HAVE PASSPORT, WILL GO TO THEATRE - Part 2

HAVE PASSPORT, WILL GO TO THEATRE - Part 2

Theatre Adventures Abroad

Continuing adventures abroad, we cross the North Sea once again, this time to enchanted Scotland.

SCOTLAND: I am convinced that anyone who is not immediately captivated by the beauty that is Scotland simply has no soul. Arriving by train from northwest England, the combination of rugged, yet pastoral, and oh-so-green is a gorgeous introduction to this fiercely proud, independent country. While it is part of the United Kingdom, it is, at the same time, most definitely not, and has its own Parliament and laws, and though it shares the British pound, I have in my possession a Bank of Scotland paper banknote. And one never ever calls a Scot "British" or, faux pas to end all faux pas, "English." It's a country I long to explore in depth. To date, I've only been to Scotland's two largest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the contrast between the two cities belies its distance of under 55 miles.

Glasgow, the larger city, is gritty, hilly (very) and urbane with a sophistication that lurks beneath its sometimes gruff exterior. It reminds me a lot of Chicago. The Glaswegian dialect is sometimes incomprehensible, particularly to my Midwest ears, but a smile and a chat in a pub will work wonders. It's the home of the Glasgow Rose, Charles Rennie Mackintosh architecture and the Citizens Theatre, one of the UK's most renowned regional theatres.

Sidebar 1:  I am not even remotely a culinarily adventuresome person.  Okay, let's be blunt. I'm a picky eater. A very picky eater. So it's a bit out of character for me to throw caution to the wind and try something new. Such was the case my first breakfast in Glasgow at the Malmaison Hotel. I decided to do the full Scottish breakfast experience and ordered the Full Scottish Breakfast, which included an offering called "black pudding." I thought it was some sort of, well, chocolaty sweet treat until I bit into it. Disgusting beyond words to my Midwestern palate, I discovered that black pudding is also known as "blood pudding," a main ingredient of which is pork blood. Mmmm, yummy! Upon noticing the grimace of utter horror on my face, the very cute waiter whisked the offending pudding away, replaced it which more sausages and with a wink said, "I don't think you're quite ready for haggis, sir." Amen to that, young man, amen to that. (For the record, I don't understand the British obsession with Marmite, either. Revolting stuff.)

Sidebar 2: It's no secret that I'm a transportation geek, especially where commercial airlines/airliners and passenger trains are involved. So in that vein, two fun transportation geeky items. #1…on the train I took from Exeter St. David station to Glasgow, my train, like passenger trains in America still often have, had a name. This is quite uncommon, though not unheard of, in Europe. I don't recall the name, sadly, but I know Scotland figured into the name. #2…when was the last time you heard of an airline flight having a name? When I flew from Glasgow to New York in October, 1995, my British Airways flight was named "The Flying Scotsman," not to be confused with the train of the same name between London and Edinburgh. The flight was on a 757, an unusual aircraft at the time for a trans-Atlantic flight.

Today, I'll start off with three very different offerings from Glasgow's Citizens Theatre.

Founded in 1945, the Citizens Theatre, affectionately know as the Citz, is located in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. Behind the plain, non-descript exterior is a three-theatre complex. The main auditorium is the original His Majesty's Theatre, which opened in 1878. Seating just under 500 in a glorious jewel box setting, the theatre has the oldest original working understage machinery in the UK and is the second oldest operational theatre in the UK. It retains many of its Victorian architectural features and features an original Victorian paint frame and related fly system, which is still used today to paint backcloths. The main auditorium also has its original glass roof. It produces a diverse program of programming that tends to focus on less-commercial fare.  Some consider the 30-year period from around 1970 to the early 2000s to be the Citz's golden era when the triumverate of Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald brought the Citz to national prominence. In addition to the main auditorium, called the Citizens Theatre, the complex also houses a 50-seat alley theatre, apparently no longer used, and the Circle Studio, a 100-seat in-the-round venue with miserably uncomfortable "block seating" (think backless gym riser seating…if you lean back, you'll get friendly with legs of the person sitting behind you). What were those designers thinking? I would see two plays in that space. The Citz alumni roster reads like a "Who's Who" in UK theatre: Rupert Everett, Alan Rickman, Pierce Brosnan, Glenda Jackson, Tim Curry, Sean Bean, Mark Rylance, Gary Oldman, Robbie Coltrane and my dear friend, the uber-talented Roberta Taylor, whom I would see in A Song at Twilight.

DON CARLOS - Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland - September, 1995

Oh, those wacky Spanish royals! Schiller is a challenge at best (exception…the brilliant production of Mary Stuart I saw on Broadway in 2009); at worst, it's just a chore. This fell somewhere in the middle. While this was sumptuously produced and certainly well-acted , I wasn't in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate this tale of love, power and deceit. I often found my mind drifting and focusing on non-Schiller things, like how hot many of the young actors were, including lead Benedick Bates, son of Alan Bates, and whom I would see in Butley in Boston in 2006. Having said that, however, there were many moments when I was riveted to the action on stage. Sophie Ward, daughter of actor Simon Ward, played Elizabeth, the love interest and cause of all this Iberian angst via a German playwright. Giles Havergal (see above) was a douchey Philip II. I seem to remember an undercurrent of homosexuality in the relationship between two of the leading male parts, but I can't remember who the potential lovebirds were (Posa and Don Carlos? Posa and Philip?). Tristram Jellinek, noted in the US for a long-running Schweppes commercial and a good friend of Robbie's, was scheduled to play the Grand Inquisitor. Fighting a long illness, at the last minute he was replaced by his understudy. He would miss only one other performance during the run and died in London shortly after the run ended.

