The Height of The Storm
by Florian Zeller
Translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Jonathan Kent
Designed by Anthony Ward
Bath Theatre Royal (prior to West End)
Thursday 20th September 2018
CAST:
Jonathan Pryce – André
Eileen Atkins – Madeleine
Amanda Drew – Anne
Anna Madeley – Elise
James Hillier – The Man
Lucy Cohu – The Woman
Bath has had two Christopher Hampton translations of modern French dramatists in succession. The Height of The Storm comes right after God of Carnage. This is part of a pre-West End tour and it transfers to Wyndhams Theatre directly afterwards. Zeller’s popularity grows, though while we found The Truth stunningly good, we were both disappointed by The Lie.
In the programme, Florian Zeller is quoted:
I try to construct little labyrinths in which the audience member tries to find out where they are. You hunt down the truth, but as soon as you think you’re able to grab hold of it, it takes on another form and slips through your fingers … For me the theatre is above all the place for questions, not answers. For doubt more than certainty or conviction.
Christopher Hampton’s article admits:
I never knew what was happening the first time I saw any of Zeller plays, but when I saw them a second time, they all became wonderfully clear.
Good try, Mr Hampton … so maybe we should order tickets for two performances then?
They’re both right, and it is that puzzle or labyrinth combined with Zeller’s grasp of Pinteresque dialogue and spaces which makes his plays so intriguing. I don’t want to spoil the plot … well, not so much spoil the plot as give a route map through the labyrinth.
André (Jonathan Pryce) and Anne (Amanda Drew) at the start.
So, trying to maintain enigma … Madeleine (Eileen Atkins) and André (Jonathan Pryce) have been together for fifty years. We’re in their house, and there had been a “storm” the day before. Metaphorical rather than meteorological, I think. The two daughters, Anne (Amanda Drew) and Elise (Anna Madeley) are there. André was a great writer of some kind. Anne is seeking his private unpublished diaries. Madeleine arrives with the other daughter Elise. They discuss mushrooms.
Madeleine (Eileen Atkins) and André (Jonathan Pryce)
They discuss a man who disappeared completely by the river years ago. Everyone assumed he was dead. André jerks into awareness, he ran into him in Paris years later. Saw him face to face. The daughters are worried about André – should he go into a care home. Flowers have been delivered with no card. There was an event the day before. Madeleine is annoyed, she had asked for no flowers. At the end of the first scene, André is raging, it’s if he has become invisible.
The Woman (Lucy Cohu) watched by Anne (Amanda Drew)
A woman arrives, her name shifts in the conversation. She starts as Mrs Schwartz, but right at the end of the scene, Anne refers to her as Mrs Armanet (which was the name of the man who disappeared). Earlier Madeleine had referred to Madame Armanet. The woman describes a passionate affair, going on for years. Did the woman have an affair with André years before, or was it with his friend, George? André struggles to remember. He doesn’t. A man hovers with his back to us in the next room. She says they saw her son just now, so that must be who he is. Is he André’s son? She has said the father had never acknowledged the son, but the time would come to make it clear after the father had died …
L to R: The Woman (Lucy Cohu), Madeleine (Eileen Atkins), Anne (Amanda Drew), André (Jonathan Pryce), Elise (Anna Madeley)
Scenes change. Then André is looking for Madeleine. She comes in and the mushrooms conversation is repeated. An elderly couple were earlier recalled from a newspaper story, they decided to use poisoned mushrooms so as to die together with dignity … one was already ill. Is it the next morning? Elise’s boyfriend, Paul, is there. He is an unpleasant estate agent. André is scared that they want him to sell the house. They find the card which fell out of the flowers. Shock. The ending is unbearably poignant.
Is it a great play? It’s a masterpiece. The secret is that as an audience we experience what dementia is like. As with André we’re never sure whether it’s now or the past. Whether he’s here or not. Whether Madeleine is here or not. We don’t know what’s happening. I’d love to see it again.
Madeleine: As I told you, he has moments of complete alertness. Brilliant insights. Epiphanies.And then other moments of confusion and incoherence … of fog.
The venue here is Bath Theatre Royal at a matinee. In real life, Eileen Atkins is 84, and Jonathan Pryce is 71. They are both true greats of the acting profession, and they are still at full power. A play about old age should create empathy with a Bath matinee audience, because I would guess Jonathan Pryce would be in the younger 10% to 20% in the hall today, though he is playing older. Many were older than Eileen Atkins, though to play this twice in a day brilliantly means she’s in far better physical and metal condition than many in the audience.
Madeleine (Eileen Atkins)
There were many points which brought strong audience response, such as:
Madeleine: He made me promise to outlive him. A bit stupid. Not to go before him. And I’m not the kind of person who doesn’t keep promises.
That caused a tremendous buzz right around us … and I realize how many of the audience are older women in pairs who might have had that very conversation.
