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Falling in Love Again

King’s Head Theatre

Reviewed – 16th January 2020

★★

“at times feels more like two characters reeling off their Wikipedia pages at one another for all the dramatic sinew it possesses”

Falling in Love Again achieves an impressive feat of time travel, as the supposedly more-or-less real time 70 minute play spans six hours. The more unfortunate bout of time travel is that this limp, one-note treatment of an immensely lucrative concept also feels about six hours long.

Set the night before Kind Edward VIII’s abdication, we’re taken on a journey of ‘speculative history’ by playwright Ron Elisha, who envisions what might have happened if the King of England (Ashton Spear) was visited by the then Queen of Hollywood, Marlene Dietrich (Ramona von Pusch). This is based in fact, as Dietrich did actually try to visit Edward that night, but was turned away, and so the thought of what could have transpired had they genuinely met is a tantalising one, in which Falling in Love Again tries to explore the impasses between love, duty, identity, and power.

Alas, ‘tries’ is the operative word in the above sentence, as the script totally lacks nuance. It’s never really clear what Dietrich’s motive for her visit is – she repeatedly tells Edward not to abdicate but doesn’t put forth any meaningful arguments, while also trying to seduce him at every turn for reasons that, again, aren’t clear. Edward, meanwhile, is determined to abdicate because of his love for Wallis, who he wouldn’t be allowed to marry while part of the monarchy, although the strength of his love is undermined by the fact that he’s consistently tempted by Dietrich’s advances. In the wake of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s departure from the royal family, Edward’s situation could’ve drawn provocative and poignant parallels but the script is instead confused and thematically bereft. Tonally bereft too, as it offers almost no tension, and very few laughs – it at times feels more like two characters reeling off their Wikipedia pages at one another for all the dramatic sinew it possesses.

However, Elisha’s script clearly has a lot of heart, which is more than can be said for Tama Matheson’s lifeless direction. There is a moment early on where Dietrich does something suggestive, then Edward stammers a bit and spouts some vaguely charming retort. This same beat is repeated over and over with no escalation and no sense of stakes for the entire play, giving the performance the sense that it’s deeply under-rehearsed, or that there was no attempt to mine the subtext of the script or develop some sort of forward-moving energy between the two actors. The newspaper-clad set suggests a man at odds with his identity, but Spear seems to struggle with the dichotomy of a man who we’re constantly told is a womaniser being at odds with his royal position and the love he feels for Wallis, and subsequently much of his delivery doesn’t ring true. On the other hand, von Pusch’s physical performance is dynamic, but it constantly feels like watching an impression rather than an embodiment of a character. The pair find a couple of sweet moments – an impromptu game of golf is a highlight – but they are desperately sparse.

Falling in Love Again takes a fascinating concept and produces meandaring, flat, shallow results. With a more developed script and deeper direction, it has real potential; until then, it’s excruciating.

Reviewed by Ethan Doyle

Photography by Phil Swallow

Falling in Love Again

King’s Head Theatre until 8th February

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Margot, Dame, The Most Famous Ballerina In The World | ★★★ | July 2019

Mating In Captivity | ★★★★ | July 2019

How We Begin | ★★★★ | August 2019

World’s End | ★★★★ | August 2019

Stripped | ★★★★ | September 2019

The Elixir Of Love | ★★★★★ | September 2019

Don’t Frighten The Straights | ★★★ | November 2019

The Nativity Panto | ★★★★ | December 2019

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★★★

“the audience would have been better served with a tighter script”

The Soul of Wittengenstein is a dramatic imagining of the philosopher’s time spent working, incognito, as a porter in a London hospital in WWII. The playwright, Ron Elisha, introduces the character John Smith, an illiterate navvy who is a patient in the hospital, and charts the development of a surprising but profound friendship between the two men. Within this simplest of plot lines, we are also treated to a whistle-stop tour of War and Peace, and some of the salient points of Wittgenstein’s linguistic philosophy.

The play begins with a beautiful and revealing silent movement sequence from Richard Stemp, as Wittgenstein, underscored by a perfectly chosen sonata for cello and piano. The left side of the stage is barely lit, but we are aware of an inhabited hospital bed. This opening, showing the deft directorial hand of Dave Spencer that is present throughout, perfectly sets the tone of the piece. Compliments are due here to Rachael Murray (Sound), Clancy Flynn (Lighting) and Mayou Trikerioti (Set) for terrific production design, in which the sound, the lighting and the set continually worked together in subtle harmony.

Richard Stemp ably embodied the capricious philosopher, described by Bertrand Russell as ‘the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived; passionate, profound, intense, and dominating’. Wittgenstein, as seen here, is not immediately likeable – he is pedantic and emotionally disconnected – and it is testament to Stemp’s skill that we warm to the man as the play unfolds. Ben Woodhall gave a wonderful and utterly believable performance as John Smith. His naive charm and essential humanity were on display throughout and provided the perfect counterpoint to Stemp’s tightly-held genius. He also maintained an excellent Cockney accent of the period. It was just a shame that this was occasionally marred by errors in the writing of the slang. Cockney rhyming slang works as a code because the rhyming part of the phrase remains unspoken, hence ‘plates of meat’ (feet) becomes ‘plates’; ‘apples and pears’ (stairs) becomes ‘apples’ etc. Other than ‘brown bread’ (dead) – a notable exception – this is how it works. John’s relationship to Wittgenstein’s ‘dickie birds’ (words) is central to the play, and it therefore seemed odd that they weren’t the ‘dickies’ they should have been.

The play’s relationship with words, as a whole, presented problems. Wittgenstein’s character, as well as the nature of his philosophical enquiries, is predicated on linguistic play and precision; thus not innately theatrical. For this reason, the play lacked pace; the audience would have been better served with a tighter script and twenty minutes taken off the running time. That being said, the high quality of the acting, directing and production design led to an enjoyable, and occasionally moving, evening at the theatre.

Reviewed by Rebecca Crankshaw

Photography by Lidia Crisafulli

Tag Archives: Ron Elisha

Falling in Love Again

★★

King’s Head Theatre