ALBION (Almeida Theatre)****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000lwgy/albion

Available until: Tuesday 15^th September

Albion is a brilliant, thought-provoking and very sad play which I probably don’t understand completely in all its layers, but which I would definitely consider watching on iPlayer again if I have time. Or seeing live onstage if it is revived after the theatres open, though it seems unlikely considering Albion has been presented twice since 2017 and so many planned theatre productions have been postponed – and perhaps might never happen.

I know this play has been compared to Brexit and the political situation and I’m sure that’s absolutely right, but it actually made me think more of lockdown. For months, we have all been trapped in limbo, our dreams and plans on hold, perhaps forever. We look back into the past, hoping things will go back to the way they were, but slowly realising that our lives probably can’t be the same again. Not now we have lived through so much of 2020 and we know the ramifications in health, politics and education are likely to continue even after a vaccine is found. We’ll keep dreaming and some of us will fight to go back to what we call normality. Perhaps some of us will achieve this or at least believe we have. But can things really go back to the way they were?

This is a question which is seems important in Albion. Most of the characters are lost in dreams of the past. Even the ones who are dreaming of their futures are actually partly looking backwards because achieving their dreams would mean that some parts of their lives would have to go back to the way things were.

Rupert Goold’s production fills the stage with life and death. Some of his characters are dead, some dying, and some dying inside, mourning the loss of people and the past. He’s not afraid to let characters hold on to a moment, to give them and us a moment just to feel, or to let the dialogue move on relentlessly.

Rhodri Huw does an incredible job of adapting it for TV. They filmed several performances and edited them all together into one. You would never guess that we were seeing the actors over several days. Some people who are used to TV rather than theatre probably find the presence of an audience distracting, but I don’t think it would bother them so much with Albion as the audience are just an occasional blur, laughing occasionally but not intruding on the action.

Miriam Buether’s set is one of the most incredible sets I have ever seen. At first, it is green grass with a tree, the rough edges of the stage like the edges of a path. This seems amazing enough but then, it grows. The actors bring in flowers and plants and place them around the stage as it comes alive in front of us. It is stunning to watch a garden grow in fast forward – the actors are not gardening in the traditional sense, but their movements in the half-darkness, it looks as though they are. And when the magnificent garden is fully revealed, it is awe-inspiring. I would never have believed it was possible to create a garden onstage that really looks and feels like a garden. I’m used to suspending my disbelief and accepting the bare, usually brown or black stage as being whatever the story needs to be, but I didn’t really think of the stage as a stage at all because it really looked like a beautiful garden.

Mike Bartlett’s script is clever. One moment, we are laughing. Then we’re thinking deeply about something a character has said, even if we’d laughed at the very same comment only seconds ago. The conversations go around in circles and the characters don’t really change, though they do learn to understand each other and themselves better (and not always in a good way), but it never becomes boring or irritating because that is part of the point of the story. The characters are trapped and unable to move forward, as most of them probably should, or move back, as they want to. It is a shame that some of the characters’ voices aren’t more clearly-defined as the characterisation comes more from their individual stories than from the lines they’re given, but perhaps that is intentional too. Ten characters from different backgrounds, with different beliefs, at different points in their lives, but in a way, they’re all the same. All trapped.

The acting is excellent and the characters are distinct, but the majority of them all have one characteristic in common. They all lose their tempers quickly and snap at each other and say very hurtful things. They are all struggling emotionally so I do understand it, but it is sad to watch people being horrible to each other for nearly three hours. It is realistic that they are all stressed and that they need to release their emotions, but not everyone does that in the same way.

Victoria Hamilton gives a mesmerising performance as Audrey, who is determined and desperate to restore the garden back to the beautiful place she grew up in. She’s very rude, extremely stubborn and snappy even by this play’s standards – it’s not very easy to like her. But Victoria Hamilton brings out her deep yearning and unhappiness and it is impossible not to feel for her, even when she pushes everyone away from her with harsh and cruel words. At one point in the play, Audrey organises an Agatha Christie party and that reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel which I’ve read recently, And Then There Were None. This play is really nothing like the novel, but it is focused around ten people and one of them (Audrey) slowly and heartbreakingly kills her relationship with almost all of them, and is destroying herself at the same time.

Angel Coulby gives a very moving performance as Anna, the partner of Audrey’s late son James. She, grieves painfully but with a really deep sincerity. Audrey gets impatient with her even though she is just as much caught up in the past in her own way, but I really sympathise with Anna. Daisy Edgar-Jones shows Zara’s vulnerability under her snippy and sarcastic exterior - she’s 25 but I think she goes back into teen mode around her mum. Helen Schlesinger’s intelligent, compassionate Katherine dreams of everything she missed out on when she was young and thinks she finds a way of being young again when she falls in love with a younger character. Donal Finn is very kind and polite as Gabriel, though he loses some of his innocence in the cruelty of the world around him. He’s dreaming of a return to his education – and of love.

There’s also a contrast between the two cleaners - Edyta Budnick’s clever and efficient but detached Krystyna and Cheryl (Margot Leicester) who has done the job for twenty years. She’s slow and clumsy but emotionally invested in her work. Nicholas Rowe stands out as Audrey’s husband Paul, loving her and understanding Audrey and somehow managing to avoid being dragged into the nastiness. I find Paul, Gabriel and Anna the most likeable characters, Paul because he’s so supportive, Gabriel because he is really respectful at least to start off with and Anna because she is hurting so much and it’s so sad. I wanted to give her a hug. I don’t think anyone else ever does. The characters aren’t afraid to reach out for the things they want, but they don’t really reach out to offer comfort.