'Our Country's Good' at the National Theatre

On Friday we went to see the new production of 'Our Country's Good' at the National Theatre, a tale of the first convict community established in Australia in 1788. The first performance was on Wednesday and it's still in preview but I don't care, I liked it! There's probably some trimming still to be done but, if anything, that only makes me want to go back and see it again. It also has music by Cerys Matthews in her first theatrical venture and that worked really well.

The play opens with an Aboriginal sitting on the stage painting himself in ritual patterns and then shifts to the transport ship full of convicts. And this is where I must mention the staging as another character. The stage is round and moves round, with half rising or lowering and, at the start, the whole thing rises up and up and up to reveal the convicts in the cramped holds of the ship, pushed together and swaying with the sea. The stage changes for every scene and works really well. As does the big projection on the back wall which looks very Aboriginal and the colours shift and change depending on the time of day in the play - it was very effective and atmospheric.

It's a hard tale of the transportation of those early people who built what is now Australia who were sent there through a corrupt legal system for stealing a biscuit or being accused of a random crime and having no representation as well as hard and fast pick-pockets and criminals. But they all bear the same brand. They're all criminals and this play really brings that out with debates about the nature of crime and its consequences, about rehabilitation and the soul of humanity. Can art and culture help to 'civilise' the convicts and make them productive members of society? Will putting on a play change anything? And, of course, the ever present Aborigine watching as the settlement grows and starts to take over with, at the end, the realisation that they've been given smallpox from the settlers.

There are some very interesting arguments going on in this play and it's span is very broad, covering a lot of ground. There are discussions between the characters of the women selling themselves for food, the casual violence between the convicts and the soldiers, and the soldiers feeling they're being punished for losing the wars in the Americas. And there's also consideration of the nature of love and lust, of the innate humanity (or lack of) we all have. And, wrapped around all of this is another play, the play put on by the convicts.

The play within the play is 'The Recruiting Officer' by George Farquhar (and, coincidentally, Farquhar's 'The Beaux' Stratagem' is also being performed on the same stage at the National). Leuitenant Clark volunteers to put on a play and starts recruiting a range of unlikely convicts as his actors, some wild and violent, others devious or meek. They learn their lines and learn to act as life in the colony goes on and some are accused of stealing food, are beaten and nearly hanged. The colony's reluctant hang-man is also one of the actors who measures one of his fellow actors, the wild and feared  Liz Morden, to be hanged. Initially refusing to speak at her trial she eventually does so to deny the theft for the sake of the play and her new-found friends and is reprieved.

It all sounds terribly serious and grim but it's not. Alongside the seriousness are some great big belly laughs (yes, even I laughed out loud) as the convicts talk about how to be actors - actors acting as actors talking about actors is a conundrum. It's made doubly interesting since most (if not all?) of the characters were real people who travelled on those first transport ships to the upside down world that became Australia. How on earth they survived for eight months at sea in those appalling conditions is a miracle and very topical with migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea today in flimsy boats for a better life in Europe.

I thoroughly enjoyed this production, from the hate-filled Major (Peter Forbes) spitting his lines to meek Mary Brenham (Caoilfhionn Dunne) who grows in confidence and the over-the-top acting of the pick-pocket Robert Sideway (Lee Ross) to the intellectual Governor Phillips (Cyril Nri).

There were some really good performances and I particulary liked the comedy and pathos of Jodie McNee as Liz Morden and the quick wit of Ashley McGuire (who I saw as an excellent Falstaff in 'Henry IV' last year) as Dabby Bryant who yearns to go back to Cornwall. The play also featured Paul Kaye as the midshipman who years for his love Duckling Smith (Shalisha James-Davis), one of the convicts, and Cyril Nri as the progressive Governor who is pragmatic but aims for rehabilitation. I'd also single out Gary Wood as the Aborigine, present almost continually but seemingly invisible to the settlers. Jason Hughes pays Leuitenant Clark who pulls his random convicts together and I liked the final scene with the convicts finally out of their rags and in costume for their rols as the play is about to start.

It's in that final scene where the title of the play makes sense - 'Our Country's Good'. Why on earth would the convicts think their country is 'good' when it's sent them to the other side of the world? When you add 'for' at the start of the phrase it makes sense - they've been transported for their country's good.

