Theatre

CONFESSIONS OF A THEATRE ADDICT Rosie Cunningham

The Madness of King George. Image: Manuel Harlan

The Madness of George III, written by Alan Bennett and filmed at the Nottingham Playhouse, is superb with Mark Gatiss, who is known for Game of Thrones and Sherlock, as the lead.

Gatiss gave a magnificent performance of the King descending into madness. Put in isolation and separated from his wife, Queen Charlotte, with his elder son willing his demise so that he could declare his father mad and assume the throne, the portrayal of descent is exquisite. The support cast circled throughout and ably supported, but it was Gatiss on whose shoulders the whole play hinged, and his performance was sublime.

I saw Diana Quick in a very moving, short conversational piece called Midnight Your Time by

Adam Brace, which was a Donmar Warehouse Digital

Production created during the Covid-19 lockdown in

May. This is a series of primarily late-night telephone calls made to her daughter’s answer machine, who is living overseas. What becomes clear is that everything is not well between mother and daughter and, with the introduction of alcohol and recrimination, words are spoken which should have been left unsaid. This is

Quick at her very best.

If you have seen the Amazon Prime series Good

Omens, with David Tennant and Michael Sheen, you are in for a treat with the new Zoom-satirising comedy series called Staged, made from their respective homes.

Absolutely hilarious in parts. Both actors get themselves into trouble by overpromising, blaming others, and not being entirely honest. Short vignettes by Judy Dench and Samuel L. Jackson add to the level of actor farce.

But the best is yet to come. Small Island, streamed from National Theatre Live, tells the story of Jamaicans who came over on HMT Empire Windrush to fight for Britain in the Second World War. They came with high expectations and the chance to leave their small poverty-ridden country and were treated with distrust and abuse. This is a hugely powerful play with a company of 40 actors against a backdrop of oppressive scenes being played out on a large screen at the back of the stage, creating an impression of barely suppressed anger and violence. Leah Harvey is outstanding as Hortense. The director is Rufus Norris. The play was adapted by Helen Edmundson. This is one to watch.

Lungs is a live-stream play from the Old Vic, reuniting Claire Foy and Matt Smith who performed this sell-out play together in 2019. Performing to an empty auditorium, this is part of a socially-distanced ‘In Camera’ series raising much needed funds to shore up the theatre’s perilous finances. The two actors keep their distance from each other on the stage but, due to a split screen delivery, appear in close interaction with each other. An imaginative and innovative solution to Covid-19 lockdown rules and a novel way to keep the theatre alive by asking the public to buy their seats for each performance. The play is by Duncan Macmillan.

Lungs. Image: Manuel Harlan