By James Hadley in London

One of the best things about theatre in London is that the general quality of acting is extraordinarily high. Even at productions housed in the tiny theatres you find nestled upstairs above various inner city suburban pubs, you often recognise cast members from film or television. And the focus on vocal training at British drama schools is evident everywhere. But it's still only occasionally that you experience a performer who is touched with greatness, or at least rubs shoulders with it from time to time.By James Hadley in London

One of the best things about theatre in London is that the general quality of acting is extraordinarily high. Even at productions housed in the tiny theatres you find nestled upstairs above various inner city suburban pubs, you often recognise cast members from film or television. And the focus on vocal training at British drama schools is evident everywhere. But it's still only occasionally that you experience a performer who is touched with greatness, or at least rubs shoulders with it from time to time.After years of having the reputation of a major world-class theatre, despite operating out of a modest scale venue near Seven Dials in London's Soho, the Donmar Warehouse branched out this year. Alongside its usual 250-seat venue, its artistic director Michael Grandage has programmed a very high profile Donmar West End season at the beautifully renovated Wyndham's Theatre, just off Leicester Square. Just seeing the season poster, with the faces of Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi and Jude Law, is enough to send tingles of excitement down the spine of most theatre-goers, and I dipped into my savings to buy tickets to three of the shows before they sold out.

The four productions in the season span almost a year, culminating in Kenneth Branagh directing Jude Law as Hamlet next year. Michael Grandage is directing the other three productions: Derek Jacobi in Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night', Judi Dench in Yukio Mishima's 'Madame de Sade', and Kenneth Branagh in Chekhov's 'Ivanov'.

Ivanov opened the season, and I was as excited about seeing Gina McKee onstage as I was about seeing Branagh. They were both faultless in their performances. In fact the whole cast were superb, as needs to be the case to do a Chekhov play justice - and you certainly got the feeling that Branagh was a part of the ensemble... Except then he would go and make some genius gesture which totally encapsulated the character, laying his humanity naked, and you'd have to admit to yourself that this was one of those performers who people will be talking about decades after most of his peers have been forgotten.

I'm a total Chekhov fan, but have barely read 'Ivanov', let alone seen a production of it. I've never heard of it being performed in New Zealand, though I'm sure it must have been staged at various times. As Chekhov's first full length play, it's somewhat flawed in some people's opinions - largely because it's protagonist is quite unsympathetic. He moans about his life, mistreats and betrays his devoted and dying wife, and just when you're getting really sick of his selfishness he goes and kills himself. So not an easy role to pull off. Yet somehow in Kenneth Branagh's performance you gain access to all the levels of a fully rounded character, who was clearly once a great idealist, a romantic, a joyful man, alongside the embittered, depressed state we now find him in. There was a moment in the production where Branagh gave a heart-stopping performance of a man having an emotional breakdown before our eyes. From a proud and opinionated man to an embryonic bundle on the floor in just a few moments.

As much of a star of the show was the new translation by Tom Stoppard, who seems to have rejuvenated Chekhov's script so that it sounds like it's just been written by one of the leading young voices of today. The script is full of stream-of-consciousness monologues which scream off the page with amazing energy. The other surprise about this production is how funny this version of the play is. I've heard of past productions being rather dour and depressing tragedies, but the genius of Michael Grandage's version is that it has the audience laughing and laughing, right up until the moment you hear a gunshot and realise the protagonist has killed himself. If it were otherwise, the tragedy wouldn't be half as affecting as it is, and I can't imagine the play working unless it were milked for every laugh possible, just to balance out the bleakness of the plot.

Next up they've wisely programmed Shakespeare's comedy, 'Twelfth Night' to get us through the winter months. With the newspapers full of economic doom and gloom, the theatre industry is speculating that nothing short of the most feel-good of productions will have any sort of longevity on the West End now. And certainly we've recently seen several dramas and serious musicals close early at big West End venues. Some are predicting a short run for the major new musical, 'Imagine This' which opened recently, because it's set in the Warsaw Ghetto - but then, who could have predicted the success of 'Les Miserables' which has a similarly gloomy subject matter...

Read previous Sets and the City blogs

Feel free to get in touch with any questions (or if you're planning a London visit and want some theatre recommendations) to jamesstuarthadley@gmail.com

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17/11/08

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