EARTHQUAKES IN LONDON
Te Whaea National Dance and Drama Centre, 11 Hutchison Rd, Newtown, Wellington
15/08/2013 - 24/08/2013
Production Details
by Mike Bartlett
directed by Jonathan Hendry
Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School
Disturbance, disconnection, fractured family relationships and an uncertain future. Mike Bartlett’s play jolts our reality and then challenges us to engage with it.
Earthquakes in London centres on a family of three sisters and their relationships with each other and their estranged father, a doom-mongering climate scientist. First performed in 2010 at the National Theatre in London, it was described by Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph as “the theatrical equivalent of a thrilling roller-coaster ride”, but the most challenging aspect of the play is its scale.
A cast of 16 third year actors from Toi Whakaari will tackle more than 30 roles in a show that leaps from 1968 to the present day and then jumps ahead to the mid 21st century as well. The script itself is a huge challenge for director and Toi Whakaari tutor Jonathon Hendry, who must lead one of the broadest teams that Toi Whakaari can put together to reveal Bartlett’s vision:
“Disturbance, that’s the single most important word for me in this play. It runs through the play and affects everything within it. The scale of the play is immense, it almost breaths, expanding outwards and then lurching into extreme close up and then pulling back out again. It’s a shake up, the earthquake metaphor runs through the whole play, the plates that crash together are reflected in the fractured family and personal relationships of the characters, there is a constant sense of pressure, disconnection and imminent destruction, that we’re all standing on a precipice, emotionally and environmentally.”
The staging of a production with this kind of breadth brings a myriad of challenges for the cast and crew. The production involves students from almost every year group of every course at Toi Whakaari; actors, technicians, managers, costumiers and designers. Third year design student Oliver Morse is responsible for the overall look and feel of the production and has been struck by how his fellow students have approached such a challenging play with a real sense of ambition:
“In the midst of learning how to cope with the scale of the production, and my leadership role within that, I have been inspired by the work of those around me. The sense of ambition and the leaps of faith that my fellow students are willing to take to discover new things and test themselves are amazing. I want the audience to be dancing in their seats. I hope that after they leave, the show will resonate with them, and hopefully an hour, a day or a week later there will be traces, questions, a residue left over that will still be affecting them.”
Earthquakes in London plays with theatrical form, it disturbs our notion of what a play ‘should’ be. Disturbance, joy, excitement, tension, the play’s rhythm will engage the audience and take them along for the ride.
“This is an incredibly theatrical play, it uses every trick it can, it has song, dance, audio-visual elements, soundscapes, movement, and it doesn’t let the audience rest. It plays with magic realism, perception shifts, imagination, it reminds me of all the wonderful things that live theatre can do.” Jonathon Hendry, director.
Earthquakes in London
by Mike Bartlett, directed by Jonathan Hendry
Te Whaea Theatre, 11 Hutchison Road, Newtown
7pm, Thursday 15 – Saturday 24 August
$25 full / $15 concessions
Book: http: //www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz
CAST
Pereri King: Simon, Polar Bear, Dr. Harris
Jack Buchanan: Colin, Mother, Swimmer
Brynley Stent: Sarah
Vāímoana Sinafoa: Tom
Reuben Butler: Supermarket worker, Tim, WWII Officer, Mother, Swimmer
Felix Becroft: Robert
Timote Mapuhola: Roy, Bartender
Susan Berry: Marina, Mrs Andrews
Greta Gregory: Peter, Emily, Mother
Keagan Carr Fransch: Casey, Old woman, Liberty
Lucy Suttor: Grace, Receptionist, Mother, Jogger
Taylor Hall: Carter, Swimmer
Phillip Anstis: Steve
Tom Knowles: Daniel, Young man, Business man
Greer Phillips: Jasmine
Frith Horan: Freya
CREW
Jonty Hendry: Director
Tommy Truss: Choreographer
Hayley Sproull: Singing Coach
Elena Stejko: Acting Coach
Perry Percy: Movement/Voice Director
Jon Hunter: Accent Coach
Paul Tozer: Production Coordinator
Alexander Borgers: Production Manager
Bridget Carpenter: Stage Manager
Ruth Love: Deputy Stage Manager
Oliver Morse: Set Designer
Brendan Heffernan: Costume Designer
Alex Fisher: Lighting Designer
Katrina Turkilsen: Sound Designer
Owen McCarthy: AV Designer
Joe Newman: AV Technical Designer
Alison Roigard: Costume Supervisor
Stephen Jackson: Costume Supervisor
Kaarin Macaulay: Workshop Supervisor
Shannon Brosnahan Inglis: Props Master
Daniel Wilson: Construction Manager
Antony Goodin: Set Workshop Supervisor
Remma McArdle: Lighting Operator
Blair Godby: Sound Operator
Charlotte Pommier: AV Operator
Hamahuna Hawkins: Assistant Stage Manager
Nicole Arrow: Assistant Stage Manager
Te Aihe Butler: Props Assistant
Jenna Kelly: Props Assistant
Sam Lovell: Construction Assistant
Keely McCann: Construction Assistant
Amy-Louise Mill: Construction Assistant
Derek Simpson: Construction Mentor
Chris Winter: Sound Mentor
Jason Morphett: Lighting Mentor
Te Whaea staff: Box office & Front of House support
A high level of excellence
Review by John Smythe 16th Aug 2013
As I write this has become immediately topical for Wellington, at a literal level anyway. This Friday afternoon has brought us a 6.6 magnitude earthquake just 8km deep (centred off Seddon) followed by a continuing swarm of ‘severe’ 5+ and a couple more 6+ shakes … Are such events, or the apparent escalation in their frequency around the globe, a manifestation of climate change?
