Mourning Peter Brook

I am in London right now for a research appointment tomorrow and then a Dickens conference later this week. Tonight, I saw Kathryn Hunter in King Lear at Shakespeare's Globe.

A lot of people know Hunter as Puck in Julie Taylor's filmed production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I also saw her in the title role of Timon of Athens, so I was very much looking forward to seeing her.

After the show, however, she stepped forward to address the audience. She could hardly speak. She said that many of us might not know, but that Peter Brook died last night. Several members of the audience gasped.

I wish I could remember what precisely she said, but the general thrust of it was that Peter's spirit was with us that night. For theatre artists everywhere, that is a comforting thought, as we mourn the loss of one of the most important directors of the 20th century.

Like many people, I first came to learn about Brook by reading his book The Empty Space. Brook started out directing Shakespeare, and became one of the most respected young directors at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He directed a particularly famous production of King Lear with Paul Scofield.

Brook was always about more than just directing Shakespeare, though. He had his finger on the pulse of a number of theatrical movements, and was highly influenced by Antonin Artaud. The Theatre of Cruelty envisioned by Artaud became popularized after Brook directed the first English-language production of Peter Weiss's play Marat/Sade, utilizing many of Artaud's ideas.

A truly international artist, the British Brook spent much of his career based in France, and was profoundly influenced by the culture of India. His stage adaptation of the Indian epic The Mahabharata is considered by many people to be his masterpiece.

Was Brook's spirit present at the Globe tonight as so many artists influenced by his work carried on his legacy? We can only hope so.

A Timely Timon

Last night, I got to see Kathryn Hunter in Timon of Athens at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

I had previously seen Hunter in Kafka's Monkey at Theatre for a New Audience. She was also filmed in that company's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Hunter is wonderful in the role of Timon. This production flips the gender of not only Timon, but a number of the other characters as well. Alcibiades is played by Shakespeare veteran Debbie Korley, and Nia Gwynne plays the cynical philosopher Apemantus. The scene where Apemantus accuses Timon of stealing his (in this case her) philosophy is particularly moving.

The production uses Greek-inspired music composed by Michael Bruce to draw parallels between the opulence and downfall of Timon and the modern Greek fiscal crisis. To drive home parallels between Shakespeare's play and contemporary Europe, designer Soutra Gilmour dresses Alcibiades' revolutionaries in yellow vests like the recent protesters in Paris. Their anger at the greed and corruption of people in power certainly has resonances today.

Timon of Athens is infamous for having an ending that fizzles out rather than building to a peak, but that isn't a problem in this production. Director Simon Godwin transposes some dialogue from Henry V to the ending of the play for dramatic effect. Plus, he has Timon's limp body appear in a rather striking manner at the play's close.

This production runs until February 22nd. If you're anywhere near Stratford, it is well worth seeing.

Taymor's Dream

I remember how when I saw Kathryn Hunter's wonderful performance in Kafka's Monkey at Theatre for a New Audience in 2013, the company had recently announced that they would be producing Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream... directed by none other than Julie Taymor.

Unfortunately, I missed that sold-out production, though I heard it was amazing. Fortunately, it was recorded and is now available on DVD. Since some of my students have seen the filmed version, I checked it out from the New York Public Library, and now I'm kicking myself for not seeing Kathryn Hunter again... but this time as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream!

Taymor's Dream is beautiful, though it sacrifices much of the comedy of the original play. Still, many of the scenes with the lovers and the rude mechanicals are quite funny. Hunter isn't so much funny as Puck as just incredible to watch.

Hunter will be appearing through the end of the month in The Emperor at TFNA. She'll also be acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company this winter as the title character in Timon of Athens in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Richard II

Last night, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the BBC did a streaming Internet broadcast of Richard II. It was the Royal Shakespeare Company's production starring David Tennant, the same production currently showing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

While I haven't been able to get over to Brooklyn (or shell out the money for a ticket) to see the live production, I quite enjoyed the broadcast. The production begins with a coffin on stage, presumably holding the body of Thomas Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester. Shakespeare's original audience would have already been familiar with the controversy over Woodstock's death. (There was a whole play about it, albeit not written by Shakespeare.) For a modern audience, however, the presence of the physical coffin was a helpful reminder.

