Balancing Acts

by Nicholas Hytner

  Don Carlos was at the Manchester Royal Exchange, where between 1985 and 1988 I was an associate director. Ian McDiarmid was King Philip II, a performance of suppressed ferocity. Michael Grandage was a watchful Don Carlos. Ian McDiarmid was also Volpone at the Almeida. His passionate intelligence had a big influence on me. Joshua Sobol’s play Ghetto was an overwhelming record of the destruction by the Nazis of the Yiddish Theatre Company in Vilna, Lithuania.

  Cressida had splendid performances from Anthony Calf, Matt Hickey, Lee Ingleby, Charles Kay and Malcolm Sinclair. In Orpheus Descending, Val Xavier was played by Stuart Townsend. In Twelfth Night, there were beautiful performances from Kyra Sedgwick, Max Wright, Brian Murray and David Patrick Kelly. Helen Hunt was Viola and Philip Bosco was Malvolio. In The Winter’s Tale Phil Daniels performed a miracle with the often intolerable Autolycus: he left you wanting more. Ian Redford as the princess was perfect in Mother Clap. So was Paul Ready as the apprentice Martin, never better than when required to make pig noises while Con O’Neill went at him. Iain Mitchell gamely wore a leather harness and jock strap in the Act 2 sex party. Maggie McCarthy was the cunning old brothel-keeper. All the mollies were divine.

  The serpentine archbishop in Henry V was William Gaunt. Peter Blythe was a model of establishment civility as Exeter. Robert Blythe was Llewellyn; Ian Hogg was the king of France; Felicité du Jeu was his daughter Catherine. In the tavern, Jude Akuwudike was Pistol and Cecilia Noble was the hostess, sticking around to be Ruta Skadi, queen of the Latvian witches in His Dark Materials. Edmond was deftly staged by Edward Hall. The Jerry Springer cast was led by Michael Brandon as Jerry, and included David Bedella as Satan, Benjamin Lake, Loré Lixenberg, Vlada Aviks, Andrew Bevis, Wills Morgan, Sally Bourne, Alison Jiear and Marcus Cunningham. Their singing was refined; their performances were right out there.

  Elmina’s Kitchen was uncommonly well acted by Shaun Parkes, Paterson Joseph, Emmanuel Idowu, Oscar James, George Harris and Doña Croll, and directed by Angus Jackson. Kwame Kwei-Armah wrote two more equally powerful plays for the National: Fix Up (2004) and Statement of Regret (2007). At the centre of Democracy were profoundly moving performances by Roger Allam and Conleth Hill. The Pillowman was quite brilliantly acted by Jim Broadbent, Adam Godley, Nigel Lindsay and David Tennant and directed by John Crowley. The cast of His Dark Materials all deserved awards for courage under fire. Among numberless exceptional performances in roles whose very names will thrill Pullman aficionados were Niamh Cusack as Serafina Pekkala, queen of the Lapland Witches, Danny Sapani as Iorek Byrnison and Tim McMullan as Fra Pavel of Geneva and the Gallivespian Lord Roke. The fantastic costumes were by Jon Morrell, the puppets were by Michael Curry, and the magical score was by Jonathan Dove.

  The 2003/4 season was completed by Power, an elegant new play by Nick Dear about the young Louis XIV, and revivals of two terrific shows from Trevor Nunn’s last season: Matthew Bourne’s Play Without Words, and Roy Williams’s Sing Yer Hearts Out for the Lads, a potent exposé of racism, set in a pub during an England/Germany World Cup qualifier.

  Over twelve years, the cast for the Wednesday planning meeting revolved often. It included: Nick Starr, Lisa Burger, Howard Davies, Marianne Elliott, Katie Mitchell, Tom Morris, Rufus Norris, Ben Power, Bijan Sheibani (associate directors); Jack Bradley, Sebastian Born (Literary); Lucy Davies, Purni Morell, Laura Collier (Studio); Pádraig Cusack, Paul Jozefowski, Daisy Heath, Robin Hawkes, Jo Hornsby (Planning); Toby Whale, Wendy Spon (Casting); Matthew Scott (Music); Chris Harper, Sarah Hunt, Alex Bayley (Marketing); Mark Dakin (Technical); John Rodgers (Development); David Sabel (Digital); Jenny Harris, Stephanie Hutchinson, Alice King-Farlow (Learning).

