:00:16. > :00:21.On the review show tonight: Can mental illness really be played
:00:21. > :00:25.for laughs in Silver Linings Playbook PlayBook. I wanted raisin
:00:25. > :00:31.bran, because I didn't want any mistaking of a date. It can still
:00:31. > :00:36.be a date if you order raisin bran. A 19th century farce, amusing a
:00:36. > :00:43.21st century audience? It is like a comedy machine delivering. John
:00:43. > :00:46.Lithgow is Pinero's Magistrate. Does an all-male Twelfth Night with
:00:46. > :00:51.Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry refresh Shakespeare's comedy And
:00:51. > :00:56.gore and goreier, as Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe play the same
:00:56. > :01:05.country doctor in remote Russia. saw a lot of horror and tragedy in
:01:05. > :01:09.here. Happy days! Joining me here in the studio are
:01:09. > :01:16.Natalie Haynes, author and critic, Ekow Eshun, writer and broadcaster,
:01:16. > :01:21.and John Carey, writer and critic. Bipolar disorder isn't exactly a
:01:21. > :01:26.normal subject for a Hollywood movey, let alone a comedy. But
:01:26. > :01:31.David O Russell, director of Three Kings and The Fighter, has really
:01:31. > :01:37.gone for it in Silver Linings Playbook PlayBook, which could be
:01:37. > :01:42.tipped for the Oscars t stars Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lawrence,
:01:42. > :01:46.from Winter's Bone, and Bradley Cooper from The Hangover. Pat
:01:46. > :01:50.Solitano, played by Bradley Cooper, has just been released from eight
:01:50. > :01:56.months on a psychiatric ward. He returns to live with his parents,
:01:56. > :02:01.Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver, just outside Philadelphia. He's
:02:01. > :02:05.determined to woo his teacher wife back, by losing weight and reading
:02:05. > :02:11.her entire English syllabus. whole time you are rooting for this
:02:11. > :02:15.Hemmingway guy to survive the war and be with the woman he loves,
:02:15. > :02:19.can't anyone say is there a good ending. I can't apologise, but on
:02:19. > :02:22.the part of Ernest Hemmingway I will apologise. That is who to
:02:22. > :02:28.blame. Have him call us and apologise. While integrating him
:02:28. > :02:31.back into the neighbourhood, Pat strikes up a friendship with the
:02:31. > :02:37.equally dysfuntional Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence,
:02:37. > :02:42.despite Tiffany's advances, Pat still convinces himself he only has
:02:42. > :02:47.eyes for his estranged wife. Do you want to share this? Why order
:02:47. > :02:50.raisin bran. Why did you order tea? Because you ordered raisin bran.
:02:50. > :02:56.ordered raisin bran because I didn't want any mistaking it for a
:02:56. > :03:01.date. It can still be a date if you order raisin bran. It is not a date.
:03:01. > :03:07.Tiffany persuades Pat to help her with a dance contest, channelling
:03:07. > :03:11.their manic energy into something positive. They get advice from scat
:03:11. > :03:17.pat's friend from hospital, Danny, played by Chris Tucker. Little bit
:03:17. > :03:25.more soul Pat. Black it up Pat. What does that mean. You dough damn
:03:25. > :03:29.well what it means. Black it up! Oh, oh, oh, I have an idea. So is David
:03:29. > :03:39.O Russell's quirky perspective on mental health insightful as well as
:03:39. > :03:40.
:03:40. > :03:45.entertaining. I'm going to be there, I want you guys to win. Excelier
:03:45. > :03:48.Pat! That's my man. This film is dealing with some serious issues,
:03:48. > :03:53.bipolar disorder, restraining orders, psyche cat trick hospital.
:03:53. > :03:58.Do you think it strikes -- psychiatric hospital, do you think
:03:59. > :04:04.it strikes the right tone? It plays it lightly, Bradley Cooper has
:04:04. > :04:07.mental issues, but they dissolve through the film. It is an old-
:04:07. > :04:10.fashioned romance. What is interesting, is less how seriously
:04:10. > :04:13.how it deals with the issues, but how seriously it deals with love.
