This is very good news. Indhu Rubasingham takes over as artistic director of the National in 2025. This should be welcomed not only in terms of who she is—the first woman or person of color to lead the nation’s largest theater—but also in terms of what she has done and will do. He set fire to the Kiln theater in London, made it feel cozy and look grand, changed its name (from Tricycle), was unimpressed with pickets outside the first performances. She has created rising new works – red velvet, retrograde – And Willesden’s Wife Let’s break down the exciting combination of Zadie Smith and Chaucer. At the National he commanded the notoriously difficult Olivier. The Father and the Assassin and cracked Lyttelton Son of a bitch in a hat. Remember when “attention to detail” was code for the word “woman” in job postings? Forget it: Rubasingham thinks big; It helps theater become not only a place of representation but also a place where leaps of empathy are made.
So does former Globe employee Emma Rice, whose company has opened a new, permanent home for Wise Children. Lucky Chance is a converted Methodist church that once housed a nursery: barrel roof, gleaming wood, bar with piano in the foyer (hymns on launch night). Its old uses (celebrating, entertaining, taking care) cover the walls.
The Little Matchmaker and Happier TalesBased on an earlier show that Rice co-wrote with Joel Horwood, it features 21st-century bandits, medics and high-vis jackets – but retains the nostalgia of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1845 tale. Blending realism and magic, traditional skills and modern sass, it carries the confrontational bounce of all Rice’s shows. Ian Ross’s score combines street melodies on accordion and violin with the waves of the harp (“it’s both soothing and unnerving”). Actors do cartwheels and handstands in colorful tights and 18th-century wigs that stand upright in the wind like a judge’s. When the matches are lit, a series of light bulbs are lit above the stage. For a moment, it seems like it will be an evening where we will experience the joy of imagination’s victory over difficult conditions. There is nothing that soft.
The match girl is a wooden puppet. He has a smile on his face, but his puppeteer can make him feel utterly miserable: Snowflakes send shivers down his body as they fall on the stage; When his outstretched hand is ignored, his head drops and you could swear his smile has disappeared. The terrible ending continues. The match girl dies far away from the audience; No cheating, no evasion. The puppeteer slowly leaves: The child’s limbs are folded rigidly; all animation is gone; the end of illusions.
Rupert Goold’s Almeida has seriousness and swagger. Even in the bar you can smell these qualities. See them in Paweł Pawlikowski’s collaborators adapting his 2018 film for the stage. Conor McPherson Girl from the North Country He made a ballad from Dylan’s songs, the author The Cold War; Elvis Costello provides the songs; Goold directs.
Set in post-war Poland, this is a doomed story; Is there any other type? – love and elegy for a fragmented Europe, driven by questions of authenticity. The musician hero has a secret and his principles are unshakable; He can adapt the works of others, but cannot create his own work. The folk music that brought him and his singer lover together is adopted by communist bosses in the hope of creating a new tradition of songs “about collective agricultural machinery”.
Elliot Levey’s handyman buzzes with terrifying credibility. Anya Chalotra is magnificent as the bleary-eyed romantic: limping with misery, barking with anger, rapturous as she sings. Luke Thallon summarizes this period. A weaker player would tremble and give winking hints of cunning. Thallon keeps himself tense, as if half-frozen; words barely escape him. He becomes more powerful and elusive with each new role.
like Tom Stoppard’s Rock’n’rollThe music revived in Hampstead this month forms the inner and outer landscape of west and east: Costello’s guttural, individualistic, reluctant ballads; elbow-shaking traditional choruses, a Chopin sparkle, a jazz swirl. Ellen Kane’s choreography and Evie Gurney’s costumes, consisting of boleros, embroidery, browns and wide skirts, embody these differences. Paule Constable’s lighting is vital: he shines towards the brightness of Paris, beckoning the dying hopes of the east in a shimmering darkness.
For a fast-acting caper, Chaos It’s actually a slow burn. Armando Iannucci’s take on Boris Johnson is one of the fastest-selling tickets of the season: directed by Patrick Marber, the film has an extremely agile cast and meets the need for a theatrical response, as can be seen from the mood of the audience. continues.
The difficulty of satire is obvious. The real-life rivalry, staged amid the daily revelations of the Covid investigation, is immense. Iannucci’s screenplay doesn’t seek out unexpected targets, but presents a gallery of bandits’ cut-out characters, in 17th-century cod style. Angry, sometimes funny: A useful comic set. Paul Chahidi doesn’t offer a full impersonation like Orbis Rex coming out of Shakespeare’s mouth, he grins fiercely at the ironic shift of his features and moves his taut Jacobethan-style legs around like a swan peddling underwater; Her haystack blonde wig is eventually removed from the stage by a ridiculous garbage collector.
Some names immediately attract attention. Some seem laborious at first, but even Jacob Rhesus Monkey looks realistic when you remember the monkey limbs stretching in exhaustion on the parliamentary bench. I’m already half-done with the idea that Matt Hemlock is a slimy, green thing emerging from the swamp, but now I’m having a hard time changing my mind that Riches Sooner is a “half-man, half-coin” leprechaun. The image of the Prime Minister, recognizable by the large gap between his white socks and tight trousers, has become as indelible as John Major wearing the Y-front on his trousers. Are you going to steal Steve Bell?
Star ratings (out of five)
Little Match girl ★★★★
The Cold War ★★★★
Chaos ★★★