Throughout the first scene, a female figure is draped over the coffin, and as soon as everyone (except John of Gaunt) leaves, she rises. It is the Duchess of Gloucester, Woodstock's widow, and the production transitions seamlessly into the second scene, where the Duchess tries to prod Gaunt into action:

                    Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?
                    Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?
                    Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
                    Were as seven vials of his sacred blood,
                    Or seven fair branches springing from one root.
                    Some of those seven are dried by nature's course,
                    Some of those branches by the Destinies cut;
                    But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloucester,
                    One vial full of Edward's sacred blood,
                    One flourishing branch of his most royal root,
                    Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt....

In Act II, when John of Gaunt dies and Richard seizes all his property to fund his war in Ireland, the production again uses visuals to tell the story. We see Richard's men with Gaunt's "plate, his goods, his money." At this point, the production is doing nothing to make us sympathize with Richard.

Of course, all that changes in the third act, when Richard returns from Ireland to find all of his subjects fled to John of Gaunt's son Bullingbrook, who has returned from exile to claim the inheritance Richard seized. When Richard cries out, "For God's sake let us sit upon the ground" his retinue literally does so, pausing before the monarch recounts "sad stories of the death of kings."

With Bullingbrook in power, the inquiry into Woodstock's death can continue, but the accusation scene at the beginning of Act IV was transformed into high comedy in this production. As various accusers threw down their gauntlets, the audience could not help but laugh. The climax came when the Duke of Aumerle, having already thrown down both his gloves, cried out, "Some honest Christian trust me with a gage--" and borrowed a glove from someone else so he could throw down a third challenge.

Aumerle, now demoted to being simply the Earl of Rutland, had a larger role than usual in this production. After plotting to kill Bullingbrook, and begging for mercy after his father uncovers the plot, he decides to redeem himself by murdering Bullingbrook's enemy Richard instead. In the play (as in history), it is the minor character Pierce Exton who kills Richard, but in this production, Richard pulls off the mask of one of his assassins to reveal Aumerle's face. It is he who then has Exton's lines:

                    As full of valure as of royal blood!
                    Both have I spill'd; O would the deed were good!
                    For now the devil that told me I did well
                    Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.

Though this departs from the text, as well as from the historical record, I found this choice quite affecting.

If you're interested in seeing Richard II or any of the other history plays at BAM right now, there's still time. The RSC will be presenting the cycle of history plays "King and Country" until May 1st. For more information, go to:

BAM

Best Plays of 2015

It's the end of the year, and like many others, I'm putting together a round-up of the best new productions I saw that opened in New York City in 2015. Some of my choices might seem unconventional, while others will surprise no one. Here they are, in reverse order:

10. Allegiance - With all the great new Broadway musicals opening this year, Allegiance is in danger of getting lost in the shuffle. It shouldn't be.

9. 'Tis Pity She's a Whore - Red Bull Theater Company usually does good work, and their production of John Ford's masterpiece was no exception. 'Tis Pity proved once again that you don't have to have the budget of The Royal Shakespeare Company to put on good classical drama.

8. Wolf Hall - Of course, if you do have the budget of the Royal Shakespeare Company, it doesn't hurt. The RSC's adaptation of Hilary Mantel's first two novels about the life of Thomas Cromwell didn't gain as much attention (or fill as many seats) as it did in London, but it was still worth seeing. Wolf Hall was a magnificent display of skilled theatre professionals doing precisely what they do well.

7. Amazing Grace - Speaking of shows not embraced by Broadway, Christopher Smith and Arthur Giron's fantasia on the life of John Newton drew the ire of critics, but thrilled those who had enough good since to ignore them and come anyway. I cried more at this show than at anything I've seen in years. As with Allegiance, the songs did not always rise to level one might hope, but the storytelling was both moving and timely.

