end of the Second World War, finding his feet and love in the strange environment of camp entertainers, homosexuality and racism, prostitutes and the black market, mad officers and, of course, the Malaysian rebels/freedom fighters. There are some lovely song & dance set pieces and some rather long (and dull) diatribes by the worthy officer. There's nudity when the soldiers take turns having a shower after rehearsals one day.

Even Simon Russell Beale gets in on the act when he's changing costumes between routines, wearing what looks like a corset and then stands up, turns round and there's his bare bum. Not the best sight but brave of him to do it. Other than that, he was great fun as the camp officer leading the troupe in his short shorts, with his many costume changes, singing and dancing as Vera Lynn, Marlene Dietrich and Carmen Miranda and giving good show.

I thoroughly enjoyed the production. It was nice to see Harry Hepple on stage again but he didn't have any solo songs. It was quite strange seeing actors acting badly in character, making themselves look like amateurs that just happen to have found themselves in the concert party and away from the front line. Simon Russell Beale was great fun with his various set pieces and, of course, becoming the gallant hero at the end when he marries the Anglo-Indian leading lady who's become pregnant by the private and takes her to her land of dreams, Britain.

Dear World @ The Charing Cross Theatre

If you've heard of this play before you're probably one of a small elite of theatricals - I'd never heard of it but I have heard of the film it was made into, 'The Madwoman of Chaillot'. I've only seen 'Madwoman' once, with the lead taken by Katherine Hepburn, but it's stayed with me over the years.

The play is set in Paris after the war as the world changes from olde to modern with old social mores changing to greed and exploitation. Naturally, a group of greedy entrepreneurs discover oil under Paris so need to exploit it. This is where Countess Aurelia (aka the Madwoman) enlists the help of the Sewerman, the Madwoman of the Parks and the Madwoman of the Dogs to save Paris and banish the greedy folks to a strange underworld which is conveniently accessed through a manhole in her cellar.


It's a rather dated piece from the late '60s with a simple environmentalist theme but I liked the wonder, simplicity and deft incisiveness of the Madwoman. She lost her lover many years ago and chooses to live a romantic world of her own creation but she sees through the modern world quite easily. Don't mess with the Madwoman.

It's a rather thin play and the songs are a bit over-long but it's great fun nonetheless. It stars Betty Buckley and Paul Nicholas (yes, that Paul Nicholas). The night we went it also hosted Una Stubbs and Trevor Nunn in the audience.

The Judas Kiss @ The Duke of York Theatre

The Judas Kiss is the tale of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas in which the first act is set the day before Oscar is arrested and the second act sees him released from prison and living, penniless, in Naples. It stars Rupert Everett as Oscar and Freddie Fox as Bosie. We see Oscar at the height of his powers and then laid low by his time in Reading gaol.

Rupert Everett gave us a masterclass in understated acting, for the most part sitting in a chair just off centre-stage speaking calmly and letting the other characters whirl around him in passion and anger and frustration. No matter what the others do, the eye and attention always travels back to Rupert and his performance as Oscar. His deliberate indecisiveness and, later, world weariness, seems to drip from the stage, the ennui of being alive being so troublesome.

I wasn't terribly keen on Freddie Fox who seemed to stamp around the stage declaiming at the top of his voice like a spoilt child - the very role I last saw him in in 'Hay Fever' last year. Of course, some of that will have been the part and the direction, but two similar performances in the space of a year doesn't make me wish for more.

As with 'Privates on Parade' there was unexpected nudity and it seemed like all the men under the age of 30 had to get their kit of at some point. On the other hand, it allowed Rupert to make some choice comments about the equipment of the Italian sailor Bosie picks up one night.

So, which was the most fun? 'Privates on Parade'. Which was the most wondrous? 'Dear World'. Which was the most thoughtful? 'The Judas Kiss'.