Tom Morton-Smith's 'Oppenheimer' at the RSC

Without doubt this is the best original play that I have seen for years and because of that I've moved away from my specialism focusing on adaptations to review this powerful new piece. Oppenheimer is the latest offering from the young playwright, Tom Morton-Smith, and it's the first of his plays that I've seen but it definitely won't be the last! The play details the build up to the crucial moment where the secret to the atomic bomb is discovered, thereby drawing World War Two to an end. Rather than praising Oppenheimer as a genius hero or branding him as a murderer, Morton-Smith examines the inner conflict which Oppenheimer undoubtedly felt at inventing the atomic bomb. The battle that Oppenheimer must have felt within, knowing that the release of the bomb meant the destruction of Hiroshima and the loss of 66,000 lives, not to mention thousands of casualties, but also the saving of millions of lives with the quick conclusion of the War is dealt with poignantly, philosophically and humanistically. Oppenheimer’s private life is also examined, his relationships with women, his wife, his brother and colleagues are also treated to the same scrutiny that Morton-Smith pays to Oppenheimer’s contribution to the world. He presents a troubled man, who very frequently makes all the wrong decisions, a man who is often NOT a good man (the relationship  presented between Oppenheimer and his wife reveals shocking double standards), a man who is also keen not to be labelled as a hero because he knows that on the other side of the world he is considered a mass murderer and that he is the father of all the other weapons of mass destruction to come. The overwhelming guilt and turmoil that Oppenheimer is struggling with does not affect the pacing of the play, which hurls the action at the audience in much the same way that the bomb was hurled on Japan. Each moment of the immediate years running up to Hiroshima is charted in the same whirligig way. It's very physical, fast, thrusting theatre whilst at once providing a lot of very in depth science. A scene opens with a swinging jazz party celebrating various communist charity efforts but the next second, the majority of the guests have evaporated leaving Oppenheimer and his colleagues furiously chalking equations and explaining the atom out loud with its protons and electrons. The director, Angus Jackson, brings to life Morton-Smith’s play with his often animalistic view of humanity. The scene immediately following the test of the first atomic bomb is redolent of William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies (1954), displaying man at his most uncivilised and savage, and highlights the barbarism and brutality of war, on both sides.

In the last few months, we’ve seen two other world renown scientists, Alan Turing and Stephen Hawking, being glamorised by the transference of the life stories to Art. And whilst Alan Turing’s story is, in a way, very similar to Oppenheimer’s (i.e., the mathematical calculation of lives), somehow the play Oppenheimer does not seem as glamorous as the film ‘The Imitation Game’. Both scientists went on to live very short, troubled lives so there's no happy ending in either story so the difference in the levels of glamour must be due to the impact of cinema as a storytelling medium. Seeing Benedict Cumberbatch’s perfectly proportioned, aquiline face 10 foot wide and so many more feet away from you instantly sets up a barrier and this barrier separates the viewer from the story. Theatre, and this is particularly  the case with the thrust stage design of The Swan Theatre, breaks down those boundaries, the fourth wall is removed and you are immersed in the story as it unravels because the living, breathing specimens are in front of you, tangible and so very near.

The reviews are all very praiseworthy and rightly so. Check out The Guardian’s short review:

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/feb/01/oppenheimer-rsc-stratford-observer-review 

John Heffernan’s “angular” features definitely give him the look of a scientist and as  Oppenheimer he is fantastic. He is every inch the stereotyped scientist; pale and lanky, but he takes your breath away when he shows ‘Oppie’ being overtaken with emotion. The Telegraph’s review of his performance whilst brief is appropriately laudatory:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/11365213/Oppenheimer-RSC-Swan-Stratford-upon-Avon-review-a-dazzling-spectacle.html

Heffernan gives a cataclysmic performance, and like Morton-Smith, is bound for further success.
This is the most exhilarating, thought provoking play to have appeared in the last ten years. I urge you to see it. Now.

Review of Paddington (2014)

I grew up reading Michael Bond’s Paddington Bear books and watching the 1970s BBC series.

BBC series from 1975

As a child, my room was decorated top-to-toe with Paddington memorabilia and at fourteen, when I started a Latin GCSE, one of my favourite teachers bought me Ursus Nomine Paddington (A Bear Called Paddington translated into Latin) to inspire and motivate my study of language. So when I discovered that my favourite childhood books had been adapted I felt both excitement and trepidation. But all my worries regarding fidelity to the text and not destroying my much loved memories of my furry, ursine best friend disappeared within seconds of the film starting. Some of my concerns had dissolved when I learned that Ben Whishaw was voicing Paddington.  I’ve loved watching Ben Whishaw since I saw Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by accident many years ago.

Ben Whishaw in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

I particularly loved the now-cancelled BBC series The Hour (2011) starring Ben Whishaw and, another one of my favourite actors, Romola Garai. The fact that he was going to be providing the voice for my favourite immigrant from Deepest, Darkest Peru immediately raised my expectations of the film. My diffused fears weren’t wrong. Within seconds of the film opening, Whishaw’s soft, soothing voice looked like it belonged inside the marmalade sandwich munching mammal. The introduction of Paddