THE BEGGAR'S OPERA. To 15 February.

London

THE BEGGAR'S OPERA
by Vaclav Havel translated by Paul Wilson

Orange Tree Theatre To 15 February 2003
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Thu 30 Jan 2.30pm Sat 4pm
Audio described 25 January 4pm & 28 January
Saturday seminar The Plays and Politics of Vaclav Havel 8 February 10.30am

TICKETS 020 8940 3633
Review Timothy Ramsden 24 January

Crazy world not quite caught in an otherwise sympathetic production.Come to Vaclav Havel's play raw and you might advise him to stick to the day job: President of the Czech Republic. But if you'd been among the invited audience of 300 for the one and only permitted 1975 performance, you'd have seen the point bright and clear, the only wonder being if anyone had said the dissident author/critic of the regime would end up running the country. Gore Vidal for US President, anybody?

Updated to the later 18th century for some reason, Havel's Opera foregoes tunes for a maze of mounting intrigue, in which Bruce Alexander's police boss barely distinguishable in manner, dress or writing-desk from David Timson's crime-king creates a ring of agents. Crime and state control are indistinguishable here: Gabrielle Lloyd as both wives sits in identical manner preparing the sprouts as the spouses build empires.

Both men aim to bring under control Howard Saddler's independent crime-gang leader. Peachum happily lets his daughter seduce and marry Macheath, making her no different from the women available in Diana's 'Ladies' Salon'

Only love's ruled out; Timson's fond father smiles as his daughter snares and marries Macheathin in a neat running business gag, but turns on her when she falls for his rival. And Daisy Ashford's flexible whore is instantly infuriated when a client shows affection. Love-signs ooze from Caitlin Mottram's Venus Flytrap Jenny as a prelude to the rattling of handcuffs when she's whizzed off to fetch the police.

Geoffrey Beevers' production catches Havel's comic energy in moments rather than overall. Later stages become bogged in plot. Comic unreality would lighten and clarify - Havel's cerebral farce logic ends with everyone working for an organisation none of them knows exists.

There's comic bitterness around the real dissidents, who fail to belong to an organisation that can be brought into the state-control net; they end up dead.

Howard Saddler's Macheath and his dumb-dumb crew have a suitable comic edge , though in Saddler's case it might have benefited from a clearer sense of the intrigue Still, it's a strong performance in a good company in need of a tighter-paced production.

Macheath: Howard Saddler
Willy Peachum: David Timson
Bill Lockit: Bruce Alexander
Liz/Mary: Gabrielle Lloyd
Polly: Octavia Walters
Lucy: Claire Redcliffe
Harry Filtch: Tim Treloar
Diana: Vivien Heilbron
Jenny: Caitlin Mottram
Barmaid/Betty: Daisy Ashford
Vicki/Ingrid: Sam Dowson
Jim/John/Bailiff: Russell Saunders
Jack/Harold/Sergeant: Rex Obano
A Drunk/Voice of an Aristocrat: Jonathan Dryden Taylor

Director: Geoffrey Beevers
Designer: Tim Meacock
Lighting: Stuart Burgess
Assistant director: John Terry

2003-01-26 16:43:27