Obsession
Adapted from Luchino Visconti’s film
Conceived and Directed by: Ivo van Hove
Set design and Lighting: Jan Versweyveld
Adaptation and dramaturgy: Jan Peter Gerrits
English Language version: Simon Stephens
Composer and Sound Design: Eric Sleichim
Toneelgroep Amsterdam Residency at The Barbican
The Barbican, London
Thursday 26th April 2017, 19.30
CAST:
Jude Law – Gino, a drifter
Robert de Hoog – Johnny, a drifter
Chukwudi Iwuji – Priest / Policeman
Aysha Kala- Anita, a chorus girl,
Halina Reijn – Hanna, married to Joseph
Gijs Scholten van Aschat – Joseph, a bar owner
Hanna (Halina Reijn) and Gino (JudeLaw)
The play is based on Visconti’s 1943 classic film, Obsession, which in its turn was based on James Cain’s 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. Our reason for booking was Jude Law, who we have seen as Dr Faustus, Hamlet and Henry V. He gets a whole page of three columns of small text for his programme notes.
The Barbican is my least favourite modern theatre in the country, just finding your way in is an awful experience, let alone finding a loo. It’s hard to believe that an architect apparently designed the place, and harder to believe that the RSC choose it for their London Winter Season.
The stage is massively wide. The set here is bare wood. A rectangular window at the back suggests Edward Hopper’s Diner in some way, and while the filim is Italian, the original story of drifters and hobos was American.
We were in the back row of the stalls, and it’s still like watching a tennis match. It was a weird experience. The stage dwarfs the actors, who were heavily amplified via mics. The bonus was you could hear every nuance clearly and Jude Law has a magnificent voice. The negative was that you were too far away to see mouth movements so that it felt artificial, not like live theatre at all. A walk from one side of the stage to the other was a major excursion for the cast, and as this is basically focussed on just the two lead roles, the theatre felt totally wrong for the play. The actors had to be amplified because there was a lot of New Age backing music running under dialogue. It’s a translation, and feels like one. Dialogue sounded unnatural and forced.
The story. Gino (Jude Law) is a drifter. He turns up at Joseph and Hanna’s place, some kind of bar or diner, and orders food he can’t pay for. He offers to repair Joseph’s truck (an engine and bits suspended in the air) and also a water pump. He diagnoses a problem with the drive belt – as it turns out to be a two minute repair, I assume he really means the fan belt. Joseph goes off to get a belt, and Hanna and Gino get it on like rabbits straight away. She hates her much older husband and is repulsed by him, though Gino’s fine physique with his T-shirt off and leg and thigh stroking technique are irrisistible. Joseph comes back and has taken a liking to Gino and asks him to stay. A priest appears and drinks whisky. Not sure why. I don’t think anyone does.
On the rolling road (though the audience see the back view)
Gino feels hemmed in and makes his escape. Perhaps it’s Joseph’s operatic singing. No wonder Jude looks so fit and toned, he has a lot of running to do throughout on a rolling road, not something I’d fancy with no handbar and someone else controlling the speed, stops and starts. On one of his runs, This Land Is Your Land is played reinforcing the American hobo theme, as does the bluesy harmonica, but accents are all English (though most of the cast are Dutch, their English is perfect). You do hear the odd slight Dutch inflection, but I used to play a selection of Live Aid introductions from around Britain, the USA, Europe and Ireland to foreign teacher trainees. I asked which was the clearest English, and they always chose the Dutch reporter over all the British and American regional accents. Whatever, in spite of the Hopper windows, heat and apparent desert setting, we don’t get American. A wise choice? It doesn’t matter.
Gino meets up with a fellow drifter, Johnny. They fall asleep and Johnny decides a quick groin fondle is appropriate. It is not. Back Gino goes. Hanna still has the hots for him. They go off for a drive with Joseph, I assume to some operatic competition … Joseph is a fine singer. The truck engine high above them, drips black oil on all of them and Joseph is spreadeagled and Gino finishes him off. Later we learn this all symbolised a truck crash with suspicious circumstances. Poor Joseph, now dead, has to get a mop and bucket and clear up the oil, yes, while dead. Meanwhile Hanna strips off, and Gino goes down to his boxers and they shag in the cistern under the water pump. Joseph makes a slow dignified exit while Gino is helping put Hanna’s bra on.
Chukwudi Iwuji as the detective
Johnny reappears and they have a splendidly performed fight to Iggy Pop music very loudly. The detective reappears and they stop. Hanna’s pregnant. He wants to get away. An attractive travelling chorus girl arrives and he starts to chat her up. He has decided he was a pawn in Hanna’s plot to kill her husband for his insurance money. Off he goes on the rolling road. An ultra wide screen pops up and waves are projected. He stands in silhouette forlornly for a long, long time. Hanna is kneeling in anguish at one side of the stage, thirty yards or so from him. It’s hard to have an intimate dialogue at thirty yards, but they had to earlier. The rest of the cast alive and dead drift on. Apparently it’s the end. The audience seems unsure. Applause from a full house is muted.
Hmm. The word arty-farty does come to mind. The main theme appears to be intense fear of the female and female sexuality, as personified by Hanna. The leads are superb. I still rate Jude Law as one of the very best actors of his generation, always under-rated by theatre critics too. He has all the skills of Branagh, but is blessed with being better-looking, which may be unforgivable for reviewers. Halina Reijn, as Hanna keeps up with him all the way. All the lesser parts are played very well.
BUT in the end, we have five star actors in a one star play. The translation is so often stiff. The theatre stage sucks all the intimacy out of their performances, as does the amplification. Yes, Jude and Halina are mesmerizing. The play isn’t. The programme says 1 hour 50 minutes with no interval. It was a bit shorter. I wasn’t complaining.
Overall:
**
It will be broadcast on NT Live on 11th May. Camera with close ups might improve it markedly.
MUSIC CREDITS
As ever, nothing in the programme. Though we got opera singing (Joseph, and Hanna), Iggy Pop, Woody Guthrie and a lot of instrumental music. I think they deserve a credit in a programme with extensive notes for both this production and the previous Dutch one.
WHAT THE PAPERS SAID:
3
Michael Billington, The Guardian ***
Domenic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph ***
Paul Taylor, The Independent ***
Sarah Crompton, Whatsonstage ***
2
Christopher Hart, The Sunday Times **
a ponderous, humourless and remote production.
Natasha Tripney, The Stage **
LINKS ON THIS BLOG:
IVO VAN HOVE
A View From The Bridge Young Vic 20-14
JUDE LAW
Henry V – Jude Law, Grandage season
Anna Karenina film
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows film
(I also saw his Faustus and his Hamlet)
Peter Viney's Blog 