THE INTERVIEW at the Park Theatre

★★★

“Maitland’s writing and Kettle’s performance gives us a Diana that is multi-dimensional”

There is an eminent fascination with Diana, the people’s princess. More than twenty-five years after her death there are TV shows, documentaries and musicals all seeking to understand something of her, or to simply draw in the viewers. Jonathan Maitland’s original play at the Park Theatre zones in on just one interview between the princess and a reporter.

The interview in question is Princess Diana’s 1995 BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir. A watershed moment, the innocuous title ‘An Interview with HRH The Princess of Wales’ belied the explosive revelations made by the princess about her relationship with her husband Prince Charles, the Queen, and the rest of the royal family as well as shocking revelations about her own mental health. It was explosive stuff, hailed at the time by the BBC as ‘the scoop of a generation’. But in 2021 the BBC has vowed never to broadcast the interview again or license it to others due to Bashir’s foul-play in securing the interview.

Maitland’s play, under Michael Fentiman’s direction, explores the events leading up to the interview from the perspective of both parties, attempting to leave us asking whether this really was a one-sided manipulation on the part of Bashir, or whether Diana had more agency than critics today would have you believe.

Diana is well written and charismatically portrayed by Yolanda Kettle. With recent portrayals from Emma Corrin and Elizabeth Debicki in The Crown to Kristen Stewart in Spencer, there is no shortage of Diana content for comparison, and whilst it’s difficult to make a Diana feel fresh, Kettle does so with humour, emphasising the princess’s lighter side. She makes jokes about the music she chooses to play to avoid her conversation with Bashir being picked up by bugging devices as being about a woman who murders her adulterous husband, and has a great retort about why her sister said she should go through with the wedding despite reservations. Maitland’s writing and Kettle’s performance gives us a Diana that is multi-dimensional – light-hearted yet deeply hurt by her husband, strong-willed yet insecure, paranoid yet with good reason.

“the lights fade, and the audience groans, having been teased with what would have been the highlight of the evening”

Sami Fendall’s costume design is peak 90s with Diana’s ‘off-duty princess’ styling of belted dark rinse Levi 501s and a tucked in white shirt. Her short bouffant crop looks almost comically voluminous but is actually pretty spot on when compared to the stills from the interview itself.

Tibu Fortes as Martin Bashir is incredibly sincere and despite his refrain that he and Diana are the same, outsiders, in many ways his character stands in stark contrast. Whereas Diana is emotionally complex, Bashir seems to have only one motivation – to score the interview of a generation by doing whatever he needs to do to get it. Maitland’s choice to have Bashir use the same story about his dead brother to endear himself to Diana and her Butler is Machiavellian and makes us wonder whether he even had a brother at all. Act II focuses in on Bashir through the editing process and the fallout does him few favours. However, the suggestion that the fraudulent methods used to get the interview were the start of a long line of truth doctoring that stretched forward through Blair’s ‘dodgy dossier’ to Trump was a ham-fisted stretch.

It’s also an odd choice to have much of the first act narrated by Diana’s infamous butler, Paul Burrell. His character is almost totally redundant, other than perhaps to show that even those close to Diana were looking for ways to elevate themselves at her expense. A much more interesting aide is Luciana, wittily played by Naomi Frederick, perhaps a press or media secretary or just a close confidante who comes from the same world as Diana but seems to understand what she’s going through.

The second act does let this piece down, swapping conversations between the princess and the reporter for dry ethical conversations between the broadcaster and his BBC bosses. It starts to look up when the Kettle as Diana re-emerges after a long absence and converses with Bashir as if from beyond the grave, arguing that despite the foul-play, those were words she wanted the world to hear. Chairs appear carried by other cast members and you start to hope we will see some of the interview recreated live. But then the lights fade, and the audience groans, having been teased with what would have been the highlight of the evening – Diana live and self-scripted as she intended to be.