Sidebar: I was in Glasgow primarily because Robbie would be there rehearsing A Song at Twilight and she thought I would enjoy the city. I saw Don Carlos on its press night and through Robbie, I was invited to the cast party backstage after the show. Let me assure you, those Citz actors know how to party…and drink. And drink. And drink. And so did little Jeffie. This resulted in quite possibly the worst hangover I have ever had in my life. Ever! A please-shoot-me-in-the-head grade hangover. Rather than staying in bed like any intelligent person would do, I decided to tough it out and went for a short excursion to Loch Lomand (beautiful, but I was in no shape to appreciate it) and, even worse, decided to go back to the Citz that evening for the performance of Ebb Tide, which resulted in…

EBB TIDE - Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland - September, 1995

The seating in the Circle Studio is uncomfortable. My head wanted to explode. My stomach was a mess and the only thing I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep. So, you sensibly ask, why was I at the theatre? Answer: because Rob had arranged my entire Citz experience and I was in comp seats and I felt it would be beyond rude not to show up. (To show how drunk the party was the previous evening, the house manager registered shock that I was there.) But I soldiered on and don't remember much about the evening at all. Adapted from the Robert Louis Stevenson story, I do remember it involved blocks on stage and ships and sailors and, gawd, I wanted it all to end. It was all rather dark and gloomy and I was positively delighted when the actors took their bows. I was in bed not even twenty minutes later. 

A SONG AT TWILIGHT - Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland - October, 1995

"So, get on with it. Attack me as much as you like. But for Christ's sake, don't bore me… It's long past my bedtime." Ah, Mr. Coward! Even in this, a relatively minor work, Coward demonstrates the wit, elegance and sophistication that are his trademarks. A Song at Twilight is Coward's last full-length play and a resigned weariness permeates throughout the evening. I don't mean that in a negative way, either. This is not a happy play. It's a play about regrets and missed opportunities and a life spent living a lie, or at the very least, hiding from the truth. The three main characters are both admirable and distinctly unlikeable, flawed human beings which gives the play a humanity not often found in Coward. Not clever and arch like Private Lives, nor overtly sophisticated and elegant like Design for Living, nor as broadly comic as Hay Fever and Blithe Spirit, the Coward trademarks are more muted and more subtle here resulting in a quietly satisfying evening. As played by a quartet of skilled actors (my pal Robbie played the role of the actress Carlotta Gray with a delicious fierceness), directed with skill by Giles Havergal and designed beautifully by Steven Yull and Gerry Jenkinson, the unforgiving seating in the Circle Studio didn't matter as we, the audience, were swept away into the world Coward created for us. Well done, all.

Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city, outwardly is the more beautiful of the two cities with a more obvious and open sophistication. From our centrally located hotel (the historic and iconic Scotsman Hotel), we were able to walk everywhere and where we couldn't walk (the Royal Yacht Britannia, for example), busses were nearby. The Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Royal Mile, and the loads and loads of narrow streets no wider than an alley at best, but great fun to wander down, make Edinburgh a top spot for me. On my bucket list: the Edinburgh Festival.

HAUNTING JULIA - King's Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland - October, 2012

 

From the prolific Alan Ayckbourn, a tasty psychological thriller that generated a few genuine screams and the occasional horrified gasp from an attentive audience. Rarely produced professionally, this touring show had great production values, direction that knew exactly what the script called for and tight ensemble acting by three talented UK actors. Lovely 1905 theatre, wonderful evening. Edinburgh rocks!

And now we leave Scotland and return to England.

About two hours or so by train northwest of London (via the smallish, by London rail station standards, Marylebone Station) lies the Mecca for Shakespearians worldwide, Stratford-upon-Avon. Surprisingly, for a town flooded daily with thousands of tourists, it never seemed overly crowded or unduly tacky. We rather enjoyed our meanderings through the town. We were there to see our good friend Peter Guinness, husband of Roberta Taylor (see above) in Women Beware Women. While at the RSC, we also saw their amazing production of The Crucible (one of my favorite plays…see earlier post.) I'm not a fan of the Bard, but even I enjoyed my stay in his hometown. Now about that show…

WOMEN BEWARE WOMAN - Swan Theatre (Royal Shakespeare Company), Stratford-upon-Avon, UK - March, 2006

Thomas Middleton's play is a Jacobean bon-bon of deceit, sex, murder, rape, power and incest all rolled up into a smartly directed and acted production. It took a bit for the ears to adjust to the verse-spoken dialogue and sometimes the words got lost in the non-amplified deep thrust space of the Swan, but this was such grand, great, evil fun that these are mere quibbles. Our friend Pete played an odious, slimy creature who meets his end via a rather spectacular drop through a stage trap door. Star power was provided by Tim Pigott-Smith in a smallish role and especially by an amazing performance from Penelope Wilton (Isobel Crawley on "Downton Abbey") as Livia, the primary force behind all the shenanigans in the court at Florence. Able to charm everyone with a gracious, disarming smile one moment and a swift dose of Machiavellian evil the next, Wilton anchored the show and was obviously having a terrific time playing this role. We quite enjoyed ourselves.