The music and songs by Cerys Mathhews were a nice touch to bring another level to the production. They're not intrusive - and this certainly isn't a musical version of the play - but they add emphasis. The songs aren't full three minute pop songs, more like snatches and phrases, a verse here and a chorus there and worked really well. One song sounded very Cerys and a recorded version would be good to promote the play. Good stuff Cerys!

I fully intend seeing this production again when it's settled into it's run. The writer, Timberlake Wertenbaker, was there last night sitting in the back row, and so was Lynda Baron who I saw earlier this year in 'Stevie' at Hampstead.

I also like the fact that these characters were largely real people with books about them and their circumstances. I really liked Dabby Bryant and in random Googling around the internet found her page on Wiki and was delighted to see that she did, indeed, make it back to her beloved Cornwall. Not for long, but she did it and became famous in so doing. Well done Mary!

'The Champions'

Do you  remember 'The Champions'? It was a telly series from the late 60s about a team of super spies with special powers that saved the world every week. Alexandra Bastedo was blonde with the beehive with super-strength and ESP and William Gaunt and Stuart Damon (the mandatory American) were her side-kicks that did a lot of fighting and stuff. And 'The Champions' popped into my head tonight when I saw William Gaunt play John O'Gaunt in Shakespeare's 'Richard II' at The Globe. He didn't use his superpowers though.

He's still recogniseable despite the white hair and beard and his voice is just the same. He delivered a magnificent death-bed speech that threw me back to 'The Champions'. I didn't realise he was in this production since I booked the tickets ages ago but it was lovely to see him again, and this time in the flesh.

Erewan Shrine, Bangkok

I saw the news late last night about the bombing of the Erewan Shrine in Bangkok and sighed. I've been there 4-5 times over the last 25 years and it's got the odd distinction of being a very peaceful place despite the crowds and noise all around. It's built on the corner of one of the busiest roads in central Bangkok and is always busy.

At the centre of the shrine sits Lord Brahma, the Hindu creator god, surrounded by flowers (mainly marigolds and orchids) and incense drowning out the smell of car exhaust fumes. Bells are rung and dancers perform on the hour in praise to Lord Brahma. And someone deliberately bombed it and killed people. Bad karma.

I hope Bangkok rebuilds it and Lord Brahma forgives.

The Plastic Bag is 10

This blog has been going for 10 years now, something I couldn't even dream of back when I started  but it's true. This is post number 2,360 and it's had 344,102 page views - or at least that's the number in the analytics since Google took over Blogger (whenever that was). To celebrate moving into my 11th year in the Plastic Bag I've changed the url for the blog to plasticbag2005.blogspot.co.uk so my user numbers will start from zero again.

I've blogged about all sorts of stuff over the years. Holidays, gigs, music, thoughts, exhibitions, theatre, news, annoyances and joys. It's all in here somewhere. The only theme here is me. It's not a music blog or a theatre blog or an art blog or anything like that. It's about me and what I'm interested in. And I'm interested in lots of things.

I've blogged about Buffy Sainte-Marie and Amanda Palmer (especially receiving AFP hugs), about Matisse and Paul Klee exhibitions, about buying cushions, about people switching on their phones in theatres, about theatrical productions I've enjoyed or hated, about my holidays and penchant for making lists, about poetry on the Tube network and more. I've blogged about all sorts of stuff and all of this is part of me.

We're all made up of many contradictions and I'm not sure what makes me continue to type out blogs and then send them out into the vastness of the Internet. That's a big space out there and my small voice is part of it. Sometime people notice and sometimes they don't. I don't really understand the patterns of viewing but I'm not too bothered. My peak month was April 2011 when I had 4,800 readers but I've gone steadily downhill since then but that's not bad for an unpromoted blog.

I was delighted that my blogging about Jane Aire & The Belvedere's attracted so many positive comments and then created a connection with Jane herself who now sings in a choir in America but appreciates our continued punk-love of her younger self. I was also touched by people welcoming my blogging about an operation for a stomach hernia and how to look after the wound since it wasn't explained by the hospitals. It's odd what people notice and find useful.

Anyway, let's see what the next ten years contains... I suspect more of the same - but who knows? Watch this space!

Buffy Sainte-Marie back in London

Buffy is in London even as I type. She's playing the Brooklyn Bowl at the O2 at Greenwich on Thursday and I'll be there (obv). She's also going to be on 'Woman's Hour' on Radio 4 tomorrow (Wednesday) so it'll be worth tuning in if you can (or iPlayer it if you can't).  I know it's a bit silly at my age to be getting excited about seeing Buffy - I'm hardly a teenager anymore but I do turn into fanboy where Buffy's concerned.

I listened to 'Power In The Blood' today (for the umpteenth time) to decide on which songs I really want to hear Buffy play on Thursday. I also remembered her post on Facebook the other day  to say that she's just re-recorded 'My Country Tis Of Thy People You're Dying' and I want to hear that. It's not a song Buffy usually plays so it'll be a great addition to her set.

Songs I'd love to hear from the latest album include 'Power in the Blood' (the title song), 'We Are Circling', 'Ke Sakihitin Awasis', 'Farm in the Middle of Nowhere', 'Sing Our Own Song' and 'Carry it On'. I'd love to hear the 'pop opera' of 'The Uranian War' but I doubt we'll get that. And I insist on the re-interpretations of '70s songs 'Generations' and 'Not The Loving Kind'. And, of course, everything else. So that's a six hours set Buffy - OK?

I love how Buffy has woven todays issues into her songs. Like in UB40's 'Sing Our Own Song' she's re-written it to include references to the #Occupy movement and #IdleNoMore and changed it entirely to speak to and about Native Americans.

Enjoy your time in London, Buffy, and I'll see you on Thursday!

Jonathan Ollivier - The Swan

I was sad to hear the news on Sunday that Jonathan Ollivier had been killed in a car accident as he was biking to his final performance in 'The Car Man' at Sadler's Wells. I saw 'The Car Man' a few weeks back but with a different principal dancer but I've seen Jonathan twice as the Swan/Stranger in Matthew Bourne's 'Swan Lake' in 2009 and 2013 at Sadler's Wells and loved those productions.

In part I think the outpouring of sympathy on Twitter and in the mainstream news has been because it happened on his way to the last performance at Sadler's Wells and the last performance of 'The Car Man' tour. The performance was, understandably, cancelled in the circumstances. It's nice, in a way, to see him honoured with all the press coverage. Some articles are simply factually wrong but the obituary in 'The Guardian' seems to get it right so take a read. Matthew Bourne has posted a touching message on the New Adventures site.

I only saw Jonathan dance twice, both times as the Swan and that's how I'll remember him. I remember well his imperious alpha-male approach to dancing the Swan and his alter-ego the Stranger at the Queen's ball when he seduces anyone he wants. Moving from the unthinking aggresion of the Swan towards the Prince which softens as they dance to the protective love we see in the final scenes, he interpretted the role for us and played it out on the stage with movement and dance. There's a certain magic when it all works and it certainly worked with Jonathan.

He's a sad loss. I hope his family take some comfort from the sympathy expressed everywhere and that his children got to see him dance or will see him dance on DVD. Be proud of your dad, kids.

'Measure for Measure' at Shakespeare's Globe

Another trip to the Globe last week, this time to see 'Measure for Measure' on a chilly evening for sitting in an outdoors theatre in August. It was a relief at half-time when I could finally put my jacket on and start warming up before night drew in.  I like the Globe and its atmosphere but it really ought to be warm and sultry of an evening when I'm there.

'Measure for Measure' is one of the 'problem plays' and is an example of where I have my own problems with the writing. It's another tale of a powerful man playing with people's lives simply because he can and I'm never that keen on things like that. In this case, the Duke of Vienna leaves the city in the hands of puritanical Angelo while hanging around diguised as a friar to see what happens. The Duke sees it as an interesting social experiment but he's playing with peeople's lives and some risk death.

The production had me smiling straight away with the play starting off amongst the crowded audience, with drunkards and bawds staggering around grabbing each other and going into the little bawdy houses that looked like painted sheds that had been wheeled in for the first few scenes. Shrieks and laughter and some of the bawdy-lasses climbing ladders to offer their wares to the people in the balcony. It was all great fun and a great example of the Globe using all its space for the performances. I suspect some of the audience were terribly puzzled but I loved it.