:04:13. > :04:17.How seriously it deals with connection between people. I
:04:17. > :04:21.thought it was very charming, I thought it was funny. I surprised
:04:21. > :04:26.myself how much I enjoyed it. What it is, it is very, very old
:04:26. > :04:32.fashioned, boy meets girl, they meet cute, he's a bit damaged,
:04:33. > :04:36.she's a bit disturbed. What it has is veal verve and is contemporary,
:04:36. > :04:41.David O Russell isn't a classic romantic director, he has given it
:04:41. > :04:47.an edge and it works for that. you think the mental health issues
:04:47. > :04:51.were a backdrop for the romcom or more centre stage? They probably
:04:51. > :04:57.were in the end. Mental health problems, they do a very good job
:04:57. > :05:00.in the first hour to show how messy it is to live with someone who has
:05:00. > :05:05.a serious bipolar disorder, in the first hour. It is an interesting
:05:05. > :05:08.line to walk, he's clearly not mad enough to remain in an institution,
:05:08. > :05:12.but at the same time he's extremely difficult to live with, not because
:05:12. > :05:16.he's evil or unpredictable in a violent way, but because he doesn't
:05:16. > :05:21.understand other people's space and perameter, it doesn't occur to him
:05:21. > :05:26.it is not appropriate to shout about a book at 4.00am and wake
:05:26. > :05:30.everybody up. It doesn't enter his world view. It does a good job with
:05:30. > :05:33.that. Mental health issues are intrinsically messy and romcoms are
:05:33. > :05:39.neat. If he had gone for straight comedy the mental health issues
:05:39. > :05:42.could have stayed in it. But they have to let's forget about that,
:05:43. > :05:47.dance competition. I'm as big a fan of a dance competition than most
:05:47. > :05:50.people, bigger than most, but it seems cheap that you set up
:05:50. > :05:54.something complicated and say it won't fit into the structure and
:05:54. > :05:57.then go, all right then. Perhaps that portrayal of somebody with
:05:57. > :05:59.mental health problems is more realistic, it is not completely
:05:59. > :06:03.extreme, this is somebody who is living at home, and his parents are
:06:03. > :06:07.having to cope with his, certainly at the outset, quite disturbing
:06:07. > :06:13.behaviour? I found it much more disturbing, I think, than the other
:06:13. > :06:18.two. What I felt was that the sense of danger was there. I mean, you do,
:06:18. > :06:23.it is not just messy, you don't know, Bradley Cooper is a very
:06:23. > :06:27.powerfully-built young man, and you just don't know when he's going to
:06:27. > :06:32.go violent. It was terrifying when he did. The scene where he decides
:06:32. > :06:35.he wants to look for his wedding video, you know. Middle of the
:06:36. > :06:39.night, starts tearing through the place, throwing open cupboards, his
:06:39. > :06:43.poor parents, the parents were wonderfully done, I thought, De
:06:43. > :06:48.Niro was terrific. But also, his mother, the poor woman, who thinks
:06:48. > :06:51.that all you have to do is keep on cooking crab cakes, and some how it
:06:51. > :06:55.will all go away. It is tragic, terrible. Imagine having a
:06:55. > :07:00.childlike that, who is going to explode at any moment. That danger,
:07:00. > :07:04.that tension for me, it last the right through the first part of the
:07:04. > :07:07.film. I rather agree about the dance stuff. But it did seem to me
:07:07. > :07:11.to bring home how utterly terrifying it is to have a mentally
:07:11. > :07:16.ill person in the house, and just not know when they are going to
:07:16. > :07:21.start fighting you. He fights his father, it was a terrifying scene.
:07:21. > :07:26.It has to be said that his father is on the edge as well. There is a
:07:26. > :07:30.a mounting illness and instability running through the family. Robert
:07:30. > :07:34.De Niro, violent as a character, banned from his favourite American
:07:34. > :07:36.football stadium, because he has had too many fights with other fans
:07:36. > :07:39.and supporters. There is a sense that Bradley Cooper isn't just
:07:39. > :07:44.isolated in this thing. You get a lot of characters who are on the
:07:44. > :07:48.edge. That is part of the pleasure of it. What I liked is that it
:07:48. > :07:55.actually reminded me, it is slightly odd analogy, it reminded
:07:55. > :08:02.me of something like Bringing Up Baby, old-fashioned Hollywood
:08:02. > :08:06.romances from pre-war. Cary Grant was eccentric! I like the Cary
:08:06. > :08:09.Grant playing characters who were eccentric, and saved by cookie
:08:09. > :08:14.female characters who came in. There is a phrase they use in,
:08:14. > :08:17.Bradley Cooper said something like "you met me crazy", where they both
:08:17. > :08:20.have to be something manic, slightly on the edge, in order to
:08:20. > :08:24.find a balance of normality in there. I quite liked that as a
:08:24. > :08:29.premise for the film. I liked how that was mirrored by Robert De Niro
:08:29. > :08:33.and other characters. Everyone is spinning on their on axis. Very few
:08:33. > :08:37.people seem balanced and ordinary. There was a subtext, wasn't there,
:08:37. > :08:47.that mad people, are, in a way, saneer than the sane. Tiffany, I
:08:47. > :08:47.
:08:48. > :08:52.thought, Jennifer Lawrence, amazingly played. She's a very
:08:52. > :08:57.intelligent woman, and indeed, manages to bring the whole thing to
:08:57. > :09:02.a successful conclusion. The scene where they go to a friend of Pat's,
:09:02. > :09:08.Veronica and Ronnie, who give a dinner party. They both, these two,
:09:08. > :09:11.Tiffany and Pat, tell the truth, which is very unacceptable at the
:09:11. > :09:15.dinner party, when they decide to walk out, they have had enough,
:09:15. > :09:21.they walk out, they want it all. Veronica is showing off all the
:09:21. > :09:25.latest gadgets and her beautiful home, they don't want that, they
:09:25. > :09:28.don't pretend to want that, they don't pretend. Mad people are
:09:28. > :09:32.genuine, they are, they obey instincts. That was an interesting
:09:32. > :09:41.layer, I thought, in the film. is very funny, I thought? It is
:09:41. > :09:44.funny. At least for me it starts funnier than it ends up. In the end
:09:44. > :09:49.the smalzt overwhelmed even me. I think probably in the end it is a
:09:49. > :09:53.little bit vacuous that the point it comes to is, but everybody is a
:09:53. > :09:56.little bit mad. You go, OK, I see your point, which is everyone is on
:09:56. > :10:01.a spectrum. Let's not forget at the start of this film, we are given
:10:01. > :10:04.insight into how he ends up there. He spent eight months in an
:10:04. > :10:09.institution because he beat somebody nearly to death. There is
:10:09. > :10:13.something a little bit obnoxious about them going, we're all a bit
:10:13. > :10:18.quirky, yes, but! There is more depth to it at certain points. Not
:10:18. > :10:23.just skirting over the mental health issues, the references to
:10:23. > :10:27.Hemmingway, to Golding. It gives it an indie film for a mainstream
:10:27. > :10:32.commercial film, I thought. It is, David O Russell, Three Kings and a
:10:32. > :10:36.bunch of other films, which are more indie in sensibility than they
:10:36. > :10:40.are mainstream. He has married the two together here very well. He has
:10:40. > :10:45.a great A-list cast. But the film making itself is really fluid, and
:10:45. > :10:50.actually, it keeps you on the edge. The camera is always fluid and
:10:50. > :10:54.moving around the editing is choppy. There is music in there.
