{"id":1751,"date":"2020-02-05T15:48:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T15:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/?p=1751"},"modified":"2020-02-05T15:50:08","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T15:50:08","slug":"beckett-a-bit-of-rough-at-the-old-vic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/2020\/02\/beckett-a-bit-of-rough-at-the-old-vic.html","title":{"rendered":"Beckett: A bit of Rough at the Old Vic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Alan Cumming and Daniel Radcliffe in Rough for Theatre II<\/em> (Photo Manuel Hardan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For one reason or another, we hadn\u2019t been to the Old Vic\nsince the daft unisex loos were installed, and, said my wife, \u201cSomething else\nhas changed.\u201d It was very noticeable that the press night audience for the\nSamuel Beckett double-bill was much younger than when I last reviewed a production\nhere: it is, of course, the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d effect. I am a Harry Potter virgin;\nbut I can understand why the 30-and-under fans have come to see Daniel\nRadcliffe. The first thing to say is that he really gets \u201cphysical theatre.\u201d  Not only is his body-language eloquent, but\nhe is a stage athlete.  In the slight\nfirst play of the evening, the rarely staged Rough for Theatre II<\/em>, playing\nthe character named simply \u201cA,\u201d he makes an astounding standing leap onto a\nhigh-ish window sill, not once, but twice; the second time bending backwards and\nlighting a match to see the face of \u201cC,\u201d Jackson Milner, who has his back to us\nfor the entire performance, as he presumably contemplates suicide by jumping from\nthe window. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

         The title \u201cRough\u201d\nseems to indicate that this is a blueprint, or set of notes for a play, rather\nthan the play itself. But with the thrilling Alan Cumming playing \u201cB\u201d (they\u2019re\ndesignated that way around, but it doesn\u2019t actually matter), this is a\nfull-fledged Beckett comedy with its characteristically sinister cutting-edge. Similarly\ndressed, \u201cA\u201d and \u201cB\u201d are bureaucrats of some sort discussing the fate of \u201cC,\u201d while\nsitting at identical desks with identical lamps and chairs. Besides the pair of\nstunning leaps, there\u2019s a good deal of business with lamps going dark, matches\nbeing struck, a caged songbird being displayed in silhouette, files of papers\nfalling, chairs moving, and long, funny soliloquies for Cumming in his best\nScottish accent. His baritone voice is beguiling, skittish, and seductive,\nexcept when he is frightened and wants a bit of \u201cHuman warmth\u201d by moving his\nchair near that of Radcliffe.  The words\nthemselves don\u2019t seem to matter as much as the constant patter of speech and\nthe awkwardness of the situation. Even when they are face-to-face, and thus\nside-on  to the audience, Cumming\nprojects his voice to the outermost seat in the balcony.  Radcliffe\u2019s soft tenor, though, is lost in\ntheir exchanges. For a moment I thought that this veteran, though young actor\nof screen large and small had not learnt the first lesson of drama school, and wasn\u2019t\nprojecting his higher voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hamm and Clov in Endgame (Photo Manuel Hardan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

         Endgame<\/em> proves I was wrong. In this more familiar play, Radcliffe plays \u201cClov,\u201d the younger man\/boy servant\/substitute son of \u201cHamm\u201d (Cumming), and he can be heard clearly even by the slightly-deaf me in row L of the stalls. Again, his sense of physical theatre is magnificent. He limps, as Beckett required, slaps himself (as if to say \u201csilly me\u201d) whenever he forgets something or does it in the wrong order, erects and climbs the ladder clumsily one rung at a time, then slithers down it, and peers down as though to fall over the vertiginous rim of an infinite dustbin. These are theatrical gestures my (elderly) generation will remember from vaudeville; and (my favourite) director, Richard Jones, is as careful with the execution of them as the playwright was in specifying them. In the final scene, Radcliffe, dressed to leave his master and the room, freezes, motionless, in a posture of quizzical hurt and menace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         As Hamm\u2019s\ndustbin-dwelling parents, \u201cNagg\u201d (Karl Johnson) and \u201cNell\u201d (Jane Horrocks)\ncould hardly be bettered. Nagg is given important speeches, of doom-laden\ncommon sense. The pity is that Beckett did not give Nell more lines, as we are\ncheated of seeing more of the prosthetically-altered Ms Horrocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         But finally\nthe evening and the honours belong to Cumming\u2019s Hamm. Dressed as a punk\/hippy\/skinhead\nmagus, blind and exploring his own scalp to find the fontanelle, he is\nensconced in a throne-like chair on casters, revealing the narrowest legs and\nankles imaginable. Alan Cumming is thin, I thought to myself, but surely not so\nemaciated \u2013 more prosthetics, and the feet turned towards each other to boot.\nPoor Cumming \u2013 can he actually stand up in this trick chair, I wondered? Or is\nhe crouching on his knees for what is a very long time? Hamm wants his servant,\nsummoned by a dog whistle, but also rejects him. He loves him, wants to be\nloved (and touched, and kissed) by him, yet spurns him at every opportunity. Hamm\ntries to give Clov the combination to (the safe in) the larder, so he can\nrecover the gun and deliver the longed-for quietus to his master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         Does Clov\nfinally leave Hamm? Richard Jones and designer Stewart Laing don\u2019t answer the\nquestion, but settle it, in a coup de th\u00e9\u00e2tre<\/em> that also provides an\nending for \u201cRough,\u201d as the three walls of the entire set slowly recede on their\nway to black-out infinity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For one reason or another, we hadn\u2019t been to the Old Vic since the daft unisex loos were installed, and, said my wife, \u201cSomething else has changed.\u201d It was very noticeable that the press night audience for the Samuel Beckett double-bill was much younger than when I last reviewed a production here: it is, of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36,1],"tags":[4639,4650,4640,4647,4643,4649,4641,4645,4646,4652,4651,4638,4644,4642,4637,4648],"class_list":{"0":"post-1751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blogroll-2","8":"category-elsewhere","9":"category-uncategorized","10":"tag-alan-cumming","11":"tag-clov","12":"tag-daniel-radcliffe","13":"tag-dustbins","14":"tag-endgame","15":"tag-hamm","16":"tag-harry-potter","17":"tag-jackson-milner","18":"tag-jane-horrocks","19":"tag-nagg","20":"tag-nell","21":"tag-old-vic","22":"tag-richard-jones","23":"tag-rough-for-theatre-ii","24":"tag-samuel-beckett","25":"tag-stewart-laing","26":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Alan-Cumming-Hamm-and-Daniel-Radcliffe-Clov_Endgame_The-Old-Vic_Photo-by-Manuel-Harlan-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1379&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-sf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1751"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1756,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions\/1756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}