Drama
A psychiatrist's office, an attractive blonde in shoulder-pads and an atmospheric synth soundtrack - all sounds a bit late night Channel Five. Unfortunately not, but nevertheless director Dan Dockery offers a pleasing alternative - complete with Woody Allen-style black humour, American Psycho-esque comedy violence, genuine suspense and a token Greek fat bastard.
Getting Away with Murder is Sondheim's first non-musical, a compellingly original thriller co-written with George Furth, his collaborator for the landmark musical Company. The action unfolds on a stormy night in Manhattan, when a set of neurotic patients arrive for their group therapy session. They wait anxiously for their Pulitzer Prize-winning psychiatrist to appear, but it soon becomes apparent that Dr. Bering has prescribed his last Prozac.
Rather than contact the police - and expose themselves to the gossip-hungry media - the patients decide to don the cap and pipe and solve this one for themselves. What unfolds is a classic whodunit in the tradition of Sleuth and The Mousetrap. As the hunt for the killer continues, it's discovered that their late therapist had selected them as the subjects for his next book. And the subject of his book - how they were the modern embodiments of the seven deadly sins...
Dockery has taken Sondheim's play and injected it into the 1980s - exposing the eighties savage self obsessions, corruption and greed - each of the characters representing the worst of the decade's excesses. The daring set, designed by Mark Gabriel is a lair full of vast computers, executive toys, and functioning elevators - allowing the audience to observe events between rooms, an option unavailable to the nervy patients.
The play's strength lies with Sondheim's blend of characters - each with their dark, idiosyncratic qualities and giveaway names. While a dark mood persists throughout, some light farce and caustic remarks loosen things up. The widespread panic on finding Dr. Bering's torso is comically juxtaposed with George Norton's wily Greek antiques dealer waddling around downing cookies.
Some of the cast struggle to keep the accent convincing or consistent, and at times some fall into the familiar trap of watching the action, but on the whole the acting is confident and engaging. Chloe Potter provides the eye candy and eases comfortably into her role as the southern restaurant hostess.
The play flirts with some interesting themes: What counts as a sin in a modern society? At what point do we lose responsibility for our actions? It ends with the suggestion that there may in fact be an eighth deadly sin, far worse than the other seven...
On Midsummer's night a party is held for the servants at Miss Julie's country mansion. As her father is away Miss Julie goes to the servants' quarters to join in the revelry, but this Midsummer Night's tale soon transforms from a dream into a nightmare. Miss Julie gets drunk and dances outrageously with the servants, but her eye is caught by Jean, her father's valet. He is an ambitious social climber who resents Miss Julie's inherited superiority. When she offers herself to him he gladly obliges, responding to his lust and his desire to knock her off her pedestal. Miss Julie is quickly overcome by shame for her drunken action and the scene is set for a complex power struggle that leads to Miss Julie's complete destruction.
In the capable hands of the team that created the hugely popular Les Liaisons Dangereuses last term, Miss Julie looks to be another resounding success. Directors Helen Brown and Tim Allsop have a great talent for choosing some really good juicy dramas that you can get your teeth into. Both Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Miss Julie are filled to the limit with sexual tension, assertive women and sexual relationships that violate every taboo in the book. Brown and Allsop don't just choose good plays; they also direct them with an eye for detail. The carefully orchestrated movement, pregnant pauses and well-timed musical accompaniment in Miss Julie are all hallmarks of their meticulous direction. Their experiments with using scent and sound to stimulate the spectators' senses is a sign of their taste for innovation.
An experienced and talented team of actors excels under Brown and Allsops' leadership. Kathryn White's Miss Julie is excellent in the scenes where she takes a dominant role, taking over the whole stage as she orders Jean to comply with her whims. However, White falters a little in Miss Julie's more submissive scenes. David Wood made a forceful, bitter Jean, but at times he compromised his strength and power by his rigidity and coldness.
This extremely competent production brings out all the tension and hatreds of Strindberg's play. If you share Brown and Allsops' predilection for intense social dramas of a steamy nature then go and see this.
For the present darlings of the theatre world, the farcical comedy is simply "oh-so passe". Despite this fact, a certain amount of endurance seems to be retained (if albeit by an underground group) by the comic librettos of Gilbert and Sullivan. Cox and Box is such a libretto that manages to possess a form of timeless comedy.
The opera centres around the money making scheme of Sergeant Bouncer who plans to double his rent by renting the same room to two tenants. The tenants (Mr. Box and Mr. Cox) remain unaware of Bouncer's plan due to renting the room at alternating times. As expected, both tenants eventually meet and in true Gilbert and Sullivan style the plot is bathetically resolved by uncovering the fact that both tenants are brothers.
Unfortunately, a poorly organised preview of Cox and Box resulted in a difficulty in judging the overall success of Oxford's Gilbert and Sullivan society in adapting the play. The one song performed suggests that there is a strength of musical talent in the cast which will hopefully reflect the frivolity of the play.
17th Oct 2002