*St James, London*
Olivia Williams and Mark Bazeley are lacerating as the central couple in this stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film
Marianne (Olivia Williams) and Johan (Mark Bazeley) seem to have it all: careers, money, lovely children, a beautiful house and happiness. When their friends Katerina (Aislinn Sands) and Peter (Shane Attwooll) come to supper they watch in horror as their guests claw at each other like wild cats. Their relationship is falling apart; but Marianne and Johan are rock solid. Or are they?
Where did it all go wrong? Is there a moment that can be identified when we made a bad decision, failed to say the right thing or took the wrong turn? It's a question we all ask about our lives and broken relationships, and one that haunts Joanna Murray-Smith's stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's 1972 portrait of marriage. Where Bergman's movie was stark and desolate, this is cluttered, noisy and hand-waving. It is exhaustive, and at almost three hours totally exhausting, too, as the pair descend into self-hatred, violence and aching loneliness. If you're up for watching the smug middle classes having a seriously bad time, this is the play.
Trevor Nunn's production first surfaced at the Belgrade in Coventry in 2008, with his then partner, Imogen Stubbs, playing Marianne and Iain Glen as Johan. Much – including the home movies that punctuate scenes – remains the same, but the acting from Williams and Bazeley takes things up a notch. They are not just good, they are lacerating; they are many times better than the play, which is an odd mixture of prissiness and emotional prurience. I reckon their Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Private Lives would be cracking.
Both are points of reference here, as of course is Strindberg and Ibsen's A Doll's House. But neither Murray-Smith nor Nunn pin down the crucial details, either geographically or socially, and the script signals everything so unsubtly that it is easier to loathe Marianne and Johan than to pity them.
• What have you been to see lately? Tell us about it on Twitter using
#Iwasthere
Rating: 2/5 Reported by guardian.co.uk 19 hours ago.
Olivia Williams and Mark Bazeley are lacerating as the central couple in this stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film
Marianne (Olivia Williams) and Johan (Mark Bazeley) seem to have it all: careers, money, lovely children, a beautiful house and happiness. When their friends Katerina (Aislinn Sands) and Peter (Shane Attwooll) come to supper they watch in horror as their guests claw at each other like wild cats. Their relationship is falling apart; but Marianne and Johan are rock solid. Or are they?
Where did it all go wrong? Is there a moment that can be identified when we made a bad decision, failed to say the right thing or took the wrong turn? It's a question we all ask about our lives and broken relationships, and one that haunts Joanna Murray-Smith's stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's 1972 portrait of marriage. Where Bergman's movie was stark and desolate, this is cluttered, noisy and hand-waving. It is exhaustive, and at almost three hours totally exhausting, too, as the pair descend into self-hatred, violence and aching loneliness. If you're up for watching the smug middle classes having a seriously bad time, this is the play.
Trevor Nunn's production first surfaced at the Belgrade in Coventry in 2008, with his then partner, Imogen Stubbs, playing Marianne and Iain Glen as Johan. Much – including the home movies that punctuate scenes – remains the same, but the acting from Williams and Bazeley takes things up a notch. They are not just good, they are lacerating; they are many times better than the play, which is an odd mixture of prissiness and emotional prurience. I reckon their Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Private Lives would be cracking.
Both are points of reference here, as of course is Strindberg and Ibsen's A Doll's House. But neither Murray-Smith nor Nunn pin down the crucial details, either geographically or socially, and the script signals everything so unsubtly that it is easier to loathe Marianne and Johan than to pity them.
• What have you been to see lately? Tell us about it on Twitter using
#Iwasthere
Rating: 2/5 Reported by guardian.co.uk 19 hours ago.