Sidebar: After the show, we joined Pete for drinks at a nearby pub. Because of his many television and film roles, Pete is a well-known actor in the UK and, somewhat unusually for the British, was approached by a fan who just wouldn't let Pete alone. Awkward. The next day, Pete took us on a backstage tour of both the Swan and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, where we would see The Crucible that afternoon. The Swan is an intimate thrust space that seats 450 people. Courtesy also of Pete, we would get house seats for Crucible. Sitting next to us were cast members from Women Beware Women. Next to Bob was Penelope Wilton and the two of them chatted non-stop before the show and during the interval. All in all, a delightful time in Stratford.

Time to cross the Pond again. Actually, two ponds as we wing our way to the land Down Under, AUSTRALIA and more specifically for this blog, Sydney. Ah, Sydney! Surprisingly hilly (didn't see that one coming!), beautiful, energetic yet laid-back and sophisticated, this legendary city lives up to its reputation and then some. Two of the highlights of our Sydney stay were the two stage productions we saw during our visit. We were thrilled that one of them was playing at the Sydney Opera House complex. (A tour of the Opera House is an absolute must!)  In both productions, popular Australian stars lead the casts. With stays only in Sydney and Cairns, I'm eager to return.

BARRYMORE - Sydney Opera House Playhouse, Sydney, AU - August, 1999

The opening lines of Variety's review of Barrymore, the first international production of the play, stated: "A legendary actor directing a legendary actor in a play about a legendary actor. That’s how locals have summarized the competent and controlled directing debut of popular Oz thesp Judy Davis in the first overseas production of Barrymore.” A spot-on summary. With a tour-de-force performance as John Barrymore by Australian favorite Barry Otto, "Cosi," "Strictly Ballroom," and directed by Oscar-nominee, Emmy Award-winning actor Judy Davis, this was a fascinating evening at the theatre. Written as a solo show with an unseen prompter finishing out the cast, Davis made the decision to bring the prompter onstage. Perhaps not necessary, but it gave Otto someone to play off of and only made his performance stronger. Terrific theatre in an iconic setting.

Sidebar: Architecturally stunning and aesthetically breathtaking, the Sydney Opera House complex is one of the world's most instantly recognizable structures. Housing the Concert Hall, the Joan Sutherland Theatre (the actual opera house), the Drama Theatre, the Playhouse, the Studio, the Utzon Room, a recording studio and a popular forecourt, this is a theatre geek's paradise. The Opera House itself, while lacking the grandeur of older opera houses, for example, the Lyric Opera in Chicago, is nevertheless beautiful in a clean, modern way and, with a capacity of only 1507 seats, intimate for an opera house. The Playhouse seats just under 400 in a comfortable, modern space that looks a bit like a lecture hall.

CHICAGO  - Capitol Theatre, Sydney, AU - August, 1999

Chicago is one of my top ten musicals, so I'll chat more in depth about the show itself in a future post. Since Bob and I both love the show, we were delighted to discover it playing in Sydney. A mirror of the still-running Broadway revival, this production was chock-a-block with Australian musical theatre favorites including Maria Mercedes, a former Norma Desmond, as Matron "Mama" Morton, John Diedrich, whom I saw in London nineteen years earlier as Curly in Oklahoma!, as a suave and handsome Billy Flynn, the totally divine Caroline O'Connor as a scintillating Velma, and Cynthia Gibb, making her professional debut as Roxie. Some debut role! This show started our love affair with the drop-dead talented O'Connor who delivered the finest and most exciting Velma I've seen to date. Flawlessly danced, sung and acted, this is by far the sexiest version of the show I've seen with smoking hot men and women in the ensemble who knew how to show off William Ivey Long's costumes to the best sensual advantage. One curious note: an understudy for the understudy stepped in for Mary Sunshine at the performance seen. Having both the listed performer and the understudy out is unusual in and of itself. What was even more unusual in this case was that the role was played that evening by a female.  This meant the big reveal in Act Two was cut from the performance for obvious reasons and the workaround was fine, but strangely and inexplicably, Mary Sunshine's song was cut as well. (Not enough time to get the understudy's understudy up to speed on the song?) The song establishes Mary Sunshine's character, but it's not crucial to the show and truthfully wasn't missed. In the show, a newspaper headline proclaims "Roxie Rocks Chicago!" Well, all I can say is "Sydney Rocked Chicago!”

Sidebar: Sydney's Capitol Theatre is a gorgeous theatre seating just under 2100. Opening in 1916, it is one of Sydney's premiere venues for musical theatre. 

That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed our mini-tour.

© 2014 Jeffrey Geddes