  In Stuff Happens, Joe Morton was Colin Powell, Adjoa Andoh was Condoleezza Rice, Dermot Crowley was Dick Cheney, Nick Sampson was Dominique de Villepin and Angus Wright asked the audience to consider its own complacency. The speed-dating session at the Studio that gave birth to London Road was organised by Purni Morell. Its phenomonal cast was Clare Burt, Rosalie Craig, Kate Fleetwood, Hal Fowler, Nick Holder, Claire Moore, Michael Shaeffer, Nicola Sloane, Paul Thornley, Howard Ward and Duncan Wisbey. Paul was directed by Howard Davies and designed by Vicki Mortimer. Adam Godley was Paul, Lloyd Owen was Peter and Pierce Quigley was Yeshua. In The Seafarer were Ron Cook, Conleth Hill, Karl Johnson, Michael McElhatton and Jim Norton, all of them sensational. England People Very Nice was designed by Mark Thompson; the wicked animations were by Pete Bishop. The skipping teenager in To Be Straight With You was the kinetic Ankur Bahl. In Dara, Zubin Varla and Sargon Yelda played the warring sons of Shah Jahan. Nadia Fall directed in a gorgeous set by Katrina Lindsay.

  Anna Chancellor was Matt Charman’s election observer. Lloyd Owen was the CIA operative at the centre of Blood and Gifts. Nikki Amuka-Bird and David Harewood were the rival presidents in Welcome to Thebes, which was magisterially directed by Richard Eyre. Sahr Ngaujah brought the audience to its feet as Fela Kuti in Fela! In a significant first, its director Bill T. Jones ripped off his shirt and danced on stage with the cast at the first-night curtain call. I was never tempted to follow his example. 3 Winters was one of Howard Davies’s best productions, which is to say it was one of the best things we ever did. The actors who created Two Thousand Years with Mike Leigh were Caroline Gruber, Allan Corduner, Ben Caplan, Adam Godley, Alexis Zegerman, John Burgess, Nitzan Sharron and Samantha Spiro. Olivia Williams was Kitty in Happy Now? The superb damaged children in The Last of the Haussmans were Rory Kinnear and Helen McCrory. Market Boy was Rufus Norris’s first production at the National: he occupied the Olivier stage as if he owned it. The pitmen painters, all regulars of Live Theatre and all first rate, were Deka Walmsley, Christopher Connel, David Whitaker, Brian Lonsdale and Michael Hodgson; Ian Kelly was their tutor. Jeremy Herrin directed This House with great panache. Walter Harrison was Philip Glenister, Jack Weatherill was Charles Edwards: they and the entire cast were knockout. Great Britain was designed by Tim Hatley, and the projections were by Leo Warner, the founding director of 59 Productions, who have been at the forefront of the transformation of video as a theatrical medium. Robert Glenister was the editor, Dermot Crowley was the proprietor and Oliver Chris was the assistant commissioner, all of them lethally funny. Collaborators was designed by Bob Crowley, with a nod to Russian constructivism. Mark Addy, always bullseye, was the KGB man; Jacqueline Defferary was Yelena Bulgakov; George Fenton wrote a score that Shostakovich would not have disowned. Billie Piper and Jonjo O’Neill were the couple at the centre of The Effect, in a searing production by Rupert Goold. Billie is Lucy Prebble’s muse, which is good news for both of them. The James Plays were given a thrilling design by Jon Bausor. It’s hard to believe that any of the real Stuart kings were as charismatic as James McArdle, Andrew Rothey and Jamie Sives as James I, II and III. Queen Margaret was an incandescent Sofie Gråbøl. In The Hard Problem, dazzling Olivia Vinall was in bed with sharp-witted Damien Molony. They wore their high intelligence lightly. So did Parth Thakerar, Jonathan Coy, Rosie Hilal, Lucy Robinson, Anthony Calf and Vera Chok. I regret having no space to mention many other excellent new plays.

  Jeremy Sams composed the enchanting score for The Wind in the Willows. In its first cast were David Bamber as Mole, Richard Briers as Rat, Griff Rhys Jones as Toad, Terence Rigby as Albert the horse and Michael Bryant as Badger. It was the only time I worked with Michael, the National’s adored mainstay during the directorships of Peter Hall, Richard Eyre and Trevor Nunn. He was indulgent of the younger actors’ approach to animal characterisation, and agreed to take home a video of badgers going about their nocturnal business. He returned it the following day. “I’ve studied these badgers very carefully, and discovered an extraordinary thing. They all move exactly like Michael Bryant.” He was particularly fond of two newcomers to the National: Tim McMullan as the chief weasel and Adrian Scarborough as his sidekick, Norman. Tim went on to become almost as valuable to the National as Michael, giving a succession of perfectly observed performances. Adrian became an Ala
n Bennett regular: he was promoted to Mole in The Wind in the Willows, played the king’s page Fortnum in The Madness of King George, the gym teacher in the movie of The History Boys, and Humphrey Carpenter in The Habit of Art.

