From the 23rd June onwards The National Theatre is providing the theatregoing population with a sumptuous treat. The ‘Square Squared’ outdoor theatre space is reappearing on the South Bank, where it will play host to seven pieces of hugely experimental theatre.
Watch This Space
The plays on offer serve as testament to The National’s unending quest to provide its devotees – a plethora of unashamedly post-Brechtian theatre-types who wear their pretension on their sleeves, self included – with performances that are even more cutting edge than the play they saw last time.
To highlight this point, it isn’t as if The National is usually hides its performances behind proscenium arches whose claim-to-fame is that they were once gobbed on by David Garrick. The National’s supremely admirable legacy is that they constantly march, unafraid, into uncharted territory. For example, in the past they audiences have been treated to a reimagined version of Euripedes’ Women Of Troy that included a two-level set, a grunting and clunking warehouse door and full-frontal nudity. Furthermore, The Olivier Theatre’s revolving-stage has been used to mesmerising effect not only in the modern plays Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Warhorse – but also in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
This juxtaposes with the staging efforts of the more well-attended West-End ‘spectaculars’ – note that the word ‘spectacular’ is used quite wrongly – such as Sweet Charity. In this production at The Theatre Royal, Haymarket, Tamzin Outhwaite mechanically sings and dances on a ‘set’ seemingly flung onto a black space. The show gives the impression that it is run on a shoestring. The song that is arguably the show’s most famous, ‘If They Could See Me Now’, is accompanied by a cringeworthy piece of lacklustre top-hat fondling by Outhwaite. This provides a theatrical moment that is more akin to creepy-foreplay than Sondheim-esque lyrical quality, or the arduously choreographed stylised movement of The Lion King.
It appears that The National’s artistic director, or other like-positioned soul, has scoured the globe’s theatrical diamond-mine to the depths, and brought back only the most precious gems. However, not only are the spectacles on offer teeter on the peripheries of theatrical possibility, but their mode of accessibility is novel and unique.
If you would like to see any of the shows, you can’t book online. This seems like a devilish and uncharacteristic faux-pas, however, when one considers that the maximum capacity for FIB, the last show to be held, is 14 – one, four… yeah? – it makes sense. Only the most keen can ascertain tickets: the box office is open on the day and only for that day’s show. Furthermore, at the primary box-office transaction you will not be asked to hand over any money.
Another clever little embellishment that The National has decided to implement with the SquareSquared gigs is that you and I decide how much we pay. We could leave as little as tuppence ha’penny in our envelopes at the end of the performance; or we could write a cheque for an amount equal to Liberia’s deficit.
The seven plays – the meat in this conceptual bolognese – originate from areas as diverse as Poland, France, and the politically charged Basque-Country. FIB, whose audience members – all 14 of them – are shifted between 14 different boxes, is the only show that hails from the UK. Of the other six plays on offer my pick of the bunch is, at present, Life Streaming, which is from the Netherlands. In this performance the audience are seated in an mock-up of an internet cafe, which is slowly permeated with the sounds and smells of Sri-Lanka – interesting. However, my opinion as to which will be the best changes every time I visit this website: www.thenational.org.uk, so please decide yourself.
