26 March 2018. Hamlet at Hackney Empire

This RSC touring production was well worth seeing. Hamlet was played by  Paapa Essiedu and the setting in Africa worked well and without distraction.

24 March 2018. From the House of the Dead at the ROH

Tickets for this excellently staged opera by Janacek had obviously proved hard to shift as the ROH offered them at half price a few weeks before the event. I'm glad I took up the offer though it was not an event to send one home with a cheery smile.
The action is set in a Siberian prison and is apparently based on a biographical novel of 1862 by Dostoyesky. Gloom and brutality abound but so too does humanity in the worst of circumstances. There is not a huge plot within the prison itself and most of the lines are different prisoners recounting their past. Sung in Czech, the surtitles are a must but as they are often in quotes reflecting a tale being told, I must admit I got lost at times. On reflection, I also wonder on the significance of the different tales apart from that of two prisoners who find they are connected by one woman. Nonetheless, the air of menace and hopelessness was well-conveyed and in every respect - the cast, perhaps starring, Willard White' the orchestra under Mark Wigglesworth and the direction by Krzyztof Warlikowski were excellent.

23 March 2018. Network at the National Theatre

This was a phenomenal evening. From the off, it was thoroughly engaging with the set creating the recording studio of UBS, where anchorman Howard Beale - played superbly by Bryan Cranston - has entirely lost any belief in his job. Overtaken by cynicism, he declares he will commit suicide on air. The first reaction of the executives is to remove him and there is a wonderful scene of him being man-handled from his desk as the live broadcast continues. Immediate reflection suggests that his antics have converted his show from a ratings failure to a huge hit. He is re-established with carte blanche to say what he really thinks.

His new remit results in him giving vent to the fury of the Trumpian crowd with his "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more" rallying cry. Cleverly, Ivo van Hove gets the audience to refrain these lines and in a further ingenious touch Howard comes and sits with the audience for a while towards the end.

The whole two hours was brilliant and resulted in a spontaneous standing ovation for Bryan Cranston and the rest of the cast. Although based on a film from 1976 by Paddy Chayefsky, the contemporary relevance of the evening felt very strong. We dealt with the Trump fury as well as the ownership and cynicism of the media and I bought the text afterwards to re-read some of the set speeches.