6. Cymbeline - Though The Public Theatre seems to misfire with their Shakespeare productions as often as they produce a hit, this summer's Cymbeline was a delight. Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe were hysterical as the play's romantic leads, but the best thing about this production was how the small cast came together to create a true ensemble. Tasteful audience interaction and superb music by Tom Kitt also served to make this a memorable production.

5. Something Rotten - Even more memorable than some of the many Shakespeare productions I saw this year was Something Rotten, the Broadway musical making fun of the Bard. Yes, I saw Fun Home, which beat it out for the Tony this year, but I found myself seated where that play's ill-conceived direction showed nothing but the actors' backs. Something Rotten by contrast has not only a great score, ingenious lyrics, and a creative book, it's also well directed and a pleasure to watch.

4. Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green - Howard L. Craft's one-man play featuring J. Alphonse Nicholson, probably hasn't made it onto a lot of people's top-ten lists, but that's because they didn't see it. Beginning at the dawn of the 20th century and proceeding to the present day, Freight manages to examine the American experience (and more specifically the African-American experience) in ways that are constantly surprising. Each of the play's five scenes move forward through history, yet we seem to revisit the same set of characters over and over again, reminding the audience that even as some things change drastically, others remain tragically the same.

3. Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe - Though Nevermore came to New York once before, this creation by Catalyst Theatre had evolved since then, and it's production at New World Stages counted as a Broadway premiere. It didn't hurt that I saw the play on Mr. Poe's 206th birthday, but my own fan-boy-ing aside, this is one of the most creative and innovative plays I've ever seen. Bretta Gerecke's production design is a goth's dream come true, and Jonathan Christenson's text sounds so natural we hardly notice the play is almost entirely in verse. Like one of Poe's characters, Nevermore doesn't want to stay buried, and we should all be thankful for that!

2. Hand to God - I admit that I came late to this party. Hand to God was a hit off-Broadway way before it opened this year on the Great White Way, but this production was astonishing. In spite of the fact that he is clearly one of America's great playwrights, a Broadway hit still has not allowed Robert Askins to give up his bar-tending job, but that's just the state of the economics of this country's theatre. Never mind. This tale of a high-school misfit engaging in "puppet ministry" in a church basement continually goes to darker and more unexpected places, and Askins' voice deserves to be heard. I'm a sucker for puppets, and this show uses puppetry in ways that are dirtier than Avenue Q and yet with more skill than is hardly ever seen.

1. Hamilton - Okay, no surprise here. Since it opened off-Broadway at the Public, Hamilton has been the hottest ticket in town, but not without reason. Lin-Manuel Miranda has crafted a magnificent show out of American history and American popular culture. The music is exciting, the lyrics are smart, and the story of Alexander Hamilton's life and death, even to those who already know it, is enough to break your heart. Count me along with politicians as diverse as Barack Obama and Dick Cheney as one of the many fans of this show. If you can't see it right away, get the cast album. Listening to it reminds you of so much that the American musical is and can be. Ten dollar tickets (a Hamilton for a Hamilton) are still available through a lottery before each show, but good luck getting them. Spring for a regular ticket. It's worth it.

So that's my list! Honorable mentions this year to Doctor Faustus, I Will Look Forward To This Later, and Spring Awakening!

Wolf Hall

Marathon theatre can always be fun. The Royal Shakespeare Company taught Broadway how to do it when the RSC brought David Edgar's eight-and-a-half-hour adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby to the United States. I still wish I had gotten to see the second half of Robert Schenkkan's The Kentucky Cycle in 1993, but I was in college and only had the time and money to see the first half. Fortunately, I did see all of Rose Rage, which reduced Shakespeare's Henry VI plays into a mere four hours.