:10:54. > :11:00.Golding reference is interesting, Tiffany throws Lord of the Flies
:11:00. > :11:05.out of the door. She won't have it. She can't accept Golding's view of
:11:05. > :11:10.life. I wonder if it is self- criticism in the film, she can't
:11:10. > :11:14.accept what he says that everyone has barbarity inside of them, we
:11:14. > :11:19.look for the silver lining, it is ironic, and directed against
:11:19. > :11:25.herself. Clever, I thought. There was a lot in it, do you think the
:11:25. > :11:31.Oscar buzz is justified? It doesn't feel like a strong year for Oscar
:11:31. > :11:34.predictions, nothing touted is as obvious a winner. For the last
:11:34. > :11:38.three years I have predicted all winners, this year, no idea,
:11:38. > :11:42.nothing has stood out. It might, it could be one of those cookie films
:11:42. > :11:47.that goes through. It doesn't deserve to, but it could.
:11:47. > :11:52.The film is in cinemas now. A woman should never lie about her age. At
:11:52. > :11:57.36, I personally never felt the need to. Don't laugh so much Echo,
:11:57. > :12:07.when Mrs Posket does just that in Arthur Wing Pinero's Victorian
:12:07. > :12:11.
:12:11. > :12:14.farce, the Magistrate, all manner of chaos ensues. John Lithgow stars.
:12:14. > :12:19.Three 3rd Rock From The Sun. whole play is based on a woman
:12:19. > :12:24.lying about her age, for fear her suitor won't propose to her. This
:12:24. > :12:29.is a wildly funny play. But that is a very poignant little lie to tell.
:12:29. > :12:36.It is all about a woman fretful about her own attractiveness. This
:12:36. > :12:38.is not a Victorian phenomenon, it is a if you Nomura of the human
:12:38. > :12:43.condition, particularly the female human condition.
:12:43. > :12:48.The woman in question is his stage wife, Mrs Posket. Played here by
:12:48. > :12:54.Nancy Carroll, who shaves five years off her age, which means that
:12:54. > :12:59.her 19-year-old son has to become 14, when she marries the Magistrate.
:12:59. > :13:03.I saw Alistair Simmplay this role in 1969 at Chichester when I was a
:13:03. > :13:11.drama student over here, it was one of the great, funny performances
:13:11. > :13:17.that I had ever seen It was an era where Peter Hall and Peter Brook
:13:17. > :13:24.were doing fantastic work. Trevor Nunn was the new RSC director, I
:13:24. > :13:29.must have gone to the theatre four or five days a week, it was great
:13:29. > :13:33.training at LAMDA, but I really learned in the theatre seat several
:13:33. > :13:41.times a week. Director Timothy Sheader has added musical
:13:41. > :13:47.interludes into the play, musician Rcihard Stilgoe and his partner
:13:47. > :13:53.drew inspiration from Gilbert and Sullivan. It came out the same year
:13:53. > :13:58.the Mikado came out, 1885. It has a great sensibility. It isn't a
:13:58. > :14:00.Gilbert and Sullivan play, it is a Pinero play. The national's
:14:00. > :14:05.production is one of several Pinero plays that have been produced and
:14:05. > :14:10.are coming up. What does Lithgow put this down to? Pinero writes
:14:10. > :14:14.these remarkable well-made plays, I have been in a cop of productions
:14:14. > :14:21.of Trewlaney Of The Wells, I have been in the Magistrate before,
:14:21. > :14:25.years ago. Plays like that, they tend to come back, because they are
:14:25. > :14:28.so buesfully constructed. It is like a com-- beautifully
:14:28. > :14:34.constructed. It is like a comedy reason that keeps on delivering.
:14:34. > :14:41.You discover that Victorian humour needs a little bit of adjusting but
:14:41. > :14:46.it works wonderfully for this moment. And who can explain why.
:14:47. > :14:49.Natalie, the national, I think, had planned to put on The Count of
:14:49. > :14:54.Monte Cristo, for the big blockbuster Christmas performance,
:14:54. > :15:00.they changed course, relatively late, so there is pressure on the
:15:00. > :15:04.Magistrate, does it live up to the expectations? Yeah, I think
:15:04. > :15:07.probably it just about does. Everyone was waiting for The Count
:15:07. > :15:13.of Monte Cristo, that is fine, better to wait than slam it out in
:15:13. > :15:19.a hurry and not be happy with it. I saw Lithgow do the Stories with a
:15:19. > :15:24.Heart, he did that at the National, I'm devoted to him, Raising Cane is
:15:24. > :15:29.my favourite film, I think he's awesome, not being ironic. I had
:15:29. > :15:33.seen him telling Tories about PG Woodhouse, that he told his father
:15:33. > :15:37.when he was dying, I knew he had a passionate and emotional love for
:15:37. > :15:40.English farce in his nature. I was expecting him to kind of run away
:15:40. > :15:45.with it. I have to be honest, I think Nancy Carroll may have just
:15:45. > :15:51.stolen out from under him as his wife. She's incredibly funny. He's
:15:51. > :15:56.good in everything, so I'm completely biased, I guess. She's
:15:56. > :16:01.incredibly funny. She delivers every single kausic line at her own
:16:01. > :16:07.expense, everything with a lick. you think it stands the test of
:16:07. > :16:11.time? Performances are God, but I'm to the convinced by the play or it
:16:11. > :16:13.-- good, but I I'm not convinced by the play. It is a play about
:16:13. > :16:17.respectability and the boundaries of respectability that is where the
:16:17. > :16:22.farce comes in, it is a play bound by respectability, because in the
:16:22. > :16:27.end it suggests it is really important to retain virtues and
:16:27. > :16:33.bourgwoi appearances and so on. -- bourgeois appearances and so on.