THE INTERVIEW at the Park Theatre

Reviewed on 1st November 2023

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

It’s Headed Straight Towards Us | ★★★★★ | September 2023

Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea | ★★½ | September 2023

The Garden Of Words | ★★★ | August 2023

Bones | ★★★★ | July 2023

Paper Cut | ★★½ | June 2023

Leaves of Glass | ★★★★ | May 2023

The Beach House | ★★★ | February 2023

Winner’s Curse | ★★★★ | February 2023

The Elephant Song | ★★★★ | January 2023

Rumpelstiltskin | ★★★★★ | December 2022

Wickies | ★★★ | December 2022

Pickle | ★★★ | November 2022

The Interview

Click here to read all our latest reviews

★★★½

“It’s a slick and stylish production under the direction of John Hoggarth”

Kash and Mohsen are friends living in Oxford on the cusp of adulthood. Kash is a bit of a clown who loves to dance to the latest Punjabi music, Bob Marley and the Spinners. Mohsen is more academic and is more interested in getting into Oxford uni than getting his classmates to like him. But when the boys hear their classmate plans to throw a pool party there is one thing they agree on. They need to learn how to swim. Kash just wants to use it as an opportunity to flirt but Mohsen understands it as an opportunity to break stereotypes and learn a valuable life skill. For the sake of safety more than anything else he’s up for the challenge.

Brown Boys Swim is a classic story of contemporary British cultural dislocation. The boys are torn between their religion and islamic identity, and the ways and mores of their school mates. They bond over their trips to the mosque, fantasizing about their future wedding ceremonies and what sweets their mums’ have made for Eid. But where they clash is over whether and how to conform with their peers; from growing beards to at the extreme drinking alcohol.

It’s a slick and stylish production under the direction of John Hoggarth. James Button’s set is simple yet versatile. With just a couple of benches and some strip lights the boys move from school to the mosque, gym to the pool. Where the set and props are multipurpose, the costumes are multitudinous – with almost every scene requiring a different outfit. Each transition of set and costume is done intentionally by the actors on stage – wonderfully choreographed in synchronicity by movement director Sita Thomas. Roshan Gunga’s sound design is outstanding – particularly the scenes of the boys at the leisure centre pool where every movement of an arm or a leg is matched by a splashing sound – an impressively evocative feat.

“They play with every splash of humour and heart they’re given in Karim Khan’s script”

All this style is so noticeable because the changes in scene are too frequent and too many – stilting the drama and stopping the characters achieving any real depth. Each time Kash and Mohsen reached an impasse, which happened too quickly and too often to be believable, the scene would end, the set and costumes would very beautifully change, over a minute would go by and then the next scene would start, in a new location with the previous disagreement squashed and forgotten about.

Kashif Ghole and Ibraheem Hussain as Kash and Mohsen gave strong performances. Even more impressive given both actors have only graduated drama school this year. They play with every splash of humour and heart they’re given in Karim Khan’s script. Kashif Ghole is totally endearing, cracking jokes whilst revealing a youthful vulnerability. Ibraheem Hussain gives us a tough exterior that hides some insecurities, but relaxes and warms when mucking about with his friend. The boys portrayal of adolescent friendship is charmingly truthful, and it’s a credit to their performances that the ending is unexpectedly moving.

Despite the committed and impassioned performances and high production value, the lack of depth in the dialogue put constraints on this show’s capacity to really allow the audience to be drawn in to the drama.

THE INTERVIEW at the Park Theatre

★★★

“Maitland’s writing and Kettle’s performance gives us a Diana that is multi-dimensional”

“the lights fade, and the audience groans, having been teased with what would have been the highlight of the evening”

THE INTERVIEW at the Park Theatre

Reviewed on 1st November 2023

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

The Interview

The Interview

BROWN BOYS SWIM at the Soho Theatre

★★★½

“It’s a slick and stylish production under the direction of John Hoggarth”

“They play with every splash of humour and heart they’re given in Karim Khan’s script”

BROWN BOYS SWIM at the Soho Theatre

Reviewed on 4th October 2023

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Geraint Lewis

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Brown Boys Swim

Brown Boys Swim