★★½

“There’s some good and not-so-good slapstick, physical theatre and an all-round quirkiness.”

Spymonkey set out to update Aristophanes’ three-thousand-year-old play – historically, the first staged comedy and use of a comedic double act – and make it relevant to today. They have poignant reasons to do so and these are reflected in a sub-plot that runs parallel to the original. The new version is written by Karl Grose and Spymonkey “with massive apologies to Aristophanes” and is directed by Joyce Henderson.

The stage is set with an array of boxes and crates and paraphernalia. A revolve is set off-centre which is used primarily for comedic effect. A circular mirror is suspended from above, upon which an impressive moon image is occasionally projected (Lucy Bradridge, set & costume designer).

Spymonkey regulars Toby Park and Aitor Basauri are semi-god Dionysus (sporting a fine pair of Cothornos platform sandals – a nice touch) and servant Xanthias who undergo a trip to the Underworld to recover the poet Euripides. To help them on their way, they receive advice from hero Heracles (Jacoba Williams in a fetching muscled body suit with male accoutrements). So far so good, but then our heroes fall into “a scene between the scenes” and find themselves squeezed into a cupboard – the Spymonkey office – and from now on as they continue their interminable journey they slip in and out of their Greek characters and into a character-version of themselves. Jacoba takes on a variety of tentacled, flippered and multi-headed creatures for the heroes to overcome whilst doubling in the here-and-now as an American theatre impresario interested in producing the new show. The whole thing is very meta. But it’s also rather a mess.

Of course, there are laughs a plenty. Aitor is an exceptional clown and, as the Spymonkey dynamic duo establish themselves, he proves himself an able Lou Costello to Toby’s Bud Abbott. But there is too much: the running gag of Aitor’s ass (hee-haw), knowing winks to the audience, asides, adlibs. There’s some good and not-so-good slapstick, physical theatre and an all-round quirkiness. Jacoba tells us that the whole thing is as mad as a box of… well, you know… just as the plot dissolves into a psychedelic acid trip.

Spymonkey themselves mock the length and tedium of Aristophanes’ original monologues and character-Aitor tells us several times that he doesn’t like the ending of the play because it isn’t funny. It’s not a good omen for the second half.

Worthy of mention is the community chorus – the highlight of the show – who techno-tap-dance across the stage in fluorescent yellow cagoules as the frog chorus (Simone Murphy, choreographer). It’s a shame that this happens only the once but then Aristophanes set the precedent for that. Ribbit.

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL at Hampstead Theatre

★★★★

“the dialogue is whip smart – intelligently written and delivered in a natural manner that draws plenty of unexpected laughs”

Hampstead Theatre’s ambitious revival of Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’n’ Roll follows the intersecting lives of Jan and Max, a Czech PhD student at Cambridge and his Marxist professor. Starting in 1968 with the Prague Spring and closing just after the Velvet Revolution of 1989, it covers vast ground, temporally and thematically, but primarily examines the socio-political challenges of Czechoslovakia as a satellite state of the Soviet Union through Jan and Max’s diverging perspectives. It’s pretty cerebral, not least because the academic discussions on Marxism are often only given respite by academic discussions on Sappho, but there is balance to be had with emotive love stories interwoven throughout.

There’s a lot to unpack, whether Czech independence is familiar to you or not. The script is densely filled with characters, storylines and dialogue covered at such a cantering pace it can be difficult to keep up. Jumps forward in time require heavy exposition to make sense of when and where we are. But the dialogue is whip smart – intelligently written and delivered in a natural manner that draws plenty of unexpected laughs.

Stoppard describes this play as a love story primarily between Jan and Rock and Roll music. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Jan is sweetly enamoured by the Velvet Underground and Nico, Pink Floyd, and the Rolling Stones – taking just a suitcase of records with him back from Cambridge to Prague in ‘68. Director Nina Raine brings this to life in the staging, blasting the familiar tunes as the scenes change and using Brenock O’Connor as an ethereal Syd Barrett to hop across the stage like the spirit of rock and roll.

“a timely revival from one of British theatre’s greatest playwrights”

It’s Jan’s singular fixation with Czech rockers Plastic People of the Universe that drive him from youthful idealism towards dissidence for the ruling regime. Almost every scene at times is peppered with ‘plastic people’. His eventual criticism of the communist regime puts him at odds with the fearsome Max. Nathaniel Parker’s Max feels intensely unlikable – an old man stuck in his ways, unbudgeable in his convictions. Czech independence from soviet influence feels viscerally modern at the current moment with Ukraine at war for the right to self determination. Max’s dogmatic insistence in the preeminence of communism has added resonance now.

These intellectual battles are expertly balanced against emotional ones. Nancy Carroll as Eleanor, gives an indelibly powerful performance as Max’s equally accomplished wife whose specialism in sapphic poetry is at odds with the rationalism of her partner. When she talks of Sappho writing of an un-mechanical man you can’t help but think she is imagining the very opposite of her husband. It’s clever therefore that in Act II Carroll plays Esme, Eleanor and Max’s daughter, who harbours a lifelong attraction to the more emotional Jan.

Set in traverse, it is never noticeable that the cast are playing to the audience on both sides. The large stage is fulsomely decked out by Anna Reid as the grand interior of a Cambridge college suitable for a professor of rank just as well as a poky Prague flat.

Rock ’n’ Roll is a timely revival from one of British theatre’s greatest playwrights. Whether you’re a Syd Barrett super fan or Marxist intellectual there will be plenty to mull over long after the final tableau.

Tag Archives: Manuel Harlan

THE FROGS

★★ ½

Royal and Derngate Theatre

THE FROGS at the Royal and Derngate Theatre

★★½

“There’s some good and not-so-good slapstick, physical theatre and an all-round quirkiness.”

THE FROGS at the Royal and Derngate Theatre

Reviewed on 24th January 2024

by Phillip Money

Photography by Manuel Harlan

Previously reviewed at this venue:

2:22 A GHOST STORY | ★★★ | January 2024

THE MIRROR CRACK’D | ★★★ | October 2022

THE TWO POPES | ★★★★ | October 2022

PLAYTIME | ★★★★ | September 2022

THE WELLSPRING | ★★★ | March 2022

BLUE / ORANGE | ★★★★ | November 2021

THE FROGS

THE FROGS

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

Rock ‘n’ Roll

★★★★

Hampstead Theatre

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL at Hampstead Theatre

★★★★

“the dialogue is whip smart – intelligently written and delivered in a natural manner that draws plenty of unexpected laughs”

“a timely revival from one of British theatre’s greatest playwrights”