:16:33. > :16:36.The peril of being seen to transgress that didn't strike me as
:16:36. > :16:40.convincing or important enough or as dramatic enough to have both
:16:40. > :16:45.farce and danger attached to it. For a play like this, you do have
:16:45. > :16:49.to buy into the conventions of the Victorian era to a certain extend?
:16:49. > :16:54.I suppose you do, it is very hard to. Do the bit that I found
:16:54. > :17:02.strangely disturbing was the notion of this boy who was actually 19
:17:02. > :17:05.dressed up as a 14-year-old. Today, you could easily mistake most 14-
:17:05. > :17:10.year-olds for 19-year-olds, that is why you have to show your identity
:17:10. > :17:16.before you buy alcoholic drinks. They are huge, well-fed. Not so
:17:16. > :17:19.many boys in Eton jackets? That's right. But to see this little chap
:17:19. > :17:26.dressed up like a schoolboy, and jumping around on the furniture,
:17:26. > :17:32.like a kuryis little ape, and yet, -- curious little ape, and yet you
:17:32. > :17:42.are told he's a fully formed male, I found that a bit grotesque,
:17:42. > :17:46.actually. I wondered how in 1890s what was the laugh like. I don't
:17:46. > :17:53.buy that it is a well-made play, the Lithgow idea there. For one
:17:53. > :18:00.thing, the big thing takes place off stage, you don't see the
:18:00. > :18:03.Magistrate confront his wife in the dock. You hear somebody say
:18:03. > :18:08.something about t it is a ludicrously undramatic way of
:18:09. > :18:13.dealing with it. That is a Greek tragedy, apart from Ajax where
:18:13. > :18:16.someone dies off stage. This is not up to Greek standard. When you said
:18:17. > :18:20.how much you liked Nancy Carroll's performance as the magistrate's
:18:20. > :18:23.wife. Although the women are very constrained by the position they
:18:23. > :18:29.have in society, these aren't weak characters, are they? They are very
:18:29. > :18:34.strong, that is a huge relief, as always, with these plays, you so
:18:34. > :18:39.rarely get where women are allowed to be centre stage and be just as
:18:39. > :18:43.clever, duplicitous and sneaky, she does a beautiful job of it, you
:18:43. > :18:47.completely buy it. I completely buy that she would be quite so deluded
:18:47. > :18:52.to think that chopping a few years off her age would be the only thing.
:18:52. > :18:58.He's much older than her, in the play he's 15 years older than her,
:18:58. > :19:02.she extends it a bit to help out. She's already a great catch. Times
:19:02. > :19:06.have changed, the idea that you would be 36 and it would be the
:19:07. > :19:11.equivalent of being ancient, has, I like to think, largely changed.
:19:11. > :19:16.way the national has tried to make this more appealing to a modern
:19:17. > :19:23.audience, is by breaking it up with, I suppose, they are pastiches of
:19:23. > :19:28.Gilbert and Sullivan, the songs with the lively chorus? That is the
:19:28. > :19:35.low point. Every half hour or so this troop comes on with white pan
:19:35. > :19:40.make up and twirlly moustaches. What was, it, it was like the Go
:19:40. > :19:44.Compere guy, in the TV adverts, they do the sub-operatic numbers.
:19:44. > :19:47.You don't need it, in lyrical terms, especially, they just reiterate the
:19:47. > :19:51.main points of the play. What they are telling you is what you are
:19:51. > :19:57.supposed to think in the play, which in dramatic purposes is
:19:57. > :20:01.redundant, but there is as a viewer element doesn't work. Aren't they
:20:01. > :20:05.just punctuating the action with humour? Can I raise Greek tragedy,
:20:05. > :20:08.that they tell you what to think, but point in second, they are there
:20:08. > :20:11.to cover the scene changes so we are not bored by something going
:20:11. > :20:16.cloank in the dark. I don't love them either, but I would rar
:20:16. > :20:20.something happen than sitting there hopeless -- rather something there
:20:20. > :20:24.than sitting there hopelessly waiting for the scene change.
