JUMPERS. To 4 October.

Tour/London/New York

JUMPERS
by Tom Stoppard

National Theatre on tour to 4 October 2003
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 September at Milton Keynes Theatre

Notable revival comes up against the resistance of critical nostalgia.I don't generally hanker after being young or the disimproved old days, but vivid memories of seeing Jumpers (National Theatre 1973) and Travesties (RSC 1974) at their premieres make for a sense of never anticipating such joys again. Their sheer verve, theatrical wow and pzazz, are rare. And this play, where the amalgam of bad jokes as moral philosophy lecturer George Moore tries to compose a lecture opening 'Is God?' makes for part of the meaning, dazzles as no other Stoppard play apart from its immediate successor.

For the jokes arise as George tries shoring up words, which slip and slide (yes, TS Eliot references Stoppard/George allude both to Waste Land and Prufrock) as he searches for Meaning. Not just a meaning, but a place for overarching objective values.

Against him is the opportunism of a university philosophy department where beliefs jump around to fit present-tense convenience. Stoppard wrote a philosophical fantasy, set against the unlikely marriage of a moral philosopher to a celebrated singer, and a moon landing. Yet the marriage is no more unlikely than that of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller. And the moon landing (reversing Scott of the Antarctic selflessness as astronauts Scott and Oates each vie to kill the other and survive) which was still a future event at the script's initial drafting, had become fact before its premiere.

In a relativist world, where virtue's redefined as social utility, the inconvenience of a noisy party's on the same level as a killing. So the farcical coincidence and cross-purposes featuring here become agents of the theme as well as the plot. And history's cast a new light on Vice Chancellor Sir Archibald Jumper's willingness to appoint and promote for personal reasons. There's now, as they say, a lot of it about. And known about in stark detail rather than under the tolerantly-regarded veil of the old school tie.

A trio of performances from that first cast can't be displaced in recall, though Simon Russell Beale inevitably makes George his own. Whereas Michael Hordern worked through every phrase with anguish, Russell Beale lets whole sentences (and more) sweep past, then makes the point as George's mind reverses. Or he uses unexpected phrasings to display a morally perturbed consciousness in overdrive. His George is more aware of failure, of belief imbuing life with limitations as his gorgeous, naked young wife offers herself on terms he cannot accept. Accidentally, or instinctively he's right: she has ulterior motives.

Jonathan Hyde's more an age to suggest continuing athletic prowess than was Alan McNaughton. Yet McNaughton's very unlikeliness as a present-day physical activist had a defy-me deceptiveness that fitted the dual possibilities he visits Dorothy in her bedroom as lover or psychiatrist. Hyde, as always, is good. But there's a degree less insouciance, even insolence of authority, than I remember from McNaughton. It may be the impact of time, and journalistic revelations about those in the corridors of power that simply make him more realistic-seeming.

In a relativist sense, does the 'real' reason for his boudoir-calls matter? Dorothy has needs both ways, depressive as she is. Essie Davis was apparently a star of the National's Streetcar last year. Here, she's more of a black hole. She does emotion OK good for Tenessee's Stella for star but the emotion is generalised with the stamp of a hundred discontents, rather than the dis-elation of a singer whose tattily pathetic holding on to moon/June rhymes is spoiled by men's boots trampling the actual old lump of green cheese itself. Dorothy's the most awkward part of the play anyway you feel things'd have been better if she'd only discovered punk.

The revival, decently directed with an over-obvious and ill-focused set by Vicki Mortimer is worth seeing for the rarely-seen play, for Russell Beale and for Nicholas Woodeson's infatuated policeman. Their joint scene, Woodeson downbeat in an apron (worse is to follow for Bones) and George for once mirthfully contrasting, is a joy. The lighting, at times leaving faces in shadow as empty furniture is illuminated, and having patches of floor change colour for no reason, is presumably something that will improve as the National Theatre becomes more technically aware of the nation's theatres it visits. Or is it aiming at an artistic impact I don't understand?

Dorothy: Essie Davis
Secretary: Eliza Lumley
Crouch: John Rogan
George: Simon Russell Beale
Archie: Jonathan Hyde
Bones: Nicholas Woodeson
Jumper: Robert Barton
Jumper (Usher): Jean-Felix Callens
Jumper (Greystoke): Jonothan Campbell
Jumper: Gary Cross
Jumper ((McFee): Leo Kay
Jumpers: Karl Magee, Dodger Phillips, Phil Seaman, Ashley Stuart, Lewis Young,
Swings: Supple, Joseph J Leigh

Director: David Leveaux
Designer: Vicki Mortimer
Lighting: Paule Constable
Sou7nd: John Leonard for Aura
Music: Corin Buckeridge
Costume: Nicky Gillibrand
Company voice work: Patsdy Rodenburg

2003-09-17 08:52:07