The play proper then began with the Duke handing over power to Angelo and leaving abruptly.We meet some of the shady characters like Mistress Overdone who runs the local brothel, Pompey with his slight Geordie accent who works as her pimp and Lucio who is a friend of Claudio and a fop who can't help getting into trouble. Claudio has been arrested under Angelo's new puritanical laws for fornication despite being married to the lady he's got pregnant (it's complicated).

Lucio visits Claudio's sister, Isabella, in the local nunnery to get her to intercede for her brother with Angelo which she does but Angelo gets inflamed with passion and wants her body for his own. He issues her with the ultimatum that she will sleep with him or her brother will die. This is one of the crucial scenes of the play when the puritanical Angelo gives in to his lusts and is on a par with the common soldiers who frequent the bawdy houses but he can hide it. Who would believe Isabella over him with his solid reputation? What is she to do? Protect her virtue at the expense of her brother's life?

Meanwhile we see the impact of Angelo's new regime as the bawdy-houses are closed and even Mistress Overdone is arrested. It's serious this time, a crack-down on the sin that Angelo despises while secretly giving in to his own sins. And this is where the friar comes into his own since he somehow knows that Angelo was bethrothed to Mariana but called off the wedding when the ship carrying her dowry sank and left her penniless. His plan is for her to pretend to be Isabella and sleep with Angelo as his wife and so save both Isabella's virtue and Claudio's life. Seems like a plan until we hear that Angelo has sent an order to the prison to kill Claudio anyway. O dear.

It's all terribly complicated and fast-paced, very colourful and funny in some scenes - I particularly liked constable Elbow who can't get anything right but wore the greatest swishing, baggy trews (you have to see him walking in them to understand). The boring people wore plain, dull clothes but the bawds brought colour to the stage, especially Mistress Overdone in her scarlet dress and Lucio in his green suit. I liked the bawds best - they were fun.

The set was, as ever at the Globe, quite simple, but I didn't quite get the carpets that were laid out on the stage and gradually removed as scens's changed. What was that about? The costumes were great, inventive and imaginative. I particularly liked Lucio's hat with its turquoise blue and green feathers that reminded me of Chris Lowe's jungle hat the last time I saw the Pet Shop Boys (I still want that hat).

I liked the performances but it must be difficult to play Angelo or Isabella since they're so dull and serious. Give me the others any day. I liked Dominic Rowan as the Duke and friar, Brendan O'Hea as the foppish Lucio with his mincing gait, Petra Massey as Mistress Overdone, Trevor Fox as Pompey and Dean Nolan as the daft Elbow.

Musing on it afterwards, I think it's the production I liked more than the play. It's on for another couple of months (not every night, obv) so go and see it if you can - it really is good fun and had even me laughing in places. And it ended with the a version of the usual dance, of course.

'Grand Hotel' at Southwark Playhouse

There's a new production of the mighty 'Grand Hotel' at Southwark Playhouse so I just had to see it. I've said before in the Plastic Bag that 'Grand Hotel' is one of my favourite musicals so I judge productions on a different, higher, level so any production must raise it's game. And. you know what? It did!

My first 'Grand Hotel' was in 2004 at the Donmar Warehouse and I saw that production twice. That production featured Daniel Evans as Mr Kringelein, Mary Elizabeth Mastranatonio as the ballerina Grushinskaya and Julian Ovenden as the Baron. My second was 10 years later in 2014, the graduation show by the students from the Guildhall at the Silk Street theatre and they put on a smashing show and the stand-out performance for me was Rebecca Collingwood as Flaemmchen, the typist. So this was my third production.

So, what's it about? Do I really have to tell you? It's set in the Grand Hotel in Berlin in the early 1930s with all sorts of people visiting and staying, and all sorts of people working there. We see the life of the hotel over a few days and snatches of the lives of the people there, from Erik who works at the reception desk to Grushinskaya, famous ballerina on her eighth farewell tour, the young Baron who lives there but can't pay the rent, Flaemmchen the jobbing typist for hire who wants to go to Hollywood, Otto Kringelein who has just left hospital and wants to experience life before he dies and Herr Preysing the businessman. All life is here and the characters wander through, interacting now and then as well as pursuing their own stories. Another character is the magnificent chandeleir that floats over the middle of the stage, glimmering and shimmering for all it's worth.

