ROMAN NIGHTS. To 11 December.
London
ROMAN NIGHTS
by Franco D' Alessandro
New End Theatre To 11 December 2004
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sat & Sun 3.30pm
Runs 2hr 45min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 033 2733
www.newendtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 November
Glory days and dark nights in the chronicle of a friendship.When Tennessee met Anna in 1948, she was a major film-star, he the lionised author of The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar named Desire. They had no way to go but down. Franco D' Alessandro's engaging if rather unfocused play show them doing so together over a quarter-century ended by her death.
Magnani was screen and stage star in several of Williams' later, increasingly ill-regarded plays. There were arguments; his joviality sours when she turns down an offered role. Both had closer loves but maintained an affectionate appreciation that binds the play's disparate scenes.
There's a blind-side to both characters, shock that fame and success aren't lifelong. For a moment it seems the playwright latches on to this, talking of Pittsburgh miners and Detroit steelworkers, but it's only Williams' self-serving contrast with the way they're not criticised for drinking after a hard day's work.
No, but nor do they receive adulation and money including pay for Hollywood adaptations the playwright didn't even script. The play doesn't clarify how much Williams is aware there's a falling-off in his writing; little is less endearing than the whines of a playwright plunged into alcohol, drugs and self-pity.
Magnani carries it off better. In early scenes, she's an icon of post-war Rome. Then comes relentless age, with the fall-of of good job offers and the arrival of Sophia Loren. All this is chronicled, but not given thematic shaping. People grow old, fame passes on and generally the process is painful: true, but hardly news.
The performances one especially keep the journey going. Nolan Hemmings' Williams is reserved early on; the importance of the playwright's early life is clear. Otherwise there's little definition of what created the famous plays. It's later, grizzled with too-obvious make-up and fake beard, the character emerges.
Franca Barchiesi has the good actor's impossible task; to play a star. Fortunately, she seems unaware it is a problem. Her Magnani moves between the outgoing passion of success and inward professional fears, mixing flamboyance with moments of reflection. Her driving spirit, determined if fearful of ill-news, remains even in her last pain-wracked days.
Tennessee Williams: Nolan Hemmings
Anna Magnani: Franca Barchiesi
Director: Caitriona McLaughlin
Designer: Kate Klinger
Lighting: Stuart Harrison
Sound: Darren Murphy
Projection: Max Coyne
Costume: Penn O' Gara
2004-11-30 11:37:16