LONDON THEATRES’ BOUNTIFUL OFFERINGS
Spring may not have come yet, but it’s already high season for the London theatre. And it’s an exceptional one. Of the eight productions I attended last week (two Shakespeare, two Chekhov, two history plays, one docudrama, one feminist work), all have recently opened and all are enlightening and memorable.
Two of these productions deserve special attention, not only for their artistic merit, but also for the urgency and relevance of their subject matter today.
Romola Garai, Gina McKee, Deborah Findlay, Harmony Rose-Bremner, Anjli Mohindra
At the Harold Pinter Theatre on the West End, The Years is an autobiographical retelling of a writer’s life over eight decades in the twentieth century. Though it’s one woman’s story, its relevance to all women is universal, timeless, and profound—more than any contemporary play on women in the past decade.
Harmony Rose-Bremner, Romola Garai, Gina McKee and Deborah Findlay
Based on Les Années, the autobiography of Nobel-Prize-winning French author Annie Ernaux, The Years—adapted and directed by Eline Arbo—features an electrifying ensemble of five actresses (Deborah Findlay, Romola Garai, Gina McKee, Anjli Mohindra, Harmony Rose-Bremner). Each one enacts a key event in a different decade of the author’s life, from War II to the post 9-11 era. Every chapter of the woman’s life is vivid and memorably depicted – from puberty, to sexual awakening, to loss of virginity, to a graphic abortion enacted onstage that caused several audience members to faint during the early weeks of the play’s run. The scenes continue, decade after decade, enacted with intense, vivid theatricality – from motherhood, to domesticity, divorce, menopause, affairs with younger men, grandchildren, a struggle with cancer, and finally, in anticipation of her life’s end, the decision to begin a memoir. “If, through writing, I give form to my absence, I’d better start now.”
Harmony Rose-Bremner, Deborah Findlay and Romola Garai
This may be the life of an ordinary “everywoman,” but the way in which it’s told is extraordinary. Each scene highlights its historical context, beginning with the aftermath of World War II, and thereafter, decade by decade, Stalin’s death, the Algerian conflict, Vietnam, women’s liberation, AIDS, the Millennium and 9-11. Cultural highlights are also noted (Camus, Bergman, Buñuel, The Beatles, and numerous others.)
Anjli Mohindra, Deborah Findlay, Gina McKee, Romola Garai, Harmony Rose-Bremner
On Juul Dekker‘s circular stage, an image of each life event is drawn, imprinted or projected onto a sheet, accumulating in number and ultimately decorating the stage—like huge banners in the celebratory parade of a woman’s life. The agile ensemble members not only play the author in each decade, but also other characters in her life (both male and female). The result: one-woman’s story becomes every woman’s story, brought into life with unique, memorable theatricality, color, and compassion.
Harmony Rose-Bremner and Gina McKee
Along with New York’s current season, where we have four notable productions featuring an ensemble of women dramatizing urgent feminist-related themes—Shaina Taub’s Suffs, Jez Butterworth’s The Hills of California, Katori Hall’s The Blood Quilt, and Bess Wohl’s Liberation—Annie Ernaux’s powerful work achieves new heights of thrilling theatricality.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
“We can agree on one thing – the times we live in are fucking awful!”
So goes the introduction to another great surprise on the London stage: a docudrama called Kyoto about the 1997 Climate Change Summit in that Japanese city. A production of the Royal Shakespeare Company now playing at the new West End theatre called @sohoplace, its topic may sound dry, but, in the hands of its remarkable co-authors Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, it’s absolutely riveting, fast-paced political theatre that is also wildly entertaining.
The docudrama dramatizes a series of meetings of the World Climate Change Conference that began in November 1990 and culminated in the summit at Kyoto in 1997. Its purpose was to curb a world crisis: namely, carbon emissions and the burning of fossil fuels that is imperiling our environment. Seated on a circular stage simulating a conference table (designed by Miriam Buether) are representatives of a number of participating countries—ranging in size from the US to the Republic of Kiribati, a tiny island-nation in the Pacific (there were actually 150 countries represented in this decade-long series of meetings).
As one member put it, Kyoto represents “the golden age of disagreement,” as its participants struggle for consensus. In an early scene set in 1992, they could not agree on a single word in the collective statement. Indeed, on the final night of the conference, the exhausted interpreters left at midnight, while the delegates were still fighting over punctuation at 4 a.m. “Disagreement is who we are,” declared another delegate.
These dedicated directors of the Good Chance theatre company believe in immediate audience engagement participation (remember The Jungle in 2017 and The Walk in 2021, their two powerful, unique works about the immigration crisis). Upon entering the theatre for this highly engaging, suspenseful production, you’re given an ID to wear around your neck, signifying that you’re a delegate to the conference, too. You’re committed from the start. Then comes the next surprise: the narrator of the production is actually its villain. His name is Don Pearlman, a lawyer from the Reagan administration and an oil lobbyist (convincingly played by Stephen Kunken). He has teamed up with “The Seven Sisters” (an oil cartel featuring representatives of the largest US oil companies) to try to prevent a positive outcome for the entire effort. But the charismatic conference leader, Raul Estrada-Oyuela from Argentina (Jorge Bosch), proves to be a formidable opponent to Pearlman and ultimately leads the participants of the conference summit to a successful agreement.
As directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, the entire production is highly theatrical, with the heated emotional arguments between delegates providing lively entertainment, as well as much food for thought.
Though the play ends on a high note, the coda forecasts what we all know—that the subsequent efforts to curb climate change, while well-meaning, have been neither consistent nor totally successful. Moreover, recurrent phrases throughout the play, such as: “We cannot doubt America”, “America cannot doubt itself”, “The world depends on a strong America”—have a jarring impact, given the US’s dramatic new direction on the international stage over the past eight weeks that shows no sign of changing.
Both of the above-mentioned productions owe their impact to the passion and dedication of their authors and artists—and to the universality of their themes. If you want to understand what’s going on in the world right now, the theatre is the place to learn.
photos of Kyoto by Manuel Harmlan
photos of The Years by Helen Murray
The Years, adapted and directed by Eline Arbo based on Les Années by Annie Eernaux, at the Harold Pinter Theatre (Panton St, London); now through 19 April, 2025; for tickets, visit The Years
Kyoto, by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, directed by Stephen Daldry & Justin Martin, now through 3 May, 2025; @soho place.
