Tag Archives: Isabella van Braeckel

Cancelling Socrates

Cancelling Socrates

★★★★

Jermyn Street Theatre

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Cancelling Socrates

Jermyn Street Theatre

Reviewed – 7th June 2022

★★★★

 

“Littler and his team never disappoint in what they achieve in one of the most challenging theatre spaces in London”

 

Cancelling Socrates, just opened at the Jermyn Street Theatre, will please fans of Howard Brenton, one of the powerhouses of British playwriting of the last fifty years. The play may seem a departure from Brenton’s usual concerns. But then we think of Pravda, (written with David Hare) which engages with similar themes of promoting troublesome ideas to a wider public. In that con-text, a play about a long dead philosopher doesn’t seem like such an outlier in the Brenton canon.

Cancelling Socrates is about one of the most famous events in the history of western philosophy—the trial and execution of Athens’ leading philosopher. Socrates was a notable gadfly and “corrupter of the young” as his critics described him. Cancelling Socrates has all the hallmarks of Brenton’s craft—engaging dialogue, liberally sprinkled with witty one liners—and a plot that features extraordinary characters, dealing with fallout from forces greater than themselves. Brenton has always had a nice line in satirical edginess that can highlight a tragic situation while prompting an audience to laughter. But whereas the characters in Pravda have to deal with unscrupulous media barons, Cancelling Socrates has merely to deal with unscrupulous gods, and Athenian citizens tired of being stung into thinking for themselves. Right from the start, you know the arguments our eponymous hero marshals in his defence, are not going to end well.

This premiere production, directed by Tom Littler, and starring Jonathan Hyde as Socrates, places us directly in the philosophical fray of Athens in 399 BC. The limited space available at the Jermyn Theatre is once again utilized to clever effect, (set design by Isabella van Braeckel). In addition to the stylized Greek pillars and friezes, there are signs in both English and Greek available on stage for those patrons needing the toilets, and the sparse set actually gives a sense of spaciousness, which Littler and his cast use well. Cancelling Socrates opens with a blend of English and Greek until we are all settled down, and ready to engage with some philosophical wordplay (mercifully all in English.) Robert Mountford, who plays both Socrates’ friend Euthyphro in the first half, and the Goaler in the second, is an engaging foil for Hyde’s Socrates. Euthyphro is firmly on Team Socrates, but even he is begging for mercy by the end of a run in with the great man over what constitutes holy and unholy acts. It’s a nice set up for what follows.

Those who remember the pathos of Socrates’ death from Plato’s description in the Phaedo should not expect a similar effect in Cancelling Socrates. Brenton sets up the wit perhaps too well, so that the moment of drinking hemlock seems like whimsy, rather than tragedy. Even the presence of compelling characters such as Aspasia (Sophie Ward) and Xanthippe (Hannah Morrish) never quite shift the emphasis from the domestic to the civic. The trial takes place off stage, which doesn’t help. There is much talk of the gods, and the daemons that allegedly prompt Socrates into the acts that doom him. These arguments might not resonate much with a modern audience, even though Brenton reminds us that 5th century Athens was in a similar state of turmoil to 21st century London. It’s a tenuous connection, at best.

Nevertheless, time passes very pleasantly with Cancelling Socrates. Littler and his team never disappoint in what they achieve in one of the most challenging theatre spaces in London. The Jermyn Street Theatre is always warm and welcoming. This play is not a date night show, perhaps, unless you are both philosophers. But it’s provocative, and yes, even family, entertainment. You should definitely take up the opportunity to corrupt your own young.

 

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Steve Gregson

 


Cancelling Socrates

Jermyn Street Theatre until 2nd July

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
This Beautiful Future | ★★★ | August 2021
Footfalls and Rockaby | ★★★★★ | November 2021
The Tempest | ★★★ | November 2021
Orlando | ★★★★ | May 2022

 

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The Dog Walker

The Dog Walker

★★

Jermyn Street Theatre

The Dog Walker

The Dog Walker

Jermyn Street Theatre

Reviewed – 14th February 2020

★★

 

“despite flashes of real humanity, clever staging and spirited performances, we risk feeling underwhelmed by a narrative that feels easy to predict”

 

The Dog Walker brings us two characters at sea in the lonely but oppressive expanse of New York. We meet our pair during a heatwave, but by the end, the storm has broken – in more ways than one.

Victoria Yeates is Keri; bitter, drunk, raging. Herbert Doakes (Andrew Dennis) is the unsuspecting dog walker who comes to collect her Pekingese, Wolfgang. Wolfgang is, it transpires, an ex-Pekingese. So begins a torrid ride, as we see these lost souls navigate around and towards one another.

Writer Paul Minx is focusing on the brokenness of so many people and so much of city life, and the flows of the power dynamics between – and grief of – Keri and Herbert are cleverly handled, ebbing tidally through the production. Minx tells us that the character of Keri is based on someone he recalls from his time living in New York in the 90s, a woman who ‘lived in a sleeping bag under the stairs leading up to my local Chinese laundry… Every morning she’d get up, fold her sleeping bag, and begin her day’s screaming’. This perhaps explains some of the complexity of Keri’s character, and the challenges too; we see her behaving erratically but the play misses a chance to really scrutinise mental illness, grief and loneliness in lieu of a female character who lacks shades of grey until the closing scenes.

Keri shouts – a lot. She cusses and rages at Doakes, who, at first at least, accepts her treatment with an implacability born of his devout faith. Both characters, who are hard to like at the start albeit for very different reasons, melt into softness and vulnerability; without a doubt, the final act is the most affecting. This is helped by a twist or two, where it becomes clear that neither party has been telling the whole truth. The verve of these revelations animates the production and would benefit from being paced a little earlier, to avoid what can feel like a hollow shouting match in the first half.

The performances are strong, with a real sense of these actors claiming the characters in this new writing as their own. Dennis’ Jamaican accent is excellent when he hits his stride, evening out through the performance after risking being distractingly wobbly at first. And, as ever at the Jermyn, despite the compact space the set design (Isabella Van Braeckel) is evocative and the sound and lighting (Fergus O’Hare and Tom Turner) are exceptional. The effect of hearing people calling up to Keri from the street level ‘below’ is especially clever, as are the flickering lights when we shift into the almost supernatural closing scene.

The ending, though, feels a little too pat, with a fragile promise of redemption that comes unconvincingly hot on the heels of a trauma in the closing moments. Ultimately, The Dog Walker’s odd couple narrative is not a new one; there are plenty of precedents of city oddballs finding each other in theatre, tv and film. As such it’s hard for this world premiere to carve out much that’s new, and, despite flashes of real humanity, clever staging and spirited performances, we risk feeling underwhelmed by a narrative that feels easy to predict.

 

Reviewed by Abi Davies

Photography by Robert Workman

 


The Dog Walker

Jermyn Street Theatre until 7th March

 

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:
Miss Julie | ★★★ | April 2019
Pictures Of Dorian Gray (A) | ★★★ | June 2019
Pictures Of Dorian Gray (B) | ★★★ | June 2019
Pictures Of Dorian Gray (C) | ★★★★ | June 2019
Pictures Of Dorian Gray (D) | ★★ | June 2019
For Services Rendered | ★★★★★ | September 2019
The Ice Cream Boys | ★★★★ | October 2019
All’s Well That Ends Well | ★★★★ | November 2019
One Million Tiny Plays About Britain | ★★★ | December 2019
Beckett Triple Bill | ★★★★★ | January 2020

 

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