LUTHER by John Osborne Olivier Theatre in rep to 14 November.
Royal National Theatre
LUTHER
by John Osborne
Olivier Theatre In rep to 14 November 2001
Runs 3hr 10min One interval
TICKETS 020 7452 3000
Review Timothy Ramsden 23 October
A major revival, at once spectacular and spare, does justice to one of John Osborne's finest plays.Luther is a small-scale play masquerading on the vast Olivier stage as large-scale theatre. Take away the minimally necessary processions from the edges of certain scenes and you find the heart of the drama, a series mainly of duologues – or indeed monologues.
Not that it harms the production; Peter Gill's always been a director to strip plays down to their necessaries and show them off all the better for it. Besides, Osborne's ambitious themes and vigorous language provide a bone structure that still looks good fleshed out. Now, when for some years the ever wilder West created post-1956 has been hearing sirens calls to return to the safe bosom of traditional values, is a good time to re-assess this 1961 play.
Rufus Sewell's Luther is an unlikely begetter of the Reformation, kick-starting it from ideas in the air mixed with anger at the sale of indulgences – on offer here from Tetzel's Roadshow, with Richard Griffiths doing a magnificent turn as the church fundraiser who sells purgatory bypass certificates. His Priest-as-Huckster plays off the audience with a silky persuasion that can switch, at the rattle of a money-box, to the stern look of a fear-monger general.
But Martin's first, and in his mind continuing, opponent is his father. Geoffrey Hutchings gives this miner and businessman the confidence of a safe bank balance and limited horizons. It's a manner calculated to undermine Martin.
Rejected by this father on earth (who only let him join the Augustinians after other sons had died of Plague), aggravated by his troubled bowels, Luther knocks aside the Church in his mission to gain approval from his Father in heaven. Sewell may have his soft-spoken, even surprisingly humorous moments, but they are belied by the determined face and hefty lolloping gait of someone who won't be turned from his course.
In contrast are both Timothy West's relaxed Staupitz, a beautiful performance showing how intelligence and reason can survive within the Church's embrace, and Malcolm Sinclair'e sophisticated, wily Cardinal Cajetan.
Luther's constipated self-disgust leads him to see salvation in faith, not good works as directed by the Church. In this he opens up a struggle that, as Andrew Woodall's angry Knight shows, goes far beyond what Luther intended in revolution, splitting the Christian world into the warring European nation. Gill's spare yet epic production charts each event on this road with vivid clarity.
Prior: Ralph Nossek
Martin Luther: Rufus Sewell
Hans Luther: Geoffrey Hutchings
Lucas: John Burgess
Reader: Stephen Rashbrook
Brother Weinand: Pip Donaghy
Johann Tetzel: Richard Griffiths
Johann von Staupitz: Timothy West
Cajetan: Malcolm Sinclair
Pope Leo X: Mark Tandy
Karl von Miltitz: Gyuri Sarossy
Johannes von Eck: Neil Stacy
The Knight: Andrew Woodall
Katherine von Bora: Maxine Peake
Augustinians/Dominicans/Nobles/Peasants/Atte-ndants/Servants: Peter Bygott, Dylan Charles, Phillip Edgerley, Scott Frazer, Paul Imbusch, Joanna van Kampen, David Lucas, Ian McLarnon, Tom Marshall, Ken Oxtoby, Nicholas Prideaux, Daniel riste, Bryan Robson
Boy: Freddie Hale/Benedict Smith
Hans the Younger:Jonathan Thomas-Davies/Matthew Thomas-Davies
Director: Peter Gill
Designer: Alison Chitty
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Music: Terry Davies
Music Director: Ian MacPherson
Sound: Paul Groothuis
2001-10-24 00:41:33