  Charles Kay was literally mesmerising as Dr. Willis in The Madness of George III. James Villiers was Lord Chancellor Thurlow: his Cordelia was the least convincing in theatre history. Among many other smashing actors was Cyril Shaps as Dr. Pepys, who spent the play peering into the king’s chamber pot, transported by the consistent perfection of his stool. The Lady in the Van was the only one of my collaborations with Alan Bennett not to be produced at the National. Maggie Smith has never cared for the Lyttelton, and wanted to perform it eight times a week in the West End. The two Alan Bennetts were Kevin McNally and Nicholas Farrell, both perfect. Robert Fox was the producer, his wit and urbanity a throwback to the days when the West End was glamorous.

  I was on a panel with Simon Callow when he quoted Shakespeare’s Banished Duke, so my use of the same quotation is a direct steal. I have forgotten the sources of many of this book’s purloined insights, and I apologise for failing to acknowledge them. Bob Crowley’s set for The Habit of Art was a replica of Rehearsal Room 2. Stephen Wight was Stuart the rent boy and John Heffernan was the Assistant Stage Manager. They were both spot on. The superlative cast of People included Linda Bassett, Selina Cadell, Nicholas Le Prevost and Miles Jupp.

  About half of the cast of The Madness of King George had been in The Madness of George III. Among those who hadn’t were Helen Mirren as Queen Charlotte, Ian Holm as Dr. Willis and Rupert Everett as the Prince of Wales, all of them sublime. Helen was nominated for an Oscar, as were Nigel Hawthorne, Alan Bennett and Ken Adam, who won, as he had for Barry Lyndon. He wasn’t even nominated for Dr. Strangelove or Goldfinger, which says all you need to know about awards. Stephen Evans and David Parfitt were the two British producers of The Madness of King George. The producers of The Crucible were Arthur Miller’s son Robert, and David Picker, a Hollywood heavyweight. As president of United Artists, he worked with Bergman, Fellini and Truffaut and he shared stories about them without ever once making me feel small. Salem village was the creation of the production designer Lilly Kilvert. The make-up designer Naomi Donne became one of my best friends. Both The History Boys and The Lady in the Van were produced by Kevin Loader and Damian Jones. They were backed by BBC Films and my old friend Tom Rothman. All the scores were composed by George Fenton.

  David Bradley played the King in Henry IV. Sinking under the burden of power, still haunted on his deathbed by the violence he had unleashed, he gave a great performance. The mostly male cast included, in addition, excellent performances from Susan Brown as Mistress Quickly, Naomi Frederick as Lady Percy and Michelle Dockery as a servant. Adrian Scarborough memorably doubled Poins and Silence. The designer Mark Thompson was always the perfect collaborator on a low-budget Travelex show, able to conjure whole worlds with minimal resources. The cast for King Lear was amazing: Estelle Kohler, Sally Dexter and Alex Kingston as Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, Norman Rodway as Gloucester, David Troughton as Kent, Linus Roache as Edgar, Ralph Fiennes as Edmund, Paterson Joseph as Oswald and Linda Kerr Scott as the tiny, rubbery Fool. In Hamlet, Patrick Malahide was Claudius and James Laurenson doubled the ghost and the player king. Both were remarkable. Horatio was Giles Terera, Laertes was Alex Lanepikun, Fortinbras was Jake Fairbrother, Rosencrantz was Ferdinand Kingsley and Guildenstern was Prasanna Puwanarajah.

  The cast of The Importance of Being Earnest included Margaret Tyzack as Miss Prism and Richard Pearson as Chasuble. Alex Jennings and Richard E. Grant were Jack and Algernon; Susannah Harker and Claire Skinner were Gwendolen and Cecily. It was produced by Robert Fox. In The Country Wife, Cheryl Campbell was irresistible as Margery Pinchwife; Alex Jennings glittered as Sparkish, the fop. Bryan Dick and Amit Shah were touching dupes in The Alchemist. The scam was uncovered by Tim McMullan as Pertinax Surly, in yet another needle-sharp performance. Samuel Adamson made many excellent amendments to the text. Jonson’s contemporaries were lucky in Melly Still’s macabre production of Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy and Joe Hill-Gibbins’s iconoclastic staging of Marlowe’s Edward II.

  In Saint Joan, there were silver-tongued performances by Oliver Ford Davies, Paterson Joseph, Paul Ready, Michael Thomas and Angus Wright. The startling choreography was by Hofesh Shechter. Paul Ready, a frequent and outstanding company member, was Major Barbara’s fiancé; her mother was Clare Higgins, on top form; her brother was John Heffernan, who was just as good in After the Dance, which was directed by Thea Sharrock and designed by Hildegard Bechtler. The astonishing cast included Nancy Carroll, Benedict Cumberbatch and Adrian Scarborough. Dervla Kirwan, Adrian Dunbar and Peter McDonald were outstanding in Exiles; it was directed by James Macdonald. Men Should Weep was directed by Josie Rourke with a great set by Bunny Christie. Sharon Small and Robert Cavanah led a company that rose to its wild poetry. Martina Laird, Jenny Jules, Danny Sapani and Jude Akuwudike were part of an impressive cast in Michael Buffong’s production of Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. Opposite Zoë Wanamaker in The Rose Tattoo was an exuberant Darrell D’Silva. James Baldwin was magnificently served in a production of The Amen Corner by Rufus Norris with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Sharon D. Clarke, Cecilia Noble, Lucian Msamati, Eric Kofi Abrefa and the London Community Gospel Choir.