:20:24. > :20:28.other versions of the play they have managed to go there scene-to-
:20:28. > :20:32.scene. That is a massive space, it goes back and up a long way, you
:20:32. > :20:39.have to justify a huge space, they weren't expecting it, they have to
:20:39. > :20:42.use big sets. John? I rather disagree, I think it is true they
:20:42. > :20:47.did interpret the play, they were there to put in accents and themes
:20:47. > :20:52.that weren't in the play. However, it seem to me that the pastiches of
:20:52. > :20:55.Gilbert and Sullivan were pretty good, and Stilgoe's lyrics were
:20:55. > :20:58.good, and Sisson's music were good. It seemed just as entertainment
:20:59. > :21:03.they were better than the play. I really did think that, I would like
:21:03. > :21:06.more of that. They could have been livelyier, they will no doubt
:21:06. > :21:16.improve. They could have been more physical, but heavens, as
:21:16. > :21:20.entertainment, they had a lot to go for them. I'm thinking of Enron
:21:20. > :21:28.where you use song and dance to counter point. That works with
:21:28. > :21:31.drama. You already have a farce, there is already an antic element,
:21:31. > :21:34.to introduce song and dance doesn't Garland that further, or add
:21:34. > :21:39.something substantial. Especially, I would say, it actually reduces
:21:39. > :21:43.what is going on in there. Because you get this underlining of what
:21:43. > :21:47.you are supposed to think, and how you are supposed to read it. It is
:21:47. > :21:53.a very tame farce, frankly, isn't it, it is a farce where to go out
:21:53. > :21:58.on a really wild night on the town, you eat deviled oysters, there are
:21:58. > :22:04.no women there. It is like watching Terry and June. It is a dreadful
:22:05. > :22:11.thing to do is wear a red caf VAT, for God's sake. After the that the
:22:11. > :22:19.Gilbert and Sullivan stuff is good. Nobody here is wearing anything so
:22:19. > :22:23.wild as red cravat! Let's not do that. The Magistrate is on at the
:22:23. > :22:27.National Theatre in London, if you can't make it there, it will be
:22:27. > :22:30.broadcast live in cinemas on January 17th. The old tradition of
:22:30. > :22:37.Twelfth Night at Christmas time was really a world turned upside down,
:22:37. > :22:42.I suppose, you have masters waiting on servant, for example. That is
:22:42. > :22:47.certainly true of a new production of Shakespeare's comedy,
:22:47. > :22:51.transferred from The Globe. We see a man, playing a woman, playing a
:22:51. > :22:58.man, in the all-male cast. A star name has been lured back to the
:22:58. > :23:02.stage to play Malvolio. Much of the fanfare around this
:23:02. > :23:06.incarnation of Twelfth Night has centered on Stephen Fry's
:23:07. > :23:13.performance as Malvolio, 17 years after a famous attack of stage
:23:13. > :23:17.fright. Malvolio's pomposity is pubgttured, of course, by an ill-
:23:17. > :23:23.judged pass at his mistress Olivia, played by Mark Rylance, a character
:23:23. > :23:33.he last took on in 2002. Rylance juxtaposes Olivia's quiet composure,
:23:33. > :23:33.
:23:33. > :23:38.with her agitated infatuation with Cesario. London's Shakespeare
:23:38. > :23:44.festival, part of London 2012, there have been many resiefls of
:23:44. > :23:48.Shakespeare, with an all-female Julius Caesar at the Donmar war
:23:48. > :23:52.house at the end of the month. Does this Twelfth Night add a -- Donmar
:23:52. > :23:58.Warehouse at the end of the month. Does this Twelfth Night add
:23:58. > :24:03.anything to Shakespeare with an all-male cast, or do modern
:24:03. > :24:09.audiences prefer women to be women. This production originally came
:24:09. > :24:14.from The Globe, that prides itself on traditional Elizabethan
:24:14. > :24:18.productions with an all-male cast. How did it work for you? I didn't
:24:18. > :24:23.really mind whether they were male or female or whether they could act.
:24:23. > :24:32.The acting is of a terribly high standard. I forgot, with Maria,
:24:32. > :24:36.that it wasn't a woman. I thought that Viola, with Johnny Flynn, was
:24:36. > :24:40.astoundingly done, there was Johnny Flynn, a man, pretending to be a
:24:40. > :24:45.woman, pretending to be a man. He managed to be a man, so to speak,
:24:45. > :24:50.as a woman would be rather awkward in a man's clothes. I thought it
:24:50. > :24:54.was an astounding piece of acting. I thought it was a very interesting
:24:54. > :24:59.balance between authenticity and artifice, in as much as I don't
:24:59. > :25:03.think, although it is an all-male cast, it is not an attempt to say
:25:03. > :25:10.let's be traditional as Shakespeare intended. The thing with the all-
:25:10. > :25:15.male cast is doing this version of this, and let's reach towards how
:25:15. > :25:20.it was back then, but then, after that, what seems to happen is, that
:25:20. > :25:24.they free themselves up. This is very naturalistic reading of
:25:24. > :25:27.Shakespeare, it is not a version sunk in tradition and being
:25:27. > :25:30.authentic. I think it is a really interesting take. What they have
:25:31. > :25:37.done is liberate themselves from the text. Saying let's try to find
:25:37. > :25:43.a fresh way into this. Although the trappings are apparently authentic,
:25:43. > :25:48.actually, what they have done is create something very fresh as a
:25:48. > :25:52.way of...I Wouldn't describe this as naturalistic? Me neither, not
:25:52. > :25:57.when there is men pretending to be women, that is panto where I come
:25:57. > :26:01.from. It didn't really work for me. I always find it a bit tack, when
