There is a clue to the success of this play in the programme notes for
Emperor and Galilean: 'Ibsen always referred to Emperor and Galilean as his "most important work"'. His most important work, yet nobody's heard of it? Indeed, it has never been performed in England despite being on a shelf somewhere since 1896? If I were the Director, Jonathan Kent, that would have made me quiver a bit. For the audience, the next clue is also in the notes - a biog of the Emperor Julian, whose conversion from Christianity to Paganism is the driver of this drama: 'Julian was an unattractive obsessive, self-righteously convinced of his own destiny.' Are you starting to get the drift?
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| The vultures have landed |
What is certain is that this is a real whizz-bang production. The extraordinary drum revolve stage at The Olivier comes into its own. At one point there is action on three storeys. Not since
The Shaughraun and
The Wind in the Willows in the nineties have I seen it used so inventively. An excellent cast of fifty is used to full effect. But... and it's such a big but, one isn't sure where to start - the play is awful. Three and a half hours of invective pitching Christ against Helios as Julian's ego grows to the point where he declares himself a god Emperor. Are we convinced by this conversion? I'm not. And someone will kill the mad twat anyway, right? Ah yes, at last. Now we can go home. Except a third of the audience already went home at the interval. I haven't seen such an exodus since the dire
Fram.
To add to the ennui, there were a number of gratuitous disconnects - the cast alternately in modern day clothing and togas and often in a combination of both, and the CGI effects of bombers and tanks when the men on stage are discussing ships and foot soldiers fighting with whatever Romans fought with. Swords.
In conclusion: Fantastic to look at, but painful to endure. Thank goodness
War Horse has won a Tony in the US: the National Theatre will need its receipts to bale them out of the huge hole that this extravagant production will leave in its finances.
References
Henry Hitchings in The Evening Standard
Henrik Ibsen Wiki biog
Emperor and Galilean is being performed in the Olivier not the Lyttleton and is part of the Travelex season which means that the available budget, even for a production of this scale, is considerably smaller than a regular Olivier endeavour would be. "Huge hole" in your facts perhaps?
ReplyDeleteYikes, you're right about the theatre! I shall put that right immediately, thank you. Re the budget, any production that doesn't fill seats at the beginning is likely to have that problem all the way through. The hole I predict is in the ratio of cost to sales. Compared with productions like One Man Two Guvnors and London Road, which could transfer to the West End and certainly have a life beyond the moment, which means long-term gains as well as short term, there is no comparison surely?
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