James Dacre

A Tale of Two Cities

08/11/16

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

There’s something reassuringly old-fashioned about this stylish adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic story of friendship and sacrifice. There are no gimmicks, no updates, no references to current political circumstances. Instead, Mike Poulton’s skilful adaptation plays things absolutely straight. That’s not to say that it’s dull. The story is brilliantly and effectively staged, the narrative slipping effortlessly back and forth between London and Paris, without ever prompting us to ask, ‘where are we now?’

In the story’s opening scene, Charles Darney (Jacob Ifan) finds himself in court, accused of treason against the British Crown. Barrister Sidney Carton (Joseph Timms) brilliantly defends Darnay, using the fact that quite by chance, the two men resemble each other. Though Darnay doesn’t much like the dissolute Carton, he acknowledges that he owes the man a great debt and agrees to a kind of friendship, one that is complicated by the fact that Carton has fallen in love with Lucie Manette (Shanaya Rafaat), Darnay’s fiancé.

Meanwhile, over in Paris, the French Revolution is gathering momentum – and the fact that Darnay is a French émigré and the rightful heir to the estate of the hated Maquis St Evérmonde (a wonderfully spiteful Christopher Hunter) means that Darnay soon finds himself back in court  – and this time, he’s a potential candidate for an encounter with the guillotine.

This story has endured for a very good reason – it’s a powerful tale of mankind’s ability to do wonderful things in terrible circumstances – and this is a fine example of how a great novel can also make a great stage play. Director James Dacre handles it all with aplomb and special mention should be made to the Royal and Derngate workshops, who created the scenery, set, props, costumes, wigs and makeup for the show. At times it feels uncannily like we are looking at a series of classic paintings from the period.

Fans of Dickens – and there are many of them – should get themselves along to the King’s Theatre, where A Tale of Two Cities is showing until Saturday 12th November.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Unknown

Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

14/11/14

James Dacre’s production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is assured and confident, aided not inconsiderably by Mike Britton’s simultaneously stark and sumptuous set. The oppressive heat of the American Deep South is almost palpable, despite the cold reality of a November evening in Manchester. The lazy whirring of the inevitable ceiling fans and the glare of imagined sunshine from the gloss-white floor combine to create a drunken, languorous atmosphere seething with repressed emotion: the calm that comes before the storm.

Last night’s performances were solid: if Marian Gale (as Maggie) took a while to settle into the rhythm of her desperate stream of words, she made up for it in later scenes, where the raw emotion of unrequited love was beautifully expressed. Big Mama (Kim Cresswell) was a suitably unpleasant recipient for Big Daddy (Daragh O’Malley)’s crass indifference; Matthew Douglas and Victoria Elliott, as Mae and Gooper, provided a welcome respite from the play’s essential brutality, with their obnoxious brood of no-neck singing brats (think Sound of Music without the heartwarming stuff). The scenes where Brick (Charles Aitkin) was lying on the floor at Big Daddy’s feet, helpless without either his literal or his alcoholic crutch, brought home the importance of Williams’s theme: if Brick’s love for Jack Skipper had been allowed to thrive in the open, how much less destructive for all concerned.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is undoubtedly a miserable play, with little in the way of relief, and this production was certainly not to everybody’s taste last night. Three people sitting behind us left during Act 1 (one of them actually exiting through the set) to go for a cigarette, although they (unlike the couple sitting next to us) did at least return for the second act. Still, somebody in the audience clearly liked it enough to start taking photographs towards the end; the flash was distracting for us in the audience; goodness knows how irritating it was for the actors trying to focus on their lines.

All in all, this was an interesting – if ultimately unexciting – production. A faithful representation of a strange and turbulent play.

3.2 stars

Susan Singfield