:26:01. > :26:05.people say let's make it authentic, they never mean, that they don't
:26:05. > :26:11.want to get paid three shilings a day, or wear lead on their faces,
:26:11. > :26:17.or the lighting not to be safe. What they really mean, I hesitate
:26:17. > :26:23.to quote Calvin and Hobbs, it is getting rid of slimey girls, and no
:26:23. > :26:28.women here. I find it exactly as distasteful as I would were I to
:26:28. > :26:31.see a version of Othello and someone would be blacked up. I find
:26:31. > :26:34.it horrible. I think it is the opposite of that, they are
:26:34. > :26:38.suggesting you can have a version of the play but it doesn't have to
:26:38. > :26:42.be one thing. What they are doing is liberate the text and say
:26:43. > :26:47.Shakespeare can be read in a number of different ways. I don't think it
:26:47. > :26:52.is an attempt to say the version with the all-male cast is a truer
:26:52. > :26:56.version than with an all-female cast. Mark Rylance is playing
:26:56. > :26:59.Olivia in a farcical way, playing it for laugh, doesn't it mean you
:26:59. > :27:05.lose a little bit of the poignancy that you sometimes get with the
:27:05. > :27:12.portrayal of Olivia? I don't think so. That would be a risk, in fact,
:27:12. > :27:16.I think the first interview between Viola and Olivia is absolutely
:27:16. > :27:21.crackled with poetic poignancy. Viola's speech about making a
:27:21. > :27:25.willow cabinet was wonderfully done. What I liked about the production
:27:25. > :27:29.is trying out ideas, trying out Stephen Fry as a really dig
:27:29. > :27:39.nationwide malVeolia, I have always wanted to see that -- malVeolia, I
:27:39. > :27:45.have always wanted to he -- Malvolio, there is always those
:27:45. > :27:51.bits that I hate with Malvolio mocked, here he's dignified, as he
:27:51. > :27:58.would be in a house of that kind. And taken in, by what would be, a
:27:58. > :28:03.completely genuine-looking letter. When it comes down to the rousing
:28:03. > :28:06.Zatogabelch and he says, about my masters are you mad, it was a
:28:06. > :28:10.terrific moment, they look foolish, and they are foolish, and are shown
:28:10. > :28:14.to be at the end. Doing it with an authoritative Malvolio, I have
:28:14. > :28:19.always wanted that. I have thought why shouldn't he fall in love with
:28:19. > :28:25.his employer, what is so wrong about it. Is he really inferior to
:28:25. > :28:28.Sir Toby Belch. I I think it does lose something, not specifically
:28:28. > :28:33.because Rylance is a man, but because of his age. When the main
:28:33. > :28:39.plot line is played for laughs, you get more laughs, but structurally
:28:39. > :28:44.it starts to dra, the Comic Relief is to give you Comic Relief, if the
:28:44. > :28:48.if it is comic it slows down the main plot line. With the scenes in
:28:48. > :28:52.the second half, even with good people in it, they start to drag
:28:52. > :28:59.because they haven't anything to do. That is a terrible shame. Malvolio
:28:59. > :29:02.is completely undercut, if Olivia is a raunchy cougar, the idea that
:29:02. > :29:08.he would be in lust with her is ridiculous, there is nothing comic
:29:08. > :29:11.to do in the scene and leaves him exposed. I didn't think it dragged
:29:11. > :29:15.at all. I thought they were good at switching between comedy. I don't
:29:15. > :29:20.think it ever switches. Right at the end, how does Orsino play the
:29:20. > :29:25.thing about "kill what I loved", he draws his sword, and points it at
:29:25. > :29:33.her throat. Often it is done, he's directing it assesss, here it is
:29:33. > :29:38.extraordinary dram -- seas seas, here it is an exCesaria, here it is
:29:38. > :29:40.a dramatic wind up at the end of the play. It was wonderfully plient,
:29:41. > :29:45.and it was suggested at the start, coming into the theatre, there are
:29:45. > :29:53.the cast being made up, being dressed, putting on the wigs. It is
:29:53. > :30:00.a wonderful idea, trying out ways of doing it. It is terrific.
:30:00. > :30:05.agree, what disguised in this very traditional audience setting, is
:30:05. > :30:08.this actual whole freshness, an attempt to say, look, we know
:30:08. > :30:12.Shakespeare, infinite numbers of versions of this have been played,
:30:12. > :30:15.where can we find a way to introduce some new light into this
:30:15. > :30:21.thing that we know. Where can we find some possiblities in the text
:30:21. > :30:27.and fresh readings of it. It turns out, we can do that by actually,
:30:27. > :30:37.apparently, staging it as conventionally as archaicly as
:30:37. > :30:39.
:30:39. > :30:42.possible. And correspondingly, with lines like "I was adored once too",
:30:42. > :30:48.thrown away, they are not going to bother about the things everyone
:30:48. > :30:52.knows about, trying new ways. you as disappointed with all the
:30:52. > :31:01.male casting, or what about the character of Maria? He is fantastic.
:31:01. > :31:07.It is brilliantly done. Paul Chaheady? He plays the character
:31:07. > :31:12.rather than a hilarious woman, I could have long done without Johnny
:31:12. > :31:17.Flynn's "this is a girl's voice", for three hours. But Maria is very
:31:17. > :31:22.well realised as being a bustling, and quite cruel character, that
:31:22. > :31:27.works a little better. But because Malvolio is no longer a buffoon,
:31:27. > :31:33.they are unkind. You can't see why they would gang up on him. A new
:31:33. > :31:38.idea was tried out with Maria, when Malvolio is in prison, she pours
:31:38. > :31:46.hot wax from her candle on to him, a horrible thing, full of new ideas.
