VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN at Hampstead Theatre

★★

“Hampton is not a writer known for his humour, but the script is relentlessly grim”

Since Hampstead Theatre lost its Arts Council funding their programming has been shaped by the need for philanthropic donations. It seems a safe choice then, to programme the UK premiere of the latest Christopher Hampton adaptation, which will surely encourage audience attendance. Unfortunately, while this play explores many of Hampton’s favourite themes – memory and time, loss and obsession, seduction – it falls emotionally flat and is overwritten to the point of parody.

The story is moving, if slightly sentimental. It is based on a Zweig novella of the same name and is set against the building xenophobic tensions of 1930s Vienna. But this political context gets only the briefest of nods. Instead, the play focusses on two characters, a middle-aged writer, Stefan, whose biography seems curiously similar to Zweig’s own, and a mysterious young woman, Marianne, whose sexual enthusiasm is made disquieting by a peculiar familiarity with Stefan’s life. The story unravels into a personal tragedy, with sex and casual cruelty at its poignant heart.

Chelsea Walker’s direction shines in the passion between the two, but somehow fails to inject this verbose two hander with the necessary emotional depth to carry it.

Hampton is not a writer known for his humour, but the script is relentlessly grim. Marianne’s story in particular, is emotionally monotonal. Whether that’s the script, performance or direction is unclear, but there is a sore lack of light and shade.

The dynamic between the two should be fascinating, but Marianne’s unrelenting and unbelievable selflessness feels more like Zweig’s (or Hampton’s) own fantasy than a real woman.

James Corrigan, playing Stefan, has been brought on late into the process, only taking over the role after the first week of performances, and bearing that in mind his performance is impressive. He plays the writer as a Hugh Grant-esque bumbling charmer. It’s a good performance, but maybe lacks the magnetism which can birth the level of obsession which the play explores. Natalie Simpson’s performance is a little one note, but as discussed, that’s not entirely her fault. It would’ve been interesting to see this character unravel more, but there are a couple of moments where Simpson’s range is unleashed. Nigel Hastings has a walk on part of Johann the butler, which feels a little random, but he embodies it well. Jessie Gattward as a young Marianne is deeply sinister, with a moment of pained physical theatre which works well in balance with the naturalism.

The set (Rosanna Vize), sound (Peter Rice) music (Max Perryment) and lighting (Bethany Gupwell) are excellent. The set is an apartment, with a landing, and a huge pile of wilted white roses rotting in the darkened corner outside. The music, at one point echoed by Corrigan on the piano, provides a haunting refrain as the play shifts through time and memory. The lighting alters to play with shadow, building an excellent atmosphere which never quite comes to a climax.

Of all novellas ever written, or even all Zweig novellas, this is a strange one to choose to adapt. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it lies in the biographical hints of Zweig’s own life – he wrote it shortly before he left Vienna for South America where he committed suicide. Knowing that (or reading the programme) brings moving light onto the reaction of the writer, but without it, the play feels a little adrift, almost like a scene within a longer play to which the audience is not privy.

VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN at Hampstead Theatre

Reviewed on 11th July 2024

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Marc Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE DIVINE MRS S | ★★★★ | March 2024

DOUBLE FEATURE | ★★★★ | February 2024

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL | ★★★★ | December 2023

ANTHROPOLOGY | ★★★★ | September 2023

STUMPED | ★★★★ | June 2023

LINCK & MÜLHAHN | ★★★★ | February 2023

THE ART OF ILLUSION | ★★★★★ | January 2023

SONS OF THE PROPHET | ★★★★ | December 2022

BLACKOUT SONGS | ★★★★ | November 2022

MARY | ★★★★ | October 2022

THE FELLOWSHIP | ★★★ | June 2022

THE BREACH | ★★★ | May 2022

VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN

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★★★

“It was a genuinely mixed experience, and sometimes that is refreshing in its own way.”

Billed as a piece of ‘radically tender dance theatre’ Lay Down Your Burdens is a brave, if peculiar, piece of immersive theatre.

We are welcomed to a local pub, by friendly landlady (Sara Turner) where the three locals and the bartender consistently mask their respective pain by drinking, and dancing, and generally being merry. When they are joined by an American stranger (Donald Hutera) who is ripped open and vulnerable with grief, they begin to teach him a new way of looking at life. Interspersed with audience participation, immersive games and calls and responses, as well as stunning contemporary dance, this story unfolds as each character delves into their personal unhappiness.

Choreographer/director Rhiannon Faith devised this piece with the cast, and it has that muddled feeling that often plagues devised theatre. There is a lot going on, far too many characters, and the script is at times almost painful. However, where this piece soars is when it stays away from the strange plot that ties it down, and focusses on the abstract, on the audience participation and the dance.

Something that works astonishingly well is the sound design by Anna Clock. Anna is on stage paying cello, along with violinist India Shan Merrett, giving an ethereal live beauty to the performance. But Anna is also recording the audience responses, and at the end they layer them into a melting soundscape, adding meaning to the words and chants we’d shared. My favourite moment in the piece was where audience members were invited to share into a microphone the things they loved. It was moving and subtle and completely beautiful. To hear these back, layered with people’s responses to other prompts throughout the piece, was a stroke of immersive genius.

The dance was also extraordinary. Dominic Coffey, Shelley Eva Haden, Sam Ford and Finetta Sidgwick move across the stage in frantic, weird contortions. They represent pain, grief and struggle through their bodies but it is also lovely to see them dancing a jig in an early scene. All of them are very strong dancers, with captivating stage presences, but a standout is Haden who tells the story of a woman losing touch with her inner child through a beautiful series of gyrating agitated solos.

The set, by designer Noemi Daboczi is simple, a bar at the centre and booths behind, but it can be whatever the performers make it, and it feels eerily like a local pub.

This piece is hard to review, because some parts I hated, and some I loved. Every time I would get on board with the production, it would completely change into something else, often something that was baffling or tonally startling. I would see another production by Rhiannon Faith Company, but I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this one. I found the message confusing, and even at times problematic – there was a sense of toxic positivity and no questions around alcohol as a ticket to happiness. However, the idea of finding the joy in small things is beautiful, and important. It was a genuinely mixed experience, and sometimes that is refreshing in its own way.

VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN at Hampstead Theatre

★★

“Hampton is not a writer known for his humour, but the script is relentlessly grim”

VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN at Hampstead Theatre

Reviewed on 11th July 2024

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Marc Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN

VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN

LAY DOWN YOUR BURDENS at the Barbican

★★★

“It was a genuinely mixed experience, and sometimes that is refreshing in its own way.”

LAY DOWN YOUR BURDENS at the Barbican

Reviewed on 22nd November 2023

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Foteini Christofilopoulou

More shows reviewed by Auriol:

Lay Down Your Burdens

Lay Down Your Burdens