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Strindberg in Hollywood
London Theatre Productions
by Drury Pifer
Directed by Harry Meacher
Pentameters Theatre
28 Heath Street London NW3 6TE
Call +44 (0) 20 7435 3648 Tickets £0 - £12
Tues – Sat 8pm; Sun 5pm
Running time 1 hour with no intermission
Through February 2008
We Love You, Strindy Baby
The moment the great playwright Strindberg, for it is he, (Harry Meacher, who also directs) and his wife Siri (Charlotte Kingsford) both Gothic, arch and hugely melodramatic, appear in the office of the cynical, exploiting and hugely manipulating Hollywood film producer, Otis de Marko (Ben Dudley) it is clear that this will be one train crash it is going to be fun to watch.
Clutching the screenplay of his beloved The Dance of Death the intensely protective Strindberg watches aghast as draft after draft of the movie version arrives from the writers. ‘What you have here is raw sewage!’ he cries. ‘We’ll find the positives in that’ replies Otis, and the battle over what goes into the film is joined. Who plays the female lead, Otis’ girlfriend, Micki (Miranda Hennessey) a deeply opportunist rock singer, or the man-eating, grasping Siri completes the tug of war over the movie.
Mr Meacher maintains a winning energy and pace throughout an hour of high comedy, his own performance as Strindberg is a picture of comic artistic anguish. Miss Kingsford created a period style of vamp irresistible both to Strindberg and to Otis, (‘Strindy baby’) a marvellously slick and slimy money man. Miss Hennessey gorgeously captured the idiom, accent and canny vacuity of the ambitious bit part actress sleeping her way along the bottom.
There is a deeper heart to the story - the search in pagan Hollywood for an alternative to a painful Scandinavian soul. But even this is light heartedly treated, so we are never let down.
Writer Drury Pifer’s Off Broadway hit is a pleasure from start to finish. It is also a worthy start to the 40th year of theatrical service to Londoners by the redoubtable Leonie Scott-Matthews’ Pentameters Theatre in Hampstead, London’s oldest surviving fringe theatre. Long may she enrich the scene and our lives.
Highly Recommended
Saul Reichlin
London Correspondent
Talk Theatre in Chicago Podcast
www.ChicagoCritic.com
Reviewed February 7, 2008
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