Of course, there's more to it than that and we have the Baron and Grushunskaya finding their love only to lose it, Flaemmchen being 'bought' by Preysing who wants to take her to America and the Baron saving her from rape and Kringelein finding life. We see the characters grow and change, we learn of their pasts in snatches of song and we can only wonder at their futures. But not the Baron, our hero, who dies in the struggle to save Flaemmchen but his love, the ballerina, never knows. O how cruel fate can be, enough to bring a tear to the eye.

All of the characters have a song (or more) to their credit, a chance to shine and to immortalise their stories. The Baron - as our hero - is featured throughout but his main songs are 'Love Can't Happen' when he realises he's in love with Grushinskaya and 'Roses At The Station' when his spirit visits the railway station at which he'd promised to meet her and he can't fail at that after waiting so long for his love. Grushinskaya celebrates her new-found love with 'Bonjour Amour' the morning after her night with the Baron, finally she has found love. What can be more important and life-affirming?

Flaemmchen's big song is 'I Want To Go To Hollywood' in which we hear about her ambitions as well as the squalid life on Friedrich Strasse she wants to escape. But she fears she's pregnant so what's a girl to do? It's a great song and was very well delivered but I wasn't keen on adding the dancers to it - it's a solo song of desolation and hope and adding dancers to make it more Hollywood didn't really work for me. Rafaella, Grushinskaya's maid, has a touching song at the end when she decides that she can't tell her mistress about the Baron's death. Even Erik the receptionist has a song when he sings to his new born son over the phone telling him that he'll have everything and this nicely mirrors the song of the Baron - the Baron dies as young Erik is born. Life continues.

As does the future and the guests are fleeced by the hotel and then it becomes more vicious as suitcases are piled beneath the chandelier and the guests lose their jewelry, their clothes, their shoes and the spectre of the Holocasut looms and the chandeleir comes down.

The cast were all really good. I particularly liked Valerie Cutko as Raffaela, the maid (who I saw in 'Carousel' a couple of years ago), Victoria Serra as Flaemmchen (who I saw in 'Titanic'), Christine Gimandi as Grushinskaya (and this is her UK debut, a great show to debut in), Jonathan Stewart as Erik (who has a lovely voice) and Scott Garnham as the Baron. Sorry Scott, but Julian Ovenden remains my Baron.

I loved the penultimate scene with the Baron being showered in rose petals - a lovely touch that picks up on his song, 'Roses at the Station' (roses for passion). It's quite spectacular with the cast on chairs throwing handfuls of petals and then they fall like snow from the ceiling.

 

Well done Southwark on a great production. It sometimes felt a bit over the top with so much action taking place on such a narrow stage, all the dance routines and set pieces but overall it worked. Maybe your ushers need to remind the audience not to strecth their legs out onto the stage? The Doctor nearly stumbled by someone stretching out his legs at the wrong time. Not good. And how about that new-fangled invention of numbered seats? Go on, I dare you...

It's only on for another four weeks so enjoy it while you can!

'Songs For A New World' at St James's Theatre

Last week we went to see 'Songs for a New World' at St James's Theatre at Victoria. It's not a show I know anything about but I wanted to see Cynthia Erivo and Jenna Russell. I've actually seen all four performers in different things over the last few years: Cynthia in 'The Color Purple' at the Choccy Factory (twice) and 'Henry IV' at the Donmar; Jenna in 'Sunday in the Park With George' on Broadway, 'Into The Woods' at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, 'Merrily We Roll Along' at the Choccy Factory and in 'Di & Viv & Rose' at the Vaudeville; Damian Humbly in 'Merrily We Roll Along' and 'Little Shop of Horrors' (Choccy) and 'Putting It Together' at St James's; and Dean John-Wilson in 'Here Lies Love' at the National Theatre earlier this year.

 'Songs' is a revue show, a sequemce of songs in which each lead takes the lead or combines into duets or everyone taking lines or verses in collaborative songs. There's nothing holding it together really, other than the set that seems to be a loft apartment in Manhattan with furniture and props to move around that looks like all of them lived there at some unspecified time, two older charactersa and two younger, all with hopes, dreams and disappointments. 

 It opens with Cynthia's character coming on stage to start singing and moving the furniture around, singing of a new world, a new start and she's just moving into the apartment full of hope. But even she remembers past sadnesses as she unpacks and arranges the furniture before the other characters appear, one by one, joining in and building the song. I don't know why but this grabbed me and kept me centred on the characters and their diverse pasts and presents. Maybe it's something to do with moving to another city to start life afresh? I don't know but it struck a chord.

