"If we could learn to look instead of gawking
We'd see the horror in the heart of farce
If only we could act instead of talking
We wouldn't always end up on our arse..."
The perfect first play for my lovely partner and I to see together, no...?
This play, currently running at Stratford, is a triumph. Using Stephen Sharkey's translation, it really brings to us the power of Brecht's play, genuinely funny until it really, really isn't, which is, if course, the point- farce that turns to horror. Hitler, like a certain orange man with tiny hands, was considered a joke by most of us, an act of complacency. Farage, too, is an absurd little man. So is "Tommy Robinson". And, of course, as the great Anthony Burgess said, the jackboot is intrinsically absurd, as though it's daring you to laugh... and that's the point. For you don't dare.
Neither Hitler nor Trump had a sense of humour, always a sigh...
Gatiss is, of course, superb in terms of both the line delivery and the physicality of his performance. He oozes a terrible charisma and, to his credit, plays his interpretation of the character of Ui as written by Brecht, resisting the temptation to do an impression of Hitler, Trump, or anyone else.
The staging, too, is a triumph. Above the stage is a movable area occupied by Placebo, who provide a truly amazing soundtrack, and this is used effectively in order to allow for fast and creative scenery changes. The use of space here is truly inspired.
Beyond Gatiss, the cast impresses deeply, Mawaan Rizwan in particular. This is a fun yet horrifying production that speaks to our own times more than, perhaps, the play ever has. I implore anyone who is able to do so to see this while you still can.
I had in years gone by often wondered about how one man, Caesar, could take over a republic and take dictatorial control. This in turn leading to the emperors who were to come next. The answer of course is extreme wealth and violence. Trump does the same as he crosses the Rubicon of ethics and morality. They have in common that their perception of the world goes no further than the end of their own noses. Farage too with far-right policies would seek to take such power (which it is all about). For him money is not the issue. Why only last week I was given five million pounds by a mate of mine; it happens.
ReplyDeleteHitler was something of a different kettle of fish. They are of course all megalomaniacs and psychopaths but in Adolf’s case, not the same money or power to begin with. He tapped into a growing social dissatisfaction which somehow leads to extreme right solutions. His expanding hold however was much as that of gangsters and the progress of Oogie Boogie (as Arturo Ui is known to me and my daughter) mirrors the unrest of a fragile market economy.
I find it genuinely upsetting that current anomie or angst (or whatever) should promote as an answer Farage, Tommy Robinson and many other unpleasant solutions to problems which don’t really exist. Is society really so poor and downtrodden as it likes to present. Or, are we all just better at shouting out and perceiving our personal views of our rights. It is good in life to have someone to blame.
I have long since given up on the US. I seem to recall, not long ago, these Americans shouting in their millions that they did not vote George Bush Jr in. Shortly afterwards they didn’t vote him in, a second time. Fortunately, Schwarzenegger wasn’t born in the US but Boris (pile ‘em high) Johnson was. I had every hope he would be a future president which he probably would have if he hadn’t cancelled his US citizenship. The state of the world would have been less scary, even less competent and a little more humorous.
I ramble. The play was an excellent thought provoking piece. As said, the build up began immediately. I sat in the front row and when the orator asked me the name he had just mentioned I of course responded, “F….d if I know”, and I was rewarded with a long silence and a threatening glare. This exercise was indeed the manifestation of fear underneath comedy. I think this production had many subtleties of creating atmosphere. Gatis as ever, was Gatis. Skilful at creating convincing characters. I watched him last night on TV in a rerun of Good Omens Two in which he gave a sterling performance as a Zombie. I suspect he took a little from that in this performance.
I was not so impressed by the moving box on stage. Whilst it might have been a way of changing scenery, sitting in the front row one side, all it did was to obscure my view. I was also unable to see the excellent musicians atop playing the Placebo arrangements. The Swan has perfectly good large trap doors and the musicians could have found a more static home as they usually do often in the balcony or even on stage. A disappointment for me in that it was not a good use of the RSC Thrust Stage which they normally use so well.
A worthwhile production but not everyone’s cup of tea. Oddly what I took most from it was a clear understanding of the similarities of comic book storytelling and theatre. I could imagine this Brecht fitting well into a graphic novel. But only as an intellectual If sometime emotional, exercise. Short sharp dialogue and focussed scenes fit well on the stage as a vehicle of live communication with an audiences imagination. There is nothing like it.
It's interesting to compare how dictators come about, but of course we run into anachronisms. I suppose it's a commonplace these days to remark that those who seek and achieve power are often psychopaths, but it's hard to apply such things to figures such as Caesar. While Rome was a Republic (while they could keep it, at least), with relentless competition for office, it's hard to get a handle on the personalities of people from a culture far more alien to us than we may casually think.
DeleteMore modern dictators, who feel a little more knowable, are grimly fascinating- Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Mao, Papa Doc, the list goes on. They are often larger than life and compelling figues. But... not Hitler. It's an interesting paradox that his defining feature was his spellbinding oratory, used for the worst possible purposes, yet he was a very dull and uninteresting man whose paintings were neither good or bad enough to be interesting, who was full of petty little prejudices and stayed up to the small hours watching films. You can imagine Mao or Stalin being grimly entertaining company. Hitler would just be a bore,
But Gatiss isn't quite playing Hitler, of course. He's playing an archetype with something of Hitler, something of Trump (a similarly petty man), borrowing from all sorts of places. Quite rightly, it isn't an impression. The character is there as a warning- populist, bigoted authoritarianism is something that pops up every few generations and has to be dealt with, preferably before it does too much harm.
We live in troubling times. Trump, Putin, Orban (good riddance), Farage, a resurgent far right across the western world, much like the 1930s, although history never quite repeats itself exactly. Why? Well, the economy hasn't been the same since the 2008 financial crisis, in this country we've had austerity, but depressingly I think a lot of it is to do with memories of the Second World War and the Nazis fading into the past, so the far right can cast off those associations and just be nativists and populists. And they scare me. It's not just a case of what happens at the next election- if one of a country's two main parties is far right then, well...
And it's all profoundly disappointing. The economy may have been a bit flat lately, but this is hardly the Great Depression, or hyperinflation. At least the people enabling fascism ninety odd years ago had real hardship to be angry about.
Gatiss really is excellent in this, so many nuances to his performance. So many little gestures, facial expressions and the like. It's a performance of extraordinary density, far more so than you'd be able to see on screen. Live performance really lets him show what he's capable of.
And, admittedly, my more positive views on the moving box on stage are probably shaped by the fact that we were sitting on the upper level where we had a very good view of the stage movements from above.
On the point of graphic novels, I'm reminded of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, also about fascism from a different angle...