LONDON—Unquestionably two hot theater tickets in London right now are The Tempest at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and the National Theatre's West End transfer of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
The Tempest is a draw in part to its share of British TV celebrities in the cast, while The Curious Incident… is riding high on recently winning seven 2013 Olivier Awards including Best Play. (The Curious Incident… matches the once record-setting seven Olivier Awards won which the musical Matilda won last year.)
I was part of two very appreciative audiences for both productions on a recent trip to the United Kingdom, and it's a safe guess that it's only a matter of time before Chicago audiences will be able to experience these critically acclaimed shows for themselves.
In the case of The Tempest, Shakespeare's Globe has been releasing several of its past productions in cinema screenings and later on DVD (repertory from last season including Henry V and Twelfth Night is slated for special movie theater release this summer via the Shakespeare's Globe On Screen initiative).
And as for The Curious Incident…, Simon Stephens' adaptation of Mark Haddon's best-selling novel has already been seen locally via the National Theatre's NT Live worldwide movie theater screenings. Just which Chicago theater will get the rights for a home-grown production in two- to three-years time is one question that local audiences should be eagerly awaiting. The Goodman or Steppenwolf undoubtedly will get first dibs, though smaller companies like Steep Theatre and Griffin Theatre both have proven track records in producing Chicago premieres of Stephens' original plays like Harper Regan and Port.
'The isle is full of noises'
Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle highlighted Shakespeare's The Tempest with a famous quote ("Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises…") in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics.
You could hear the Brits in the Globe audience, still riding high on the glow of 2012, audibly mumbling in recognition when this quotation arose during the show. But they were also buzzing about the celebrity talent attached to director Jeremy Herrin's traditional, but still very engrossing production.
Perhaps the biggest TV name was Colin Morgan, the title star of the BBC-TV series Merlin, appearing as the magical sprite Ariel. It was very amusing for me at intermission to overhear one teenage groundling (who paid five pounds to stand in "The Yard" through the performance) recounting and squealing her amazed shock and delight at realizing that Morgan was in the production.
More TV connections came from Olivier Award-winning actor Roger Allam (Game of Thrones, The Thick of It) as the initially revengeful overthrown Duke Prospero and the Miranda of Jessie Buckley, a contestant in the Oliver! reality TV casting series I'd Do Anything.
Thankfully these starry standouts blended well together with their cast mates to bring what is believed to be Shakespeare's last fully authored play to life. The drunken physical comedy of James Garnon's Caliban (deploying a noticeable Caribbean-styled accent), Sam Cox's self-important butler Stephano and Trevor Fox's scraggly jester Trinculo was a constant delight, as was the gawky Joshua James as the Price Ferdinand who can't believe his besotted luck at meeting someone so dreamy as Buckley's Miranda.
The stars attached to this Tempest will undoubtedly assure that the production will be filmed for posterity and subsequent release in cinemas and DVD. But to experience Shakespeare live in what is this generation's best guess of what the historical Elizabethan Globe Theatre was actually like is a necessity for any theater lover. This season's The Tempest is definitely satisfying in that sense.
Curiouser and Curiouser
The Curious Incident… could be seen as a bit of old news. The show opened last August in the National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre space (now under renovation and soon to be renamed the Dorfman Theatre), before transferring to the West End at the Apollo Theatre this past March.
Yet as the show approaches its one-year anniversary, The Curious Incident… remains fresh and full of theatricality. Stephens' stage adaptation of Haddon's novel is not only smartly faithful, but it provides a sturdy framework for an amazing team of theater artists led by director Marianne Elliott (who won an Olivier Award for her efforts) to vividly illustrate it.
The Curious Incident… tells of Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old boy who has Asperger's syndrome, and his efforts to find out who killed a neighborhood dog with a pitchfork. But as Christopher delves deeper to find the culprit, he uncovers some uncomfortable truths about his own family along his fraught journey.
Elliott and her skilled designers draw upon Christopher's professed love of mathematics and space exploration to employ lots of dazzling multimedia wizardry in the physical production—to not only show Christopher's obsessed focus, but his frightening confusion as he sets out on a trip to London.
Giving the show its heart is a dedicated ensemble of actors (many playing multiple roles) who revolve around Christopher, who is touchingly played with plenty of alternately annoying and endearing tics by Johnny Gibbon at the performance I attended (Gibbon plays Christopher at select performances, alternating with Olivier Award-winner Luke Treadaway).
The fact that The Curious Incident… brims with theatricality from start to finish (namely its mathematical appendix that follows the curtain call), should come as no surprise, since Elliott was a co-director of another recent National Theatre hit, War Horse. With The Curious Incident…, The National Theatre has the potential for another theatrical global phenomenon, though I'm keen to see how Chicago theater artists will reinterpret this brilliant script for our hometown crowds.
For more information on The Tempest at Shakespeare's Globe, visit www.shakespearesglobe.com .
For more information on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, visit www.nationaltheatre.org .uk.
