Love London Love Culture rounds up the critics thoughts on John Kani’s play, Kunene & The King.
‘Enthralling, unmissable two-hander’: KUNENE & THE KING – Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
Casting Antony Sher as a white, South African, Shakespearean actor in John Kani’s ferocious, funny and emotive new play Kunene & the King couldn’t be more perfect – for all the obvious reasons.
‘Honest, humane & thoughtful play’: KUNENE & THE KING – Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon ★★★★★
Specific though the SA setting is, Kunene & The King opens great vistas of heart-stopping universal wisdom about death, guilt, reconciliation and human need.
‘Very much a game of two halves’: PINTER ONE & TWO – West End
I’m the last person on earth to utilise a football metaphor, but the recent Pinter at the Pinter press day (showcasing the first two of six productions of the prolific playwright’s one-act plays) is very much a game of two halves.
‘It’s hard work, as is the whole thing, but worth it for its sheer quality’: PINTER ONE – West End
Beginning with a burst of confetti and ending in a sombre drop of petals, Pinter One is the far darker side of Pinter at the Pinter
“They don’t like you either, my darling”
I found myself enjoying Pinter Two much more than expected and so momentarily forgetting that I’d sworn off the whole thing, I rashly decided to book in for Pinter One, which proves to be an entirely different kind of affair. Not just thematically – it’s an overtly political collection of works and thus considerably darker – but structurally, gathering together no less than nine short pieces, eight of which run together to make the first half.
They’re Press Conference / Precisely / The New World Order / Mountain Language / American Football / The Pres and an Officer / Death / and One for the Road (all directed by Jamie Lloyd) with Ashes to Ashes (directed by the Lia Williams) following after the interval. And so ultimately it feels a bit more like a showcase of Pinter which brings with it some challenges, alongside the interest value in unearthing some lesser-seen works, including a world premiere.
That premiere – The Pres And An Officer – manages the not-unimpressive feat of fully justifying its Trump-a-like as Pinter’s prescience in nailing the vicissitudes of a numbnuts US president is uncanny. Played by a roll-call of guest stars (I saw Jon Culshaw), its a welcome burst of comedy in an otherwise dark affair and you have to laugh, because otherwise you’d cry.
Elsewhere Paapa Essiedu and Sir Antony Sher are grippingly intense in the exquisite torture of One For The Road, and Kate O’Flynn and Maggie Steed are pointedly excellent as a pair of bull-shitting men. And what you get here that you don’t in Pinter 2 is a real sense of how imaginatively flexible Soutra Gilmour’s revolving cube design is as it reconfigures at every available opportunity.
Post-interval, O’Flynn and Essiedu tackle 1996’s Ashes to Ashes, a more typically cryptic work where a couple are talking and yet their meaning is slippery and vague and disturbing and unmissable. Both actors deliver their ‘conversation’ with the utmost conviction, its impossible to drag your eyes from them even as we get darker and more violent and stranger. It’s hard work, as is the whole thing, but worth it for its sheer quality.
Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes (with interval)
Photos: Marc Brenner
Pinter One is booking in rep with Pinter Two – The Lover/The Collection at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 20th October
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‘A bold opening to an ambitious project’: PINTER AT THE PINTER – West End
Jamie Lloyd is embarking on an epic project: to stage every single one of the influential playwright Harold Pinter’s short plays over a six month period at the theatre which bears his name. Pinter at the Pinter. Pretty neat huh?
‘Demonstrating the versatility & breadth of the playwright’s canon’: PINTER AT THE PINTER – West End ★★★★
It seems anyone who is anyone has signed up for Jamie Lloyd’s ambitious season of Harold Pinter plays at the appropriately named Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End.
‘Pinter does wallow, no question about’: PINTER ONE – West End ★★
The stony word is PINTER, and this launches a short season marking his death ten years ago by assembling, in seven sets, all his short playlets, sketches and poems, with starry casts including (in this first set) Paapa Essiedu, Maggie Steed and Antony Sher.
NEWS: Antony Sher, Penelope Wilton, Russell Tovey & others join all-star Pinter at Pinter
Further all-star casting has been announced for Jamie Lloyd Company’s Pinter at the Pinter, an unparalleled event featuring all twenty short plays written by Harold Pinter in the West End theatre that bears his name.
‘I’m just not sure who this is aimed at’: TARTUFFE – West End ★★★
Tartuffe was conceived in 1664 as a satire of the golden age of the court at Versailles, and in the clumsiest of updates, the excessive posturings of Louis XIV are replaced by allusions to Donald Trump.
‘I’m just not sure who this is aimed at’: TARTUFFE – West End ★★★
Tartuffe was conceived in 1664 as a satire of the golden age of the court at Versailles, and in the clumsiest of updates, the excessive posturings of Louis XIV are replaced by allusions to Donald Trump.
BOOK REVIEW: Antony Sher – Year Of The Mad King
If you enjoyed Antony Sher’s Lear, his Willy Loman or any of his previous books this is a must read, and if you have any interest in the inner thoughts of a performer at the top of their profession you’ll want to read this too. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find my DVD and revisit the production…
KING LEAR – RSC, Barbican
Transferring in to London from Stratford, Antony Sher’s King Lear is a Shakespearean masterclass. With no headline-grabbing casting to this, one of Shakespeare’s greatest works, the production is a company-driven gem, led by the RSC’s seasoned bill-topper who’s more than earned the right to make the role his own.
KING LEAR – RSC, Barbican Centre
For many actors Lear is the ultimate role, hence the proliferation of productions that appear every year. In 2016 alone we’ve had Timothy West, Don Warrington and Michael Pennington all pop up in the role and Glenda Jackson is currently giving us a female perspective over at the Old Vic. RSC stalwart Antony Sher’s take on the role has been something we’ve been waiting a few years for… so how does he do?
KING LEAR – RSC, Barbican Centre
You’re not to know this, but King Lear bears the proud seal of ‘The Best Shakespeare Play According to Luke Jones’. It pleasingly eschews the clunk of the others. Where most are a web throughout, Lear has an easy setup, clearly defined bust-ups all of which turns shit-shaped in a thrillingly desperate way. If there were ever a Shakespeare play less in need of a concept or re-versioning it is this one.
KING LEAR – RSC, Stratford & London
William Shakespeare’s tragedy depicting the 17th Century King’s descent into madness has been given a pared down, modern retelling by director Gregory Doran in this new production at the RSC. The audience draw is clearly Antony Sher, taking on the eponymous role (the Stratford run is apparently returns only) but this production has much to commend it.
KING LEAR – RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon
The King Lear Gregory Doran gives us in directing here us is certainly majestic, detached: pointedly uninvolved with the scuttling masses under their disguising hoods. His court though is all too human.
DVD REVIEW: RSC’s King and Country Box Set
But how do the plays translate to the small screen? Surprisingly well actually. The RSC’s theatre is tailormade for filming a production with the thrust stage allowing for a variety of angles ensuring the cameras really catch every emotion – both from the actors and the audience.
King & Country – Barbican
The RSC’s opening to Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary year could neither have been more extraordinary nor ambitious: the full cycle of the Henriad performed as an entire historical epic.
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