Another was after the girls have gone away from the house:
Madeleine: I prefer it when they’re gone. It’s nice of them to come and see us … but after two days, I’ve had enough of it.
That was another another knowing recognition chuckle right around this elderly audience.
A thought struck me … Zeller somewhat shows his youth. The daughters appear to be in their thirties. The parents are fifty years together, but no more than 70s in appearance (Pryce playing older, Atkins looking younger than her years). The actuality for some of my generation is often children in their late sixties or early seventies dealing with parents in their mid nineties. It’s one we see visiting our relative in a care home.
It’s surely a five star play with five star performances. Both Pryce and Atkins are perfection in the roles.
BUT I’m going to reduce my rating to four, though the reason makes me feel a touch mean. We were in Row D in the Royal Circle at Bath … premium level central seats. We always choose that area, though we used to choose Row A before I got fed up with very tight legroom. The Royal Circle is more like “the back stalls”. There are circles above it. OK, great view. Because the play has scene breaks, each time the semi-transparent curtain fell to mark one, people started chattering trying to work out what was real and what was not and why and how and … then the curtain went back up.
The play starts with Jonathan Pryce as André staring out of the window. His daughter Anne (Amanda Drew) comes in to try and get his attention. She has the first two and a half pages of the script. In general, she creates a very real harrassed character with Anne.
Personally, I could hear her lines, but if I’d been checking sound in a full theatre … no one bothers, though it’s totally different with human bodies absorbing sound, compared to an empty theatre which resonates … I would have asked her to raise her volume level to reach the back of the hall clearly. OK, I could hear, but this is a Bath matinee. THREE people round me were audibly saying “I can’t hear!” “I can’t hear a thing!” “I don’t know what she’s saying!” One didn’t stop for five minutes or more, which given Anne’s already low volume, was interfering with my following her. Maybe that central position under the gallery above was particularly bad. Certainly the people around us were elderly. She’s trying to get his attention in the scene, so increasing her volume would not be a problem.
When Jonathan Pryce then spoke, it was loud and crystal clear. Anna Madeley as Elise was totally clear too. Projection is a weird thing. Eileen Atkins spoke quietly as her role demanded but was perfectly audible. I suspect she has the same magic trick as Kenneth Branagh, who can fall to a whisper and still be heard in the back row. It must be something to do with projection rather than simply volume. Lucy Cohu as the “Woman” was also totally clear. We both thought James Hillier as “The Man” or later, Paul, Elise’s current boyfriend (I wonder where she digs them up? says Madeleine) was brilliantly obnoxious, and he only has a few lines but “I can’t hear!” started hissing behind me again.
So this is the pre-London run. Wyndham’s theatre is 150 seats smaller than Bath, which should help (though the extra at Bath is way up on high). I’d bet it would be even more powerful in a still more intimate setting like The Menier or Donmar. The audibility problem is easily worked on, and the actors who need to up their projection were great otherwise. I would guess that in the main part of the stalls it was clear, and with a younger audience you’d be starting at a higher base level, so probably no problem. But take Jonathan Pryce and Anna Madeley as the optimum level, and get the others up to it.
****
PLAY TEXTS
I’m glad I bought one. They were £9.99. Last week, at the RSC, the Tartuffe play text (priced at £9.99 too) was on sale at a discounted £5 at the theatre. They were selling lots. When you haven’t got a bookstore (33%) or online retailer margin (50%) and no transport costs, you can sell at half price and still make your normal profit. It’s a very sensible route for a production to halve the price for sales at the actual performance, and as a small publisher, I know the figures. I don’t mind paying £9.99. I’ve read it quickly. I shall re-read it definitely, but they could sell more.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID (on the London production)
4 star
Michael Billington, The Guardian ****
Dominic Maxwell, The Times ****
(The Times reveals who is what! Plot spoiler)
Tom Wicker, Time Out ****
Natasha Tripney, The Stage ****
3 star
Christopher Hart, Sunday Times ***
Mark Shenton, London Theatre Co ***
LINKS ON THIS BLOG:
STAGE PLAYS BY FLORIAN ZELLER
The Lie, Menier Chocolate Factory 2017
The Truth, Menier Chocolate Factory 2016
The Height of The Storm, Bath, September 2018
FILM
The Father by Florian Zeller 2021
CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON (TRANSLATOR, ADAPTOR)
God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, also Bath 2018
The Lie, Menier Chocolate Factory 2017
The Truth, Menier Chocolate Factory 2016
An Enemy Of The People by Ibsen Chichester2016
FILM
The Father by Florian Zeller 2021
JONATHAN PRYCE
The Merchant of Venice, Globe 2017 (Shylock)
ANNA MADELEY
The Crucible, Old Vic, 2014 (Elizabeth Procter)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Young Vic 2017 (Helena)