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.
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