I also liked Jenna as the more mature woman with some of the more funny and the more tender songs. Whether she's threatening to jump off the Park Lane balcony of the apartment she shares with Murray and her family or whether she's Mrs Santa Claus she always gives good value. And she also gets some of the sadder songs, looking back to a recent happier past. I particularly liked her song about being young and wanting stuff rather than romance and then, growing older, realising she'll never have the Moon. That was very touching.

Very early on in the show I realised that Cyntia is due to be a very big star indeed. I was terribly impressed with her performance in 'The Color Purple' and she's due to reprise that performance on Broadway in the Autumn. She has a lovely voice, powerful and tender by turns, very versatile and lovely to hear. I look forward to seeing her as often as possible on the West End stage - if she pulls it off on Broadway (which I'm sure she will) then I suspect we'll lose her. C'mon West End, come up with good roles for her.

 

PS: I've downloaded the few songs by Cynthia that are available on iTunes so c'mon Cynthia, we need an album. Soon please! 

'Indigenous Australia' at The British Museum

I went to see the 'Indigenous Australia' exhibition at The British Museum just before it closes this weekend - leaving it o the last minute again - and I'm pleased I managed to catch it. It's a mix of objects from the Museum's collection, things on loan and some artworks created specially for the exhibition.

It's one of those exhibitions that starts off with a lot of writing on boards with photos and maps to help centre you so you can be exposed to what you're about to see. We learn that people were in Australia over 60,000 years ago, that the sea rose to create the island of Tasmania and that the peoples of Australia lived close to and in harmony with the earth and sea.  So far so good. It then tries to explain the Dreamtime which people going back millennia have tried to depict in arts and crafts, the ancient people, the spirit people that helped to create what we see today.

The exhibition starts of with woodworks and other objects dating back to 1770 when Cook went to Australia and that's about when various European people started collecting things from the people they found, odd curios that were collectable but not understood. Some of the indigenous peoples had traditions about giving gifts and that's where some of the objects come from. Others were stolen or looted.

We see spears and shields, ceremonial masks and bowls, woven pouches for carrying a version of tobacco leaves, coral jewellery, figures made from clay and twine, baskets using traditional weaving techniques and all sorts, all decorated, some with simple and some with complex designs. Something I noticed that I don't think I've seen anywhere else was a set of 'message sticks', short, thin wooden sticks between 4 and 6 inches in length with designs cut into them. Apparently these conferred a special status on the carriers and could be used for anything from telling far off relatives about the birth of a child to almost anything.

As well as a fascinating story there's also the downside, the way the European invaders treated the indigenous folks, enshrining discrimination in the constitutions of the early states that now make up Australia and, even then, only removing those statutes in my lifetime. There are videos of civil rights marches and banners seeking equality and freedom. There are two small reproductions of painting by an indigenous artist whose name I didn't catch in the 50s who was granted honorary citizenship because of is art but, because he allowed one of his relatives to drink alcohol at a celebration was imprisoned for six months because it was against the law to give alcohol to indigenous people.

The standout pieces for me were two massive artworks by indigenous people, one by a man (above) and one by a women's collective (below). The sign beside the women's piece said that the women didn't want to explain the symbolism in their art because it was personal and the Museum has followed that wish.

You can try to 'read' these paintings for hours and not understand them without a deep understanding of the peoples who made them and their traditions. Australia is a vast place and the traditions of one people aren't the same as those in another part of the land. The painting above is, in part, about the tale of Little Leg (and you can see his little legs) and you can see the undulating serpent towards the bottom of the work - serpents are often in artworks as symbols of the first peoples and ancestors. In the very bottom left of the women's art you can roughly humanoid decorated shapes that match the skin painting on women and to the right the vague shapes of footprints (heel indents) showing travel and movement. But what these mean is beyond me. Fascinating though.

Outside the rotunda which houses the exhibition are two huge sculptures that welcome you to the exhibition. I've no idea what they're meant to be but I liked them.

The exhibition closes on 2 August so if you missed it then that's it. I really must try to visit exhibitions when they open rather than when they're closing...