Phedre: Racine: NTLive: National Live Relay:

Regent Theatre Christchurch Dorset (as at cinemas across continetns).
Runs 2hr Nno interval.
Review Mark Courtice 25 June 2009

A brilliant opportunity for us all to see the National Theatre’s work
It's difficult, not having seen this production at the Lyttleton Theatre, to know what's won or lost in this adventurous new enterprise of simultaneously broadcasting a performance to cinemas across Great Britain and the world. Colleague Carol Woddis reviewed the real thing for reviesgate.

Cinema-style noisy latecomers meant the clatter of doors, and the wild shining of usherettes’ torches accompanied almost every key moment at the start of Helen Mirren’s performance. Nevertheless it's a testament to the power of the story, the solid production, and skill of the cast that the audience in Christchurch’s Regent Theatre was gripped as the inexorable disaster of Racine's clash between passion and propriety worked itself out.

Both Nicholas Hytner's production and Bob Crowley's beach-side villa set seemed distanced and reduced by being on screen. The lighting struggled between stage and screen so when characters moved onto the beach the bright cyclorama at the back of the stage flared brightly in a rather uncontrollable fashion.

The performances seemed both reduced and overblown by being filmed. Watching John Shrapnel's brilliant (and bloody) description of the death of Hippolytus, for instance, was absolutely riveting but felt more like the record of a clever actor's performance, not the moving real thing.

Helen Mirren is used to the camera giving her better service that she got here. Stage make-up, unsubtle close ups, (and that lighting) didn't help a performance that seemed mannered on film in Christchurch, but probably made sense on the South Bank. For example, in a solemn evening those sophisticates in the capital had the only laugh of the evening, at an irony we quite missed.

Despite the constraints of filming, this evening had a real sense of occasion; with an introduction by Jeremy Irons and interviews with director, designer and cast before the show started we had goodies denied to those swilling South Bank champagne before the play began. Doubtless the team from there (and indeed that of the Regent) will be working to ensure there is more from the planned relay of All’s Well That Ends Well on 1 October.

Hippolytus: Dominic Cooper.
Théramène: John Shrapnel.
Oenone: Margaret Tyzack.
Phèdre: Helen Mirren.
Panope: Wendy Morgan.
Aricia: Ruth Negga.
Ismène: Chipo Chung.
Theseus: Stanley Townsend.
Phèdre’s son: Elliot Horne.

Director: Nicholas Hytner.
Designer: Bob Crowley.
Lighting: Paule Constable.
Sound: Adam Cork.
Company voice work: Jeannette Nelson, Kate Godfrey.
Design associate: Tim Blazdell.

For NT Live Broadcast:
Executive Producers Nicholas Hytner, Nick Starr.
Producer David Sabel.
Director for Screen Robin Lough.
Technical Producer Christopher Bretnall.
International Distribution BY Experience Inc.

2009-06-26 16:20:51