On 27 February 2008 a magnitude 5.2 earthquake, centred near Lincolnshire, was felt in London. Not long afterwards experts declared a large earthquake that could devastate London was well overdue: a warning we know well in NZ.
The Royal Court’s writer-in-residence Mike Bartlett’s play My Child had premiered at the Royal Court in 2007, Contractions would open in June 2008 and Cock was coming up in 2009 (and destined to win an Olivier Award the year after). All were small cast plays. So when he was commissioned to write a large cast play for the National Theatre, he latched on to the earthquake motif for his exploration of the effects of apocalyptic Climate Change predictions on three sisters pursuing very different lives in London.
Earthquakes in London premiered at the Cottesloe in August 2010 and this Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School production, directed by Jonathon Hendry, is one of a number being staged by drama schools worldwide. Apart from being an ideal vehicle for 3rd year actors, designers and production students, it offers the best opportunity we can hope for to see this extraordinary play in Wellington.
Epic in scale – its action spans 1968 to 2525 (will humanity survive beyond that year?) – with 16 actors taking on 30+ roles, the play maintains cohesion by drawing the story threads through the three sisters and their father. And mother.
Although the inter-relationships are slowly revealed, it will not be a spoiler to note that Dr Robert Sullivan (Felix Beecroft) – whose PhD was on atmospheric conditions on other planets before he fronted a research project for a major airline run by Daniel (Tom Knowles) and Roy (Timote Mapuhola) – epitomises the type who is so busy concerning himself with the fate of the world that he neglects his immediate family.
The central dramatic tension is embodied in his middle daughter Freya (Frith Horan), a teacher of variously challenged children who is pregnant despite her father’s exhortations not to bring more children into a future that looms with doom. When her husband, Steve (Philip Anstis), goes away ostensibly on business but on a quest to find out what’s troubling her, her discombobulation increases …
The manifestations of Freya’s states of mind, not least through her interactions with hyperactive 14 year-old Peter (Greta Gregory) who is somewhere on the autistic spectrum, produce some of the most memorable scenes, especially towards the end in dimensions I cannot reveal here but which also involve Lucy Suttor in the role of Grace.
The oldest daughter, Sarah (Brynley Stent), is the environment Secretary in a Tory Government and trying to balance idealism with pragmatism while her accountant husband Colin (Jack Buchanan), recently made redundant and stuck at home, tries to cope with a lacklustre life and a mostly absent yet controlling wife. The evocation of who they once were, what they’ve become and who they might be is especially intriguing.
Jasmine (Greer Philips), the youngest daughter, is a student on the loose in London and knocks about with Tom (Vā’imoana Sinafoa), a would-be radical activist of Eritrean descent. Their catalytic influence on the others infuses the play with enegy.
Along with Taylor Hall as Carter, a smooth ‘suit’ from a multi-national company, the central plotlines are well held and articulated with flair by all these actors.
Indeed there is not a weak link throughout. Susan Berry doubles the dour housekeeper Mrs Andrews with a powerful singing role; Keagan Carr Fransch’s redundant office worker, old-then-young woman and shop girl at Liberty all make their points well; Reuben Butler delivers a good Dr Tim, and Pereri King completes the cast as Simon, Sarah’s aide, and a memorable Polar Bear street collector for Greenpeace.
Stylish swimmers, trendy Mum’s-with-prams and cellphone-preoccupied people swarm from time to time over Oliver Morse’s white box set, lit by Alex Fisher and projected upon through the ingenuity of Morse, Owen McCarthy, Joe Newman and operator Charlotte Pommier. Katrina Turkilsen’s sound scape and Brendan Heffernan’s costumes complete a superb overall design aesthetic.
The play expands to cosmic climes and contracts back to domestic scenes impressively while ebbing and flowing fluently from the past through the present and into the future. I can’t – or rather won’t – explain why or how, but the question of whether or not we should condemn new children to the future we are creating becomes the focus, and the way it plays out makes for riveting theatre.
This is a splendid opportunity to see a brilliant contemporary British play with large cast produced, designed and performed to a high level of excellence. Don’t miss it!
Ironically, however, tonight’s performance (Friday 16 August) has been cancelled as a precaution in case there are more strong aftershocks – woops, there goes another big shake – and because the traffic chaos caused already may make it difficult for patrons to get there.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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