★★

“Joel Goodman and Jan Osborne give Turing’s life the musical treatment but, unfortunately, it doesn’t quite crack the code”

In 2023 Artificial Intelligence hit the mainstream, with ChatGPT making waves and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak bringing together world leaders at his AI safety summit at Bletchley Park. Bletchley is widely considered one of the birth places of computer science and an apt fit for a demonstration of British leadership on AI. But it’s also worth remembering that whilst now the government celebrates a grandfather of computer science who worked there, Alan Turing, during his lifetime he was also prosecuted and subjected to chemical castration for homosexuality.

Turing’s is a tragic tale of a genius’ life cut short in its prime – a young man with endless promise, who gave so much to the Allied war effort, and whose contributions could only be revealed long after his death. Joel Goodman and Jan Osborne give Turing’s life the musical treatment but, unfortunately, it doesn’t quite crack the code.

This run at Riverside Studios represents the fourth iteration of the show which has been given a makeover with a new script by Joan Greening and direction under Jane Miles. There are some good theatrical techniques at play – a recurring motif of Alan’s fascination with the fairy tale Snow White humanises his mathematical mind and a myriad of props and costume keep the story visually entertaining. But trying to pack in a man’s whole life into 80 minutes, albeit one cut short at 41, is an arduous task and one that necessitates skimming over things in scant detail or focusing in on some moments to the exclusion of others. Joel and Joan clearly prefer the former, so we see Alan at school, briefly at Cambridge and Princeton, in Bletchley breaking codes and in Manchester where he has his run in with the police. It’s a useful overview of the man’s life, but it does mean some parts – particularly his time at Bletchley, are given short shrift.

“Zara Cooke saves the day each time, lending clarity and resonance to the otherwise humdrum score”

The most moving elements of the piece are the scenes drawn from Turing’s own letters. Even a letter from an adolescent Turing demonstrates his maturity and sensitivity, powerfully delivered by Joe Bishop. The letters also reveal the influence of the women in Turing’s life; his mother, the mother of his childhood friend Chris or his colleague and brief fiancée Joan. These confidants, all skilfully played by Zara Cooke, avoid the piece simply extolling Turing’s singular genius, but neither his mother nor Joan are developed enough as characters to feel any connection to them.

Many of the faults of the show come down to the musical numbers, which lack energy, rarely drive forward the action and are not remotely memorable. Bishop seems to struggle with his cues which then leads to rushed lyrics to catch back up with the music, not helped by having to regularly imitate Alan’s rigorous athletic pursuits whilst singing. Zara Cooke saves the day each time, lending clarity and resonance to the otherwise humdrum score.

A musical biography of Turing’s life is a fine idea, and elements of this show are approaching the mark. But a musical where the defining feature, the music, is this bland and disappointingly executed makes you wonder whether it was really worth the effort.

ULSTER AMERICAN at Riverside Studios

★★★★★

“A play about crossing the line within a play that frequently crosses the line”

David Ireland’s “Ulster American” touches on just about every topic that gets people’s blood boiling, and in the space of an hour and a half, inflates them in order to puncture them with the sharp skewer of satire that he has become famed for. Somewhere along the line during his career, Ireland has come to think that he wants to offend people. “As a writer, I want to be socially irresponsible” he once stated in an interview about his latest offering. “If you won’t produce it because of the reaction, that’s a very frightening place for us all to be in”. Fortunately for us, his play has been produced. It divided critics at its premiere in Edinburgh in 2018 and is now testing the waters in West London with Jeremy Herrin’s star-studded revival.

The premise is a joke. The old ‘Englishman, Irishman and American’ variety. But that is the only thing it has in common. From the outset, the humour is considerably darker, and the punchline is jet black. Set in real time, the evening before rehearsals start for a new play in London, it brings the three key players together in a night that spirals out of control. Jay Conway (Woody Harrelson) is the Oscar-winning actor taking the lead in the play that connects with his Irish roots. Leigh Carver (Andy Serkis) is the ambitious director who will do anything to get noticed. Ruth Davenport (Louisa Harland) is the Northern Irish playwright whose voice must be heard.

Ruth is late for the meeting, and so we are greeted by the two men killing time by indulging in some shocking banter. Harrelson’s self-aggrandising Hollywood star, Jay, is definitely the alpha male while Serkis, as Leigh, hovers between alpha and beta, unsure when to let his obsequiousness make way for his own voice. Both men are ‘feminists’, or so they say. Both men are deluded. But there is something far more dangerous going on than the mere misappropriation of language and self-appointed labels. And it takes Ruth not only to light the fuse, but also to detonate it. Many bombshells are dropped in the process, provoking the echoing thought in our minds; ‘did they really just say that?’

“You might not want to look at it, but you ought to go and see this play”

The three actors are simply outstanding in their roles. Serkis skilfully deploys the many faces of a politician as he fluctuates between squirming smiles and contradictions, until his real temperament is revealed when he realises the game is up. Harrelson hilariously cuts a ridiculous figure, wielding male self-righteousness like a loaded firearm, while Ruth catches the bullets in her teeth to spit them back. Harland’s character, despite the play attempting to establish a precarious female centric quality, is perhaps the least likeable of the three. Initially starstruck at meeting an idol in Jay, we don’t quite believe her rapid and absolute switch to the dominant, immutable, writer-diva with the authority to dictate that not one word of her script can be altered. Come on, we’re dealing with an Oscar winning actor here!

Among the topics that are ripped apart are national and personal identity, religion, loyalty, power, misogyny, feminism, gender, responsibility, Brexit, politics, territory, the ‘N’ word, #MeToo, culture, censorship, social media, rape, blackmail… you name it. But the focus is drawn back to the power balance between men and women. Words the two men carelessly let spill from their unfiltered mouths are later taken out of context and then used to make or break one another’s careers. Or lives. There is plenty of food for thought as the stakes get higher and higher, and these deplorable characters reach dizzying heights of ridicule. What is alarming, however, is the proximity to reality. The damage of misconstrued words is a genuine threat in our society.

“Ulster American” is a play within a play. A play about crossing the line within a play that frequently crosses the line. The satire occasionally adopts an over-daubed, ‘painting-by-numbers’ style. And the zeitgeist that Ireland vividly expresses gets somewhat washed away as the play dives headlong into farce, and the realms of cartoon barbarity. The violence is less shocking than the dialogue. Perhaps this is deliberate. Are words a more terrifying weapon than actions?

The three actors give thrilling performances that throw moral acceptances into the wind and let us pick up the pieces to try and make sense of them. It is insanely funny and deeply flawed. It will provoke discussion – even arguments, but hopefully not as extreme. You never know though. That is what is so vital about Ireland’s writing. Yes – it is heightened and unreal. But however warped, it is still a mirror to our fractured society. You might not want to look at it, but you ought to go and see this play.

ALAN TURING – A MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY at Riverside Studios

★★

“Joel Goodman and Jan Osborne give Turing’s life the musical treatment but, unfortunately, it doesn’t quite crack the code”

“Zara Cooke saves the day each time, lending clarity and resonance to the otherwise humdrum score”

ALAN TURING – A MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY at Riverside Studios

Reviewed on 9th January 2024

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Gabriel Bush

Previously reviewed at this venue:

ALAN TURING

ALAN TURING/em>

ULSTER AMERICAN at Riverside Studios

★★★★★

“A play about crossing the line within a play that frequently crosses the line”

“You might not want to look at it, but you ought to go and see this play”

ULSTER AMERICAN at Riverside Studios

Reviewed on 13th December 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Johan Persson

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Ulster American

Ulster American