 |
| Photograph 51: Photo: Johan Persson |
Science
on stage can yield mixed results, from the charm and cheek of Charlotte Jones’s
Humble Boy, through the deep intellectual pleasures offered
by Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen to, most recently, the cutesy superficiality
of Nick Payne’s Constellations.
Photograph 51,
Anna Ziegler’s new play about Rosalind
Franklin, the British scientist who helped to discover the structure of DNA but
who, as a woman, was ultimately sidelined from the story, isn’t quite up to the
Copenhagen level. But it’s a lot closer to Frayn than to
Payne. It’s a sober, solid, serious-minded piece of writing, sometimes a bit too
eager to tell where it might show, but astute, nimble and thoughtful,
nonetheless. Michael Grandage's characteristically crisp, lucid production – 95
minutes, no interval – keeps up the pace, delivering a gripping evening that,
though starting a tad stiffly, gradually thaws into surprising emotion. Christopher Oram's design evokes both the restrictive walls of fusty academia and the puzzle of a chessboard, as its protagonists’ grapple with the mysteries of scientific discovery (and
the mysteries of each others’ personalities, too).
Beyond the telling of an
important, still-relevant story - as recent ill-advised comments have shown, the
status of women working in science is far from resolved even now - the
production’s big draw is, of course, Nicole Kidman, returning to the London
stage for the first time since her turn in The Blue Room set
an over-excited Charles Spencer salivating about “theatrical Viagra”. It’s to Kidman and Grandage’s great credit that her performance
as Franklin never feels like a star turn: defining Franklin as someone who
wasn’t “a showman”, Kidman captures without fuss and with great feeling the character’s prickly
defensiveness, her intellectual drive, and her latent longings.
Echoing Franklin’s position
as a woman in a man’s world, the production surrounds Kidman with an all-male
cast, comprised of Will Attenborough as James Watson, Edward Bennett as Francis
Crick, Stephen Campbell Moore as Maurice Wilkins, Patrick Kennedy as Don Caspar
and Joshua Silver as Ray Gosling. Attempts at humour sometimes feel forced but Kidman and Campbell Moore succeed in making something
truly moving of the Wilkins/Franklin relationship – with its misunderstandings
and missed opportunities - finally revealing the piece to be a melancholy memory
play at its heart. It’s doubtful that Photograph 51 will constitute
anyone’s idea of “theatrical Viagra” but its quiet intelligence and unflashy
approach make Grandage’s production a definite asset for the West End.
The
production is booking until 21st November. Further details here.
No comments:
Post a Comment