Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
The play is billed as a "powerful and gripping tragic-farce on the state of American politics" and promises to be a "continually riveting fable" with George W. Bush taking centre stage as a psychiatric patient treated by an eminent doctor in the Florida Keys.
Set two years into the future, Freed presents the audience with a dishevelled and spluttering mute Dubbya who comes to personify his sound-bite: "Nations, too, can go mad." Just like this all-too-quotable phrase, Freed’s depiction of an America gone to the dogs is contrived and obvious to the point of patronisation. When The Yorker asked Freed "why is the play set in the future?" he replied:
"Artists have always used the past as their arena, Shakespeare, Socrates… all the great Greek playwrights, and I decided just for the sake of difference to use the future."
This "just for the sake of difference" mentality seeps into the play and leaves the audience with a fairly obvious politically biased theme enveloped in over-the-top pretentious wordplay and ridiculous characterisation.
The main characters other than George Bush, his psychiatrist and minder/secret service agent, at times provide an insightful reflection on the relationship between liberal versus conservative viewpoints. However for the majority, the dichotomous nature of the articulate liberal doctor and repressed emotionless republican encourages Patient no.1 to become nothing more than a stereotypical one-dimensional attack on the heartless nature of conservative rule.
On the public’s perception of Bush as a figurehead and the play’s protagonist, Freed tells The Yorker:
"It isn’t sympathy that the audience will feel but pity… and terror. There will be a feeling of catharsis, they will be no longer defined by loathing and blame."
This is one thing that Freed successfully achieves with the play. Although a refreshing perspective on the political situation does not seem to be offered, Robert Pickavance’s depiction of Bush as an affected casualty of his own upbringing allows the audience to envisage the situation on a more personal level.
The final scene sees Bush as a Texan cowboy with newly regained speech, portraying that heavily stereotyped gung-ho attitude. Although this characterisation was overplayed and somewhat ridiculous, it was at this point that at least one of the play’s messages became comprehensible. With a post-modern twist, Freed presents his politically-involved characters as actors in America’s media-dominated exaggerated reality. It is only when Bush encapsulates his Texan cowboy persona that he has a voice; when he is allowed to act the cartoonish part, he is heard by a willing audience.
Nevertheless, the tone of superiority from Patient no.1 is resounding. Freed clearly knows his politics. He is, as was mentioned before "America’s leading political playwright." However, pretentious and self-important theatre does little to enlighten the general population.
When The Yorker asked him about American satirical shows such as The Daily Show and South Park, Freed acknowledged their importance whilst giving a back-hand swipe that:
"They entertain but they aren’t sufficient. What we need is the theatre of Brecht to fulfil the tragi-comic necessity. You need to match the threat. The theatre is the state’s double."
It is this feeling of theatrical supremacy that undermines any political message that Freed is attempting to convey.
This play could be compared to Bush's stereotype: transparent and staunchly superior but with just enough prior credentials to keep from fading into a political abyss never to be seen again.
Patient no.1 is showing at York Theatre Royal until 17th May. To get tickets, click here.
You must log in to submit a comment.
