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