Yesterday, I got the chance to see Wolf Hall, both Parts One and Two, the latest marathon theatre event to hit New York. As with Nicholas Nickleby, this production comes from the RSC, but instead of adapting a behemoth novel by Charles Dickens, it adapts two Man Booker Prize-winning novels by Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

Though you can see Parts One and Two on different days, I recommend seeing them all at a go, getting Part One in with a matinee, and then seeing Part Two in the evening. Depending on whether you see it on Saturday or Sunday, this will give you two-and-a-half to three hours between shows to get dinner and relax before jumping into the next half.

In Part One, we watch the low-born lawyer Thomas Cromwell (played by Ben Miles) maneuver a way to help King Henry VIII (Nathaniel Parker) annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon (Lucy Briers), all so he can marry the vivacious and power-hungry Anne Boleyn (Lydia Leonard). At the end of this first part, Henry has finally married Anne, but is already tiring of her. In a brief moment, he glimpses the beautiful Jane Seymour (Leah Brotherhead) at her family's estate, Wolf Hall. Their eyes lock, and we see that poor Cromwell will have to go through the whole mess all over again.

While the ending of Part One is effective, it leaves you ready to see what happens next, and I was glad to be able to return for Part Two after only a brief break. (Long enough to walk to the New York Public Library, stick my head into the World War I exhibit, walk back, and have a leisurely meal at Lillie's, just a couple blocks from the theatre.) As Machiavellian as Cromwell is in Part One, he is even more ruthless in Part Two. That part ends with a bit more closure, though it still makes you wish Mantel would hurry up and publish the third book in the trilogy. (That book, The Mirror and the Light, is scheduled to come out sometime this year.)

What makes Mantel's telling of the story so interesting is her unorthodox characterizations of the characters. Anne Boleyn, besieged heroine of Maxwell Anderson's Anne of a Thousand Days, becomes a shrewish, scheming, vengeful tyrant, who probably did do all those awful things she was charged with in her trial. Thomas More, the saintly hero of Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, becomes a prideful religious zealot dedicated to burning every last heretic in England. And Cromwell, murderous, bloody, torture-loving Cromwell, become the hero!

Not that he's particularly heroic as he pulls down one person after another into an early grave, but the play forces us to sympathize with him. He has a loving and honest relationship with his wife Lizzie, though she completely disagrees with the king sidelining Queen Katherine. He also clearly loves his daughters, whom he educates just as much as his sons. When a deadly fever causes Cromwell to lose so many whom he loves, the audience can't help but to feel for him.

Also surprising is the portrayal of Cardinal Wolsey, the corrupt Archbishop of York who never even visited his own diocese, instead preferring to cavort with his mistresses and scheme how to get his way at the Vatican. Though Shakespeare makes Wolsey into a tragic figure in Henry VIII, he never lets us forget that the man is an overreacher. Wolf Hall, by contrast, makes Wolsey out to be a pleasant man, friendly and generous, who just wants a comfortable life and a nice college as Oxford as his legacy. In the end, he gets neither.

In a central scene, Anne has a masque staged in which devils drag a man dressed as Wolsey off into a Hellmouth. All of the courtiers cheer, with the exception of the poet Thomas Wyatt, who cries out that the whole performance is shameful. Cromwell, who formerly served the cardinal, does not forget Wyatt's act of decency, nor does he forgive those who laughed and jeered at his late employer.

Mike Poulton, who previously adapted Chaucer's Canterbury Tales for the RSC, wrote the stage adaptation of Mantel's novels. Jeremy Herrin directed.

The most striking production element was the sparse but effect set designed by Christopher Oram, who also designed the magnificent set for Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth at the Park Avenue Armory last year. Giant grey squares form a cross at the back of the stage, which can be lit in various ways. Above the stage, an evocative but mysterious metal grid hangs over everything. Occasionally, fire burst up from the floor. The set beautifully compliments the muted period costumes, also designed by Oram.

Wolf Hall is playing until July 5. There are a limited number of $39 rush tickets, plus discounts available for students. For more information, check out the show's website here:

WOLF HALL