Pitlochry Festival Theatre, in repertory until 21 October 2006

Grapes of Wrath

LOVERS OF Shakespeare’s plays will know only too well that most productions will have been cut, modified, and generally mangled to suit the location, the whims of the producer, the actors, and other myriad criteria.

“Actors’ Cuts” they are often called, with no-one taking praise or blame for the results.

At Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet – The Actor’s Cut” – has been up and running since the beginning of September, and in this case the cut has been very deep indeed. It is about half the length of the original play, leaving the essential bits of action and dialogue intact.

And ACTION is the word. This is a fast moving, strongly rhythmical and volatile presentation that grips the attention for every moment of the play. It is performed in what might be called modern dress – dark suits with collar and tie, leather jackets, T-shirts and a variety of loose-fitting clothes – and there is liberal use of topical technology in the form of battery torches, a field telephone, Commando battledress, and wrist watches.

The stage is open to the back and side walls, there is no scenery to speak of, and the actors sit in semi-darkness round the perimeter and walk forward into the light when they slot into the action.

The electronic sound effects throughout the play were of the Dr Who variety with electronic thumps and flashes liberally inserted, but they were well chosen and convincing, and were fully complementary to the action.

At one delightful point Corambis (sic) (originally Polonius) walks forward carrying two chairs quietly humming “There’s no business like show business.” The audience hooted with laughter. His was only one of a number of changed names in this production, ie, Gertrude became Gertred.

Purists will be driven up the wall by it all, especially the numerous alterations (up-dates perhaps?) to the script. Hamlet’s famous soliloquy begins “To be, or not to be, that is the point”.

But only a little time passes before all these radical modifications fade into the background and the attention is drawn powerfully to the clear-as-a-bell, easily understood dialogue, the wonderful characterisations, and the unfolding of the plot which is paced out beautifully in this highly creative production by John Durnin.

This ‘Hamlet’ is worth seeing by all ages. It is hugely entertaining and stimulating and you may even be glad that at last you have seen a performance of the play that you would like to see again. Superb.

Turning to Ken Alexander’s production of an adaptation by Frank Galati of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”, I am sad to say that when the performance ended, I felt a sense of disappointment.

The acting was excellent, the characters clearly defined, and all the other ingredients of a professional presentation were there, but it did not hang together well as a play.

There were some vignettes which were essential to the story of the Joad family and friends as they made their way west from Oklahoma to California looking for a better life, and above all, work. But these short scenes, in effect, seemed imposed on the action, rather than fitting smoothly into the rhythm of the play.

Some were accompanied by symbolic bits of scenery which had to be pushed on with lots of rumbling. Also, there is surely something missing in the presentation of a play when the end of Act I arrives but the audience only realise it when the house lights go up. This also happened at the conclusion of the play.

Nevertheless, this was a noble effort, and there were many sensitive and delicate moments to be savoured. The building of the truck, for example, was brilliantly engineered and brought applause. But the agonies and ecstasies the characters had to endure, and project to the audience, often lacked real tension, or exhilaration.

The singing and instrumental playing were excellent and added much needed warmth and optimism to the story.

The distillation process from Steinbeck’s epic book to this play had its strengths and, alas, its weaknesses, leaving the actors with less than a muscular script on which to build their talents. I feel that the actors had, perforce, to over-act in their attempts to sell the action to the audience, and when this was detected, resulted in the latter becoming merely observers when we should have been emotionally involved.

A moderately successful production.

© Arthur Brocklebank, 2006

Link

• Pitlochry Festival Theatre