“Tessa Kadler … nails the comedy but melts the heart with the purity of her singing voice”
Written in 1972, “Pippin” uses the ‘play within a play’ concept to recount the story of Pippin, a young prince on his search for meaning and significance in his life. The fourth wall is broken from the outset in what is quite a stunning opening as the players, lead by the formidable Genevieve Nicole as ringmaster-cum-emcee, launch into the prologue number, ‘Magic To Do’.
Jonathan Boyle’s upbeat production at Southwark Playhouse lives up to this promise. Most of the time. That is no mean feat, as in less able hands this show could so easily fall apart under the weaknesses of the book. The story is derived from the real life medieval characters; ‘Pepin’ and his father ‘Charlemagne’, although there is no historical accuracy beyond the use of the names. Charting Pippin’s rite of passage the narration purposefully feels improvised, but the technique grates after a while and any intended poignancy is lost in the confusion.
On his quest for fulfilment, Pippin joins the army fighting for his father, but then leads a political rebellion against him and usurps the throne. Still unfulfilled he flees to the country and sets up home with a widow and her son. But he is still unsatisfied. One could share Pippin’s frustration if this haphazardly lazy fable wasn’t rescued by Stephen Schwartz’s score. What Schwartz brings to the stage is fresh and modern but also recognisable in its influences, tipping his hat to Gilbert and Sullivan, Bernstein, Kander and Ebb, Motown, and adding his own pop sensibilities. William Whelton’s masterful choreography is unmistakable in its homage to Bob Fosse who choreographed and directed the original Broadway production.
Jonathan Carlton’s Pippin is part ‘boy band’ and ‘boy-next-door’, a charming mix that fits the role, but the show stealer is Tessa Kadler as the widow, Catherine, who nails the comedy but melts the heart with the purity of her singing voice.
But overall the initial promise of magic isn’t quite sustained. The comedy doesn’t always work: there is a feeling of trying too hard which is disengaging and which conflicts with the absurdity of the piece. The company should embrace the nonsense, or dispense with the plot entirely. The sideshow quality of Maeve Black’s design adds a touch of seediness and sexiness and Aaron J. Dootson’s lighting is spot on ‘Cabaret’. As a revue this would be the perfect show. The all singing, all dancing cast are faultless and with the eight piece band led by musical director, Zach Flis, it is a quite spectacular evening.
Just as Schwartz’s lyrics proclaim, the committed cast do perform magic. It is quite a conjuring trick to bring to life Roger O. Hirson’s flimsy text. The music has soul, but the story lacks heart.
“some sparkling verbal sparring, and delightfully funny moments from the very beginning”
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
These words, spoken by Cassius in ‘Julius Caesar’ are at the heart of J M Barrie’s ‘Dear Brutus’. A group of people have been invited to stay with a mysterious old man in a country house. They do not know each other but they have something in common. The butler warns them not to enter the enchanted wood, should it appear, but most of the group ignore him and venture into the trees. Will the experiences they have there change them?
In the first act we meet the characters, Lob is the eccentric host and Lob, in Shakespeare and folklore, is also known as Puck or Robin Goodfellow, a mischievous trickster. He has made it clear that the guests must be present for Midsummer’s Eve and they don’t know why. We discover that relationships between some of them are not what they seem at first. Not everyone is behaving well. There is some sparkling verbal sparring, and some delightfully funny moments from the very beginning as we find out more about these disparate house guests. There is the haughty Lady Caroline Lacy, the ladies man John Purdie, his long suffering wife Mabel, the flirtatious Joanna Brimble, the elderly Mr and Mrs Coade and the unhappy Will and Alice Dearth.
In Act two we are transported to the enchanted wood. Anna Reid’s design, Peter Harrison’s lighting and Max Perryment’s sound create the scene with a simplicity that is charming and effective. All the people who enter the wood are changed for a while, the world is turned upside down. Their relationships and fortunes are very different from their normal lives, but will they learn anything from the experience? Barrie also uses the device of transporting people from their real lives to a fantasy realm in Peter Pan and the Admirable Crichton. Whether the setting is Neverland, the site of a shipwreck or an enchanted wood, the opportunity to challenge his characters to live different lives for a while is one he seems to have relished. Perhaps some of the characters are given the chance to live their dreams, however briefly, but what will happen when they get back to their normal lives? In Act three we find out.
The cast are superb and so is Jonathan O’Boyle’s direction. It is such a beautifully performed tight ensemble piece that picking out one or two exceptional performances is difficult. However Venice van Someren’s Margaret almost moved me to tears, having also made me laugh with her Alice in Wonderland innocence and archness. Her scene with Miles Richardson’s Will Dearth, a very different man in the woods, was in some ways the very heart of the play. Emma Davies, Josie Kidd, Bathsheba Piepe, Charlotte Brimble, Helen Bradbury, Simon Rhodes, Robin Hooper, Edward Sayer and James Richardson are the other cast members, and they all deserve huge credit for their parts this jewel of a play.
The quote from Julius Caesar tells us that it is not fate that has made us who we are, or created our experiences, it is ourselves who have done so. But it is Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ that has influenced this piece with it’s enchantments and mix ups. What do we see when we enter the wood? A better version of ourselves? A happier one? Things that might have been, possibilities and second chances? Maybe, if we pay attention, the enchantment can give us the power to change. I hope that you will go and see this beautiful, bittersweet, moving yet very funny play, there is more to JM Barrie than the boy who wouldn’t grow up.
