30 November 2009
Posted by Bonnie on 30 November 2009 at
12:00
No, not a play about the therapy clinic — although come the end of Michael Wynne's modern farce, most of his characters could probably do with booking in. Instead, the Royal Court's seasonal antidote is a bitter comedy about a group of thirtysomethings assembling at an old priory for New Year.
Ben has turned up with a ditzy fiancée who he met only the day before; Daniel has arranged a secret rendezvous with a chap he found on the net; while organiser Kate is appalled when Carl — with whom she is having a fledgling affair — unexpectedly arrives with his noxious wife Rebecca. Yep, you can guess things are going to go a bit Pete Tong.
Wynne takes a satirical swipe at some fairly obvious targets: narcissistic media culture; smug motherhood; and the hollow values of a generation hooked on unrewarding notions of success.
It's irksome that his female characters get it in the neck more pointedly than his male ones: between Jessica Hynes's sad, struggling writer Kate, Rachael Sterling's Bafta-winning mother Rebecca and airhead Laura (a glorious Charlotte Riley), there's the niggling suspicion that they're damned if they are single and failing, damned if they're not and damned if they don't care either way. Nor does Wynne really pierce the unhappiness of a generation whose default condition is a vague sense of disappointment, while Kate's tentative striving towards religious consolation is left tantalisingly undeveloped.
Still, there's much to enjoy in Jeremy Herrin's production, not least the way it sends up the possibility of a hooded attacker lurking in the darkness, like a theatrical version of Scream.
The Court has put on several plays this year that have felt essential — The Priory isn't one of them. But as an alternative office Christmas outing, you could do much worse.
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Posted by Bonnie on 30 November 2009 at
12:00
In The Priory, Michael Wynne's new dark comedy, a hooded figure keeps flitting past the window of the gothic pile that Jessica Hynes's Kate has rented for New Year. Thirtysomething and recently jilted, Kate is hoping to have a mellow weekend in the country with a few old friends. This, of course, is doomed.
Her old flame, Rupert Penry-Jones's cute but feckless Carl has managed neither to ditch his stash of cocaine nor his TV-producer wife, Rachael Stirling's monstrously swanky Rebecca. Almost as bad, Alastair Mackenzie's Ben, a slick travel journalist who can't admit he's a lost soul, rolls up with a pea-brained beautician. Charlotte Riley's Laura is all stilettos and faux pas.
Knowingly cadging from the gothic-horror genre, The Priory is hardly entering untrodden territory, and disastrous dinner parties are old hat. (The one in Cock, in the Theatre Upstairs, gets a more novel spin.) Like Alan Ayckbourn's, Wynne's comic stereotypes — today's middle classes in midlife crises — would be perfectly at home in an upmarket TV sitcom. That said, this is an amusing evening, performed with verve and polish by Hynes, Joseph Millson as her gay friend, and the rest of Jeremy Herrin's fine cast.
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29 November 2009
Posted by Bonnie on 29 November 2009 at
12:00
The title of Michael Wynne's new play naturally sets up expectations. Are we to get a peep behind the doors of the famous rehab clinic for tired and emotional celebrities? Well, no, but the ghost of that idea lingers, as do reminders of the original purpose of a priory, as Wynne tells his cautionary tale about a bunch of thirtysomething media types trying to see in the new year. As the evening degenerates from friendly gathering to cat-fights, all of it fuelled by booze and coke, Wynne homes in on the confusions of his generation, where an excess of spirits can't quite make up for spiritual emptiness.
Kate (an increasingly frazzled Jessica Hynes) has tried to organise a civilised party with a few old friends in a one-time priory turned country retreat. But along with their luggage they bring rather too much emotional baggage. Impulsive travel writer Ben brings his newly acquired fiancée — love's young dream, until she steps on his iPhone. Failing actor Carl (with whom Kate had fancied more than a New Year's Eve kiss) omits to leave behind his frightful, overbearing television producer wife. Even Daniel, Kate's sensible gay soulmate, has in tow a youth he met on the internet. With no television or electronic gadgets to distract them, the friends make their own entertainment, drinking themselves silly and trading harsh home truths.
It is a perceptive piece, laced with Wynne's customary wit and insight. And it has serious points to make about success, failure, peer pressure and loneliness. Timely points too — New Year is often a time for soul-searching. Wynne's characters warn you off the dangers of talking too much veritas after too much vino.
The difficulty with the play, though, is the plotting: it's all a bit clunky and predictable. Wynne has something to say but the set-up feels a rather contrived and limiting way of saying it: he can't dig very deep, so he can seem trite. And he introduces ideas that play on the country house-thriller setting, but doesn't develop them, which is unsatisfying.