  The emperor in Emperor and Galilean was the protean Andrew Scott, an astounding performance, in eye-popping designs by Paul Brown. Ben Power made an engrossing three-hour adaptation of the eight-hour original. The White Guard had an unforgettable set by Bunny Christie. The awe-inspiring cast included many of Howard Davies’s regulars: Richard Henders, Daniel Flynn, Justine Mitchell, Paul Higgins, Pip Carter, Kevin Doyle, Conleth Hill, Nick Fletcher and Anthony Calf.

  Katie Mitchell also had a loyal repertory company of actors, among them Kate Duchêne, Michael Gould, Gawn Grainger, Sinead Matthews, Hattie Morahan and Justin Salinger. Ben Daniels was brilliant as Agamemnon in Iphigenia. There was more illustrious work on the Greeks in the Olivier. Jonathan Kent staged a gripping Oedipus with Ralph Fiennes and Clare Higgins; Polly Findlay directed Antigone with Jodie Whitaker and Christopher Ecclestone; Carrie Cracknell directed Medea with Helen McCrory and Danny Sapani.

  The two fabulous dancers in Timon of Athens were Christina Arestis and Kristen McNally. The indefatigable Ben Power collaborated on the text. In Othello were several of the actors upon whose matchless work in supporting roles the National’s reputation rests: Tom Robertson, Robert Demeger, William Chubb and Nick Sampson. The stunningly violent barrack-room brawl was arranged by Kate Waters. She also arranged the superb duel at the end of Hamlet. Mark Addy was hilarious as Dogberry in Much Ado, without a single piece of extraneous comic business. Julian Wadham was Don Pedro, Oliver Ford Davies was Leonato, Daniel Hawksford was Claudio and Susannah Fielding was Hero. The costumes were by Dinah Collin, and Rachel Portman wrote the ravishing music.

  I have written only about the Shakespeare that I have myself directed, so may have given the impression that he was my personal fiefdom. Not so: there were fascinating productions of Measure for Measure by Simon McBurney; All’s Well That Ends Well by Marianne Elliott; Twelfth Night by Peter Hall; and The Comedy of Errors by Dominic Cooke with dazzling performances from Claudie Blakley, Michelle Terry, Lenny Henry and Lucian Msamati. Sam Mendes and Simon Russell Beale did King Lear in 2014; it took eleven years to get them together, and it was worth the wait.

  In the London Carousel, Janie Dee was a glowing Carrie Pipperidge. In New York, Sally Murphy was a heartbreaking Julie Jordan, and Eddie Korbitch was a captivating Mr. Snow. Jigger Craigin was sung as if by Popeye by Phil Daniels in London, and Fisher Stevens in New York, both tremendous. At Lincoln Center, the show was produced by André Bishop and Bernard Gersten, who could not have given us a better time. In Sweet Smell of Success, luminous Kelli O’Hara played J.J.’s sister, and Jack Noseworthy was her boyfriend. Besides Fela!, two other musicals came from New
York. Caroline, Or Change had a book and lyrics by Tony Kushner and a thrilling, eclectic score—ranging from klezmer to Motown—by Jeanine Tesori. It was directed by the great George C. Wolfe. Here Lies Love in 2014 was based on David Byrne’s concept album about the life of Imelda Marcos, made in collaboration with Fatboy Slim. Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater, shepherded it to the stage, a triumph of creative producing. Its brilliant director was Alex Timbers.

  The designers of War Horse were a massive part of its success: Rae Smith did the set and costumes, Paule Constable lit it, video was by Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer of 59 Productions. The exhilarating score was by Adrian Sutton; the songmaker was the great folkie John Tams. Movement was by Toby Sedgwick. Curious Incident had a set by Bunny Christie, lighting by Paule Constable and video by Finn Ross. Movement was by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett for Frantic Assembly. Luke Treadaway was Christopher, a beautiful performance; his parents were played with rare empathy by Paul Ritter and Nicola Walker. Among the very funny actors in London Assurance were Mark Addy, Michelle Terry, Paul Ready and Nick Sampson, whose snooty valet Cool brought down the house. Among other large-scale entertainments were a lovely adaptation by Carl Miller of Erich Kästner’s 1929 German classic, Emil and the Detectives, and an entirely fresh Treasure Island by Bryony Lavery.