RIFLEMIND. To 3 January.
London.
RIFLEMIND
by Andrew Upton.
Trafalgar Studios (Studio 1) To 3 January 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30 Mat Thu & Sat 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 30min One interval.
TICKETS: 0870 060 6632.
www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios (transaction fee by ‘phone & online; discounted tickets online).
Review: Carole Woddis: 19 September.
What’s the purpose of all this skill?
Since Trafalgar Studios opened, it’s been greeted like rain from a parched man in the desert. With the nearby Arts Theatre never quite fulfilling its `off-Broadway’ promise, the revamped, dual-spaced Whitehall Theatre has proved a useful showcase for a more adventurous kind of theatre than would normally find a West End foothold.
Not that it comes cheap. £45-£25 is quite a wack, even for your keen theatregoer, never mind impecunious students.
Which brings us to Riflemind. Who exactly might it be aimed at? Marking a new partnership between the theatre’s owners, Ambassador Theatre Group, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s New York LAByrinth Theater Company and Cate Blanchett and husband, Andrew Upton’s, Sydney Theatre Company, Upton’s Riflemind is a questionably messy roller-coaster for both the middle-aged - perhaps revisiting memories of a misspent youth - and younger audiences surveying reuniting ageing rockers for the first time.
Scottish star John Hannah – of Sliding Doors, Rebus and Four Weddings fame – playing John, the lead man of Upton’s fictional Riflemind band, is the main draw. And looking every inch the burnt-out, bankrupt soul he purports to be, he delivers successfully enough.
Upton too goes out of his way to provide enough bits of vaguely shocking behaviour from wild men and women gone to seed to satisfy the most voyeuristic. His message, appropriately, though, is less than fresh. When the music dies, what’s left? Addictions live on, ever uglier, more difficult to control.
To his credit Upton captures this atmosphere of tarnished glory with a good deal of humour before descending into overkill. On the way, he also gives original Australian cast members Jeremy Sims (as the opportunistic manager, Sam), Steve Rodgers (not called Moon for nothing) and Susan Prior (John’s yogic but addicted wife, Lynn) a chance to strut their stuff again whilst Paul Hilton, as John’s over-shadowed brother, Phil is, as always, at the top of his game.
In a final showdown, he rationalises the squandered life thereafter with philosophic inevitability, “We gave it everything. That’s what happens”. Philip Seymour Hoffman (an actor himself) directs with suitable noise and hard rock musical signatures.
John :John Hannah.
Lynn: Susan Prior.
Phil: Paul Hilton.
Sam: Jeremy Sims.
Cindy: Ruth Gemmell.
Moon: Steve Rodgers.
Lee; Joseph Kennedy.
Director: Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Designer: Richard Roberts.
Original Lighting: Damien Cooper.
UK Lighting: Colin Grenfell.
Sound/Music: Max Lyandvert.
UK Sound: Fergus O’Hare.
Costume: Tess Schofield.
Dialect coaches: Carol Fairlamb,Martin McKellan.
Associate director: Cat Totty.
2008-09-20 00:18:04