There is plenty to savour, though, in Jeremy Herrin's production and the excellent cast's delivery. Rachael Stirling is horribly good as the egocentric TV producer, while Rupert Penry-Jones squirms and sulks enjoyably as Carl and Joseph Millson has lovely comic timing as Daniel. Like Kate's party, the play is sometimes entertaining and sometimes revealing, but it doesn't quite match up to expectations.
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27 November 2009
Posted by Bonnie on 27 November 2009 at
12:00
Michael Wynne seems to be charting the progress of his generation at seven-year intervals. After the Birkenhead-based The Knocky and The People Are Friendly, he now turns his attention to a gang of success-orientated thirtysomethings gathered for a new year bash. Since the action takes place in a remote, allegedly haunted rural pile, it's rather like The Big Chill meets Agatha Christie. But, while Wynne takes us on an entertaining journey, his ultimate destination turns out to be all-too familiar.
The reunion is the idea of Kate, a part-time writer and literacy teacher lately dumped by her lover. To console herself, she brings together a group of old friends. Daniel is a gay architect, Carl is a once-hot actor now famed for his coffee ads and Ben is a travel writer. Unexpectedly, Carl turns up with his wife, Rebecca, a child-obsessed BBC exec, and Ben arrives with a gushing beautician, Laura, who he met and got engaged to the night before. As soon as Daniel announces all they want is "a really calm new year" we know the fur will fly.
The idea of a seasonal party that falls apart has a good, Ayckbourn-like ring to it. And Wynne raises a lot of laughs from the intrusion of the outsider, Laura, into the cosy circle. Vivaciously played by Charlotte Riley, she is much the most dynamic character whether she is busily telling Daniel "I love the gays" or encouraging everyone to survey their year's highs and lows: since Kate has lost her mother, lover and unborn baby, the game gets off to a somewhat unfestive start. Wynne also neatly points up the way these seekers of new year's peace go bananas when they find they can't get broadband or an iPhone is smashed.
I just wish Wynne had something more exciting to tell us than that this generation's striving for success yields only discontent. But, even if the message is trite, Jeremy Herrin's production has plenty of moment-by-moment vitality. Jessica Hynes's Kate touchingly talks of a longing for faith: it's simply "the believing in God part that's the sticking-point". Joseph Millson is excellent as her gay chum who drools over an internet date who suddenly turns up, and then panics that the boy has robbed him. And Rupert Penry-Jones and Rachael Stirling are equally good as the struggling actor and his high-flying wife who ceaselessly bitch about each other without having the courage to let go. Wynne's play is undeniably engaging to watch. I just hungered for something more nutritious than an attack on the ultimate hollowness of the me-first generation.
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Posted by Bonnie on 27 November 2009 at
12:00
Michael Wynne's latest play takes a topic most of us are all too familiar with — the trauma of New Year's Eve — as well as a bunch of well-observed characters and draws a funny, if confused, couple of hours from the premise. Set in a big old house in the middle of nowhere, six old 'friends' come together to celebrate, but as the night continues, secrets and tempers unravel and the air becomes ever more fraught.
Variously starring Rupert Penry-Jones as washed up actor Carl, the rather lovely Joseph Millson as gay architect Daniel and Jessica Hynes in a rather Norman Conquests-esque turn as writer Kate, who booked the house back in the spring when still with boyfriend Matthew, Wynne takes a sharp, clever look at the way pretentious, middle-class professionals behave and speak.
The writing sparkled, as did the acting — there isn't a weak link in this group. Millson came off best as sympathetic, lonely Daniel, whose dalliance with Adam (an under-used Nick Blood) ends in disaster when he only wants to hug and talk, rather than screw around. Penry-Jones, too, was a lot of fun, particularly in his interactions with snobby wife Rebecca (a sparky Rachael Stirling). Alistair McKenzie's turn as Ben, the travel writer who can't live without his iPhone (whoever thought an iPhone would become a crucial plot point in a play?), was really very funny, while Charlotte Riley as new girlfriend Laura sparkled, particularly when telling Daniel about her appreciation of "the gays". Riley is clearly an actress with range — her portrayal of Laura's breakdown in Act 2 elicited an en-masse gasp from the audience and immediate silence. While Laura's actions seemed out of nowhere at the time, thinking back, her behaviour clearly foreshadowed an eventual loss of control.
The problem with The Priory is that Wynne doesn't really seem to know what he wants his play to be. It's very funny, but it's not quite farce and it's unclear as to whether the thriller aspects (Laura keeps spotting a hooded man at the window) are meant to be hinting at a darker purpose or simply there to make the audience laugh. There are a fair few moments of dark drama as relationships fray, not all of which fit in with the general hilarity overshadowing most of the production, particularly towards the end. While it's an interesting character study and is well-written, it's also immensely frustrating, because you struggle to see the point Wynne is trying to make. Perhaps there isn't one. Perhaps that's the point?
The Priory will date very quickly, so see it while it and the topics it talks about are hot.
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