:31:47. > :31:51.We are about to get an all-female Julius sees -- Caesar, what do you
:31:51. > :31:56.think of that? The notion that you can only play these things in a
:31:56. > :32:01.fixed way is ridiculous. The notion that you can only play Shakespeare
:32:02. > :32:07.with a male-female cast or all-male cast, I think, the reason
:32:07. > :32:09.Shakespeare stood for hundreds of years, is because you keep finding
:32:09. > :32:13.fresh ways of doing it. The obligation of any actors and cast
:32:13. > :32:17.is to try to find new ways of shuffling the pack. That is what
:32:17. > :32:24.this does and hopefully another version will do. You can make your
:32:24. > :32:29.own mind up, you can see Twelfth Night it is continuing in Rep with
:32:29. > :32:34.Richard II at the Apollo Theatre. Mad Men meets Harry Potter, not
:32:34. > :32:38.some crazed pitch about the moral degeneration of the boy wizard. But
:32:38. > :32:42.a new TV drama starring Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe. The Young
:32:42. > :32:46.Doctor's Notebook is based on the real experiences of the rush author,
:32:46. > :32:51.Mikhail Bulgakov, as a country doctor. A chain-smoking Jon Hamm,
:32:51. > :32:56.no change there, swaps the Martineies of Mad Men, or the
:32:56. > :33:06.morphine of a medicine cabinet, and haunts his younger self-, played by
:33:06. > :33:11.Radcliffe. A The Young Doctor's Notebook is set in the desperate
:33:11. > :33:13.conditions of a small isolated hospital. Adapted from semi-
:33:13. > :33:18.autobiograical accounts of Bulgakov's work as a doctor, the
:33:18. > :33:21.plot revolves around newly- qualified Vladimir Bomgard, thrown
:33:21. > :33:30.pitilessly into the horrors of rural medicine, during the dawn of
:33:30. > :33:37.the Russian revolution. I'm the doctor. I am the doctor. Forgive me
:33:37. > :33:43.doctor, glad to have you here. Really, very glad to have you here.
:33:43. > :33:53.So glad. Doctor, this is our junior midwife. Do not let her distract
:33:53. > :33:54.
:33:54. > :34:00.you. Oh, no. No. I won't. Played by Daniel Radcliffe the inexperienced
:34:00. > :34:04.doctor stumbles through waves of superstitious peasants, assisted
:34:04. > :34:08.only by equally strange nurses, as the harsh, snowy environment cuts
:34:08. > :34:18.him off from civilisation. So the midwife tells me you have travelled
:34:18. > :34:23.all the way from Dozsavos that far? A small village just outside
:34:23. > :34:27.Grabalovka. I'm new to the area, I don't know where anything is,
:34:27. > :34:33.geographically, I know a transverse lie when I see one, this is one,
:34:33. > :34:37.well done Anna. Those experiences, recorded in a
:34:37. > :34:42.notebook, are remembered by the doctor in later life. Jon Hamm, who
:34:42. > :34:49.returns to the hospital to taunt his younger self.
:34:50. > :34:57.Yeah, I saw a lot of horror and tragedy in here. Happy days.
:34:57. > :35:02.Come along doctor, must you dawdle. This is the dispensery.
:35:02. > :35:05.Ex lent. As the doctor struggles under the
:35:05. > :35:11.burden of medical responsibility, and doubt his own ability, we are
:35:11. > :35:15.exposed to the darker side of his inner demons.
:35:15. > :35:21.With Bothham ham and Radcliffe professing their love for Bulgakov
:35:21. > :35:25.-- both Hamm and Radcliffe professing their love for
:35:25. > :35:30.Bulgakov's writing, can they deliver it with wit or will the
:35:30. > :35:37.adaptation be left out in the cold. We have the bleakness, the Russian
:35:37. > :35:42.winter, the grinding poverty, and quite a lot of slapstick, which we
:35:42. > :35:46.saw there? That's what I like, none of this mistaken identity, I like
:35:46. > :35:49.bleak jokes and people taking morphine. Ro it is exactly what
:35:49. > :35:53.Northern Exposure would have been like if made by a Russian. Doctor
:35:53. > :36:01.comes from the big city, into the middle of nowhere, and he's
:36:01. > :36:05.appalled by the small-town values he finds, and hilarity ensues --
:36:05. > :36:10.ensues. It is nasty, it is gory, people who are squeamish may well
:36:10. > :36:14.not like some scenes in this. my TV supper to one side when I was
:36:14. > :36:18.watching this. I would suggest not eating while watching, as a rule of
:36:18. > :36:22.thumb. I would suggest that. Daniel Radcliffe, when you say of an actor
:36:22. > :36:26.they are trying hard, it is an insult. When I say it from the
:36:26. > :36:31.bottom of my heart, I mean it as a compliment. He could have Waltzed
:36:31. > :36:38.through the rest of his life off the back of Harry Potter, he has
:36:38. > :36:44.gone to Broadway and done a musical, and doing bleak comedy. People
:36:44. > :36:49.thinking he would be a child star will be glad he's having meaning
:36:49. > :36:53.less sex and smoking and drinking in this. This was a passionate
:36:53. > :36:57.project for him, he spent his 25th birthday at Bulgakov's house, and
:36:57. > :37:02.Jon Hamm, who loves the original book? It is hard to see how it
:37:02. > :37:08.would have been made otherwise. It is comedy, but it is actually, it
:37:08. > :37:13.is a four-part drama. But actually it is really in two parts. The
:37:13. > :37:18.first half is slightly antic, slapstick, as Natalie said. The
:37:18. > :37:22.second half, the last two parts get very, very dark that is where the
:37:22. > :37:27.morphine addiction slips in. There is not much else inbetween. It is
:37:27. > :37:32.like tolls toy meets Trainspotting, it starts off with this thing of
:37:32. > :37:37.the Russian winter, then it is into the compulsion, addiction, squalor,
:37:37. > :37:42.really. It get much more internal. So, yes, it is a passion project,
:37:42. > :37:46.but not a vanity piece. It will be the passion project for you, in a
:37:46. > :37:50.way, John, like Jon Hamm, you really like the original book, The
:37:50. > :37:54.Young Doctor's Notebook. It was one of your top 50 books of the 20th
:37:54. > :38:01.century? I love it. Hence didn't like this at all. I thought it was
:38:01. > :38:06.ruined from the start by having the old, older Bulgakov around at the
:38:06. > :38:10.shoulder of the younger Bulgakov. It is crazey. This is about
:38:10. > :38:14.loneliness. Let's see a bit about this, it will help make your point,
:38:14. > :38:19.I think. Give me the book. What are you doing, I need that? No you
:38:19. > :38:24.don't. I do, I don't have time for this. Right, you have to get back
:38:24. > :38:34.to theatre. Give me the book. won't jump for it, I won't demean
:38:34. > :38:45.
