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Everyman review – a rousing display.
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4 /
5 stars
Olivier, London Rufus Norris begins his directorship at the National with Chiwetel
Ejiofor starring as a superb Everyman in Carol Ann Duffy’s take on the
15th century morality play
‘He has had, from his earliest stage appearances, the ability to
radiate’: Chiwetel Ejiofor as Everyman at the National. Photograph:
Tristram Kenton
By their first productions shall ye know them. Or shall we? When
Trevor Nunn took over as artistic director of the National Theatre, he
opened with a production of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People that was choreographed like a musical. Nicholas Hytner began with an Iraq-inflected Henry V that
prefigured his sharp urban Shakespeares. Rufus Norris starts with what
is essentially a new play – Carol Ann Duffy’s 21st-century version of Everyman.
He uses it to give a rousing display of his theatrical lexicon:
brilliant visual effects, inventive music, diverse casting,
environmental concern.
The casting sets out to stir. God is a woman. Wearing Marigolds and
pushing a mop, Kate Duchêne gives the divine boss a
world-on-her-shoulders weariness. Dermot Crowley is a fine and caustic
Death, in surgical overalls. “You’re taking it very personally,” he says
to Everyman, about his impending exit from life. Chiwetel Ejiofor
is Everyman; “Ev” to his intimates. He is everything you would want in a
role that requires him to command attention without being overwhelming.
He has had, from his earliest stage appearances, the ability to
radiate, to transfix by quietness as well as by sudden flares. He uses
that to the full here.
The visual effects are tremendous, from the opening moment when Ev
plummets from top to bottom of the stage. Tal Rosner’s spinning videos
evoke tsunami and griddling rain, and scatter blocks of colour as if a
Matisse was being dismembered. A derelict natural world is conjured in a
marvellous episode dominated by plastic-bag monsters. A giant fan
scatters rubbish – and is then turned on to the audience. Music weaves
together the medieval and the modern.
There is a difficulty. It lies in Duffy’s script. This is lively,
demotic, outspoken – as is the 15th-century morality play, though that
did not mention colostomy bags. Yet it is also avowedly secular. Take
away from Everyman the fear of Judgment, and you are left with an often
attenuated satire on 21st-century consumerism. Justified, perhaps, but
frequently familiar – and, in the case of the coke-snorting, roaring,
sharp-suited binge with which the play begins, over-extended. It is
unlikely that anyone will leave the theatre frightened for their own
life. Neither – there is a muddle between the personal and the
universal– are they likely to fear anew for the future of the world. The
sensational staging, with gilded mannequins pirouetting around as
Everyman’s earthly goods, does not provide that fear. Still, it can
magnetise an audience.
theguardian
Everyman
a new adaptation by Carol Ann Duffy ★★★★ ‘Bold. Attention grabbing. A startling contemporary version by Carol Ann Duffy.’ Evening Standard
Limited availability in June, good availability from mid July - Day Tickets and Friday Rush available. Friday Rush Every Friday at 1pm a limited number of £20 tickets for the following week’s performances will be released online. Find out more. £15 Day Tickets Available in person on the day of the performance. Find out more. NT Live Broadcast on 16 July, 7pm. Find your nearest venue.
Everyman is successful, popular and riding high when Death comes
calling. He is forced to abandon the life he has built and embark on a
last, frantic search to recruit a friend, anyone, to speak in his
defence. But Death is close behind, and time is running out.
One of the great primal, spiritual myths, Everyman asks
whether it is only in death that we can understand our lives. A
cornerstone of English drama since the 15th century, it now explodes
onto the stage in a startling production with words by Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate, and movement by Javier De Frutos. Chiwetel Ejiofor takes the title role.
Contains strong language and adult themes School groups: suitable for KS4+
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