RESURRECTION BLUES. To 15 April.

London

RESURRECTION BLUES
by Arthur Miller

Old Vic Theatre To 15 April 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr One interval

TICKETS: 0870 060 6628
www.oldvictheatre.com (£2.50 fee per transaction)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 March

First British performance of a last testament that doesn’t match this major playwright’s best work.
Behind the turret-like structure dominating the acting area in Robert Altman’s production of Arthur Miller’s final play, Robin Wagner’s design reveals a huge cone of a mountain. This forms a literal link with the title of another late Miller play, The Ride Down Mount Morgan. It’s not a happy connection. After a vivid opening monologue where a young wheelchair-bound woman spirals from a description of jumping from a third-floor window into speculation about the way the world, the South American dictatorship where this play’s set and the USA are going, it’s downhill all the way.

As ever, Miller’s handling big themes, though comedy occasionally breaks through in the story of a captured rebel leader who is to be crucified, but escapes. The (unseen) rebel’s mysterious nature provokes a debate about reality. The almost equally mysterious Schulz, a businessman turned scholar and friend of dictator Barriaux, believes he is more idea than corporeal presence. With the Christian overtones this suggests Miller’s exploring a secular religion, but the concept is undermined by the easy theatrical device which represents this Light of the World as a spotlight’s golden glow, turning to an angrily thunderous sound-effect.

On a different level there’s satire about commercialisation around Skip Cheeseboro, for whom the crucifixion’s a sponsorship opportunity. This fades away as the story moves into embarrassing territory when the impotent old dictator finds renewed sexual vigour with the young female TV director, an unconvincing development with some coy, awkward staging. Elderly male playwrights should observe a self-denying ordinance over stories of young women finding old men attractive.

The direction does nothing to focus the action's styles, nor to sharpen the performances. This looks like an every-actor-for-themselves production (maybe Altman’s used his free-flowing style of film-direction, which works less well with the nightly demands of stage performance). Some nobly struggle, others make headway with intractable material; the smoothest performance is Peter McDonald’s as the rebel-leader’s friend.

A smaller-scale, lower profile production might have helped the play’s more interesting features emerge. But it’s likely this script would best have honoured Miller’s memory in the breach rather than the observance.

General Felix Barriaux: Maximilian Schell
Henri Schultz: James Fox
Emily Shapiro: Jane Adams
Skip L Cheeseboro: Matthew Modine
Phil: Peter Brooke
Sarah: Sarah Mennell
Police Captain: George Antoni
Jeanine Schulz: Neve Campbell
Stanley: Peter McDonald
Soldiers/Waiters/Peasants: Megan Arellanes, Nigel Francis, Jeffry Kaplow, Caroline Madden, Ronan Summers

Director: Robert Altman
Designer: Robin Wagner
Lighting: Rick Fisher
Sound: Matt McKenzie
Costume: Jenny Beava

2006-03-03 00:33:34