The Wolf, at London’s Network Theatre

Sturdy Beggars’ production of Molnar’s farce

The Wolf is a curious beast. It is constructed in three parts. An opening scene in a restaurant sets the tone as a traditional, if slightly manic, investigation into the nature of romantic love, possessiveness, and the ideal of marriage. A centre section provides a delicious, funny and slightly disturbing counterpoint to that initial idea. And then finally we return to the straightforward narrative structure, to find ideals shattered, harmony replaced by something quite different and an edgy marital truce, which looks as though it will only be a temporary arrangement. The wolf is still at the window, prowling.

I was reminded, oddly, (since only the central theme is similar) of James Joyce’s masterful story, The Dead, in which another wife finds her situation compromised utterly by the memory of a lover. Here though, the tone is quite different, and in that surreal and slippery territory that forms the centre of the play, Molnar’s talent and that of director Jamie Harper, truly blossom. I don’t think the sight of three eggs on ice has ever been more amusing.

Alex Andreou gets to have any amount of fun, and superbly delivers his mountainous tenor (one of four very different characters he is called upon to play in this section of the play) in the grand manner: think Pavarotti with a slightly bigger ego and you won’t be too far away.

But if the overall theme is similar to the Joyce story, in this core section we’re almost in the world of The Importance of Being Earnest. The wonderful Countess, apoplectic at her guests’ behaviour, loses brain cells by the second and her grovelling butler has a particularly good line in sadism directed toward one of his minions. It is in this section too that the costumes come into their own.

The magic kingdom disappears in the third part of the play and the obsessive lawyer whose only talent is to make money (Brendan Jones, who spends much of the play at or near boiling point) finally realises that his particular blend of self-loathing possessiveness has brought about something much emptier than the clearing of skeletons from their cupboards. The nature of his obsession, an instinct that we have laughed at heartily throughout, finally leaves us in sorrow.

This is an insightful ensemble production, which takes us on a roller-coaster of emotion, lovingly played but let down just a little by the quality of the set, which showed perhaps a lack of investment rather than intent. Great costumes, a wonderfully ironic scene change in the first half and the energy of all concerned more than make up for that.

Cast: Daniel Addis, Alex Andreou, Helen Booth, Katherine French, Brendan Jones, Josie Martin, Lucy McCabe and Andrew Mudie.

Directed by: Jamie Harper; Associate Director: Hugo Thurston; Designed by: Charlotte Randell; Lighting Design: Daniel Addis; Sound Design: Marianna Roe; Music by Manos Hadjidakis

Reviewed 25 August 2011

© michael spring 2011

10 Aug to 3 Sept – Ferenc Molnár’s “The Wolf”

Sturdy Beggars at the Network Theatre

Ferenc Molnar

The Network Theatre certainly vies for the title of London’s most elusive venue, but it might well be worth seeking out the entrance to this theatre that lurks underneath Waterloo train station for the next instalment in Sturdy Beggars’ Brain Drain season. Their last production, “Ivona, Princess of Burgundia” was a spectacular success, and if  “The Wolf” has even half as much attitude about it, it would be a shame to miss it.

I can’t tell you much about the playwright or the play, but here’s what it says on the Sturdy Beggars’ website:-

Molnar is one if Hungary’s most beloved writers, whose plays & novels have found success around the globe. His works have inspired a host of other writers, with adaptations of his plays including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical play Carousel, P. G. Wodehouse’s The Play’s the Thing and Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing. Although published in four languages simultaneously in 1912 and last performed professionally in the UK in the early 1970s, the play’s exploration of the nature of success and obsession with money still finds resonance in society today.

More information and tickets at: http://sturdy-beggars.com/home.htm

Ivona, Princess of Burgundia

Until 30^th Jan 2011

King-size

Alex Andreou as the impossibly vulnerable Queen

Your first job is to find the Network Theatre, a venue that lurks down an unprepossessing service tunnel off Waterloo Road, just beyond the southern entrance to Waterloo Station towards the Old Vic. (If you’ve got to a bar called The Fire Station, you’ve gone too far, and the security team here don’t know where it is either).

Please do persevere though, because this wonderful production (think Gormenghast, crossed with a Panto) is full of imagination, good humour (even if of the somewhat dark variety) and rich performances.

If nothing else, Ivona would be a triumph for costume designer (and make-up artist) Josie Martin. I don’t think I’ve seen such wonderfully imaginative costumes for a very long time, and her efforts are matched by production designer Charlotte Randell, who gives us a white set dominated by a table, around (and under) which a lot of the action occurs. Director Kos Mantzakos is also meticulous in the way he uses the space and presents us with various tableaux.

But from the moment that one of the cast (Nicolas Templer as Chequers) arrives to crank back the curtains, this production signals itself as something special. What is then revealed is a regal court frozen in time, but about to come to life in this tale of order and chaos, of plotting and a small world turned upside down by a rogue Prince who is determined to marry the most unattractive girl in the kingdom.

There are many good performances here.

David Bartlett extracts many subtle nuances as the fawning and world-weary chancellor, (a master spin-doctor before the word ‘spin’ was conceived), Brendan Jones gives new meaning to the word ‘pike’ as the hopelessly inadequate King with a wonderful crown and a murky past, and Alex Andreou as the impressively bulky, poetry-writing Queen Margaret all shine, but the entire cast is very capable and there are many special moments that manage to be very funny as well as oddly uncomfortable and thought-provoking too.

This all-male production is much more than a cross-dressing, gender-bent spectacle. Leaning heavily toward fairytale fantasy, the over-made-up figures in this drama are more like chess pieces than characters, and while they exhibit a limited range of moves, the challenge for actors and production team alike is to provide us with as much subtlety as possible. This is a challenge that all rise to wonderfully.

This is quite simply, a production that puts to shame the limited imagination of the West End.

Ivona is the first play in Sturdy Beggars‘ “Brain Drain” season. If the others are as good, then they are simply not to be missed.

Cast: Isobel – David Addis; Alex Andreou – Queen Margaret; Bjorn Drori Avraham – Ivona; David Barlett – Chancellor; Sean Stephen Culhane – 1^st Aunt; Ryan Davies – Innocent; Matt Garrill – 2^nd Aunt; Simon Hancock – 1^st Lady; Christopher Hughes – Simon; Brendan Jones – King Ignatius; Edward Parkes – Prince Phillip; Benjamin Reeves – Cyprian; Tom Slatter – 2^nd Lady; Nicolas Templer – Beggar/Chequers

Writer – Witold Gombrowicz; Director – Kos Mantzakos; Producer – Hugo Thurston; Production Design – Charlotte Randell; Costume and make up – Josie Martin; Sound Design – Marianna Roe; Lights and sound – Tom Turner

(c) Michael Spring

Reviewed Friday, 21 January 2011

Sturdy Beggars’ Brain Drain season

Begins with all-male absurdist drama from Poland

Sturdy Beggars' season begins with Ivona, Princess of Burgundia

Sturdy Beggars Company, led by Alex Andreou and Brendan Jones, are always worth watching and their Brain Drain season should contain the usual mix of great performances and surprising plays.

Brain Drain will include three rarely performed plays from Eastern Europe, starting with an all-male production of Witold Gombrowicz’s Ivona, Princess of Burgundia, at the Network Theatre in Waterloo from 17th December 2010 to 30th January 2011.

This absurd black comedy is on for a four-week season from Wednesday 5 January at 7.30pm until Sunday 30 January 2011.

When Crown Prince Philip decides to alleviate his boredom by proposing to the most repulsive girl in the kingdom – the mute, sickly Ivona – he unleashes hilarious and ultimately deadly consequences of this impulsive betrothal.