:38:45. > :38:52.myself. Give it back. No. Ahhh. No. Stop it. No what are you doing.
:38:52. > :38:57.What. No, what are you doing? this is what you are talking about?
:38:57. > :39:01.Absolutely, that epitomises what is wrong with this. Why don't they
:39:01. > :39:06.just trust Bulgakov, all that is completely made up. What nonsense.
:39:06. > :39:11.Bulgakov is a very humane writer. Of course it is gorey, in his own
:39:11. > :39:16.writing, but it is never slapstick, and it is humane in a way that is
:39:16. > :39:21.positive. The point was made it was pulled into two halves. What is not
:39:21. > :39:27.there, is that the young woman whose leg he has to amputate, and
:39:27. > :39:34.the young woman who he does the tracheotomy on, come back in the
:39:34. > :39:37.bulk healthy and grateful. He has a real positive side, not there.
:39:37. > :39:41.you are translating a piece of writing to the screen, often you do
:39:41. > :39:46.want to be more adventurous, dramatically for the sake of the
:39:46. > :39:50.drama. There are gains and losses, when you adapt something there are
:39:50. > :39:54.always gains and losses, on screen you can't portray the level of
:39:54. > :39:57.loneliness that you can portray in print, ever. What is the gain in
:39:57. > :40:02.eating that piece of paper. Because you need to find, I would suggest,
:40:02. > :40:07.at least in some way, a comic may of pointing out, even though they
:40:07. > :40:12.are playing the same person, Jon Hamm is a good eight inches taller,
:40:12. > :40:19.I think that is a heads up to the audience when he says he won't jump
:40:19. > :40:23.for it. The audience is more likely to be about the actors rather than
:40:23. > :40:26.the author. They are serving the audience. What did you agree about
:40:27. > :40:31.the older doctor coming back? you have set it up there aren't
:40:31. > :40:34.places to go, I agree with John. Jon Hamm pre-figures all the things
:40:34. > :40:37.that will happen to Daniel Radcliffe, the main thing is he
:40:37. > :40:43.pre-figures the addiction. We see it coming from the beginning, and
:40:43. > :40:46.it looms and looms and looms. There is nowhere for Daniel Radcliffe to
:40:46. > :40:51.go as a character. In fact, there is nowhere for him to grow. There
:40:51. > :40:55.is none of that redumb that we might otherwise see -- redemption
:40:55. > :40:59.that we might otherwise see coming into play. They are playing it as a
:40:59. > :41:09.sitcom, the definition of sitcom is they don't change. Nobody
:41:09. > :41:12.
:41:12. > :41:18.developing during the entirety of Steptoe and Son, or Fraiser. We do
:41:18. > :41:21.see him change substantially, from young, hopeful niave, to bitter.
:41:22. > :41:27.don't see him change, but two separate stages. The problem of the
:41:27. > :41:32.book for them is it doesn't end. It is a collection of two short
:41:32. > :41:36.stories, the last story is called More stpeen, it is about morphine,
:41:36. > :41:43.and it happens to a doctor who shoots himself. It was true of
:41:43. > :41:49.Bulgakov's own life, he became Ayew directed for morphine? Yes, he
:41:49. > :41:52.chucked it after 1918, he was wounded in the war. The character
:41:52. > :41:57.that Daniel Radcliffe portrays has been wounded in the Great War, he
:41:57. > :42:01.has been married for three years. In the end you switch to the
:42:01. > :42:04.Russian revolution in Kiev, and a very horrifying scene where he's
:42:04. > :42:09.captured by the white Russians, they hadn't enough money to do that,
:42:09. > :42:15.so they end it with a ludicrous hallucination scene where it is
:42:15. > :42:21.true, the wolves are there, they are in the book, and where he
:42:21. > :42:25.shoots a hallucination of his predesos sor. It made me want to
:42:25. > :42:33.search out -- predecessor, it made me want to search out Bulgakov's
:42:33. > :42:37.book T starts on the 6th December at 9.00. Thanks to my guest, do
:42:37. > :42:43.stay with BBC for music on Later, with Sinead O'Connor and Courtney
:42:43. > :42:49.Pine. Kirsty is back for more review next Friday at 11.00. Just a
:42:49. > :42:54.stone's throw away from the studio, are Glasgow's shipyards, one of its
:42:54. > :42:59.most famous workers turns 70 tomorrow. Billy Connolly, here is a
:42:59. > :43:04.taster of the special that you can watch here on the 4th January.
:43:04. > :43:11.Happy birthday Billy. Did you ever think you would get to 70?
:43:11. > :43:18.Seriously? I didn't think I would get to 50. The queerist thing was I
:43:18. > :43:23.was looking forward to it as well. Dying? Burning out. Really? Boom!
:43:23. > :43:25.But that is a James Dean thing? is like a firework, it is a
:43:25. > :43:29.romantic stupid, self-indulgent notion. I always thought I would
:43:29. > :43:35.explode, you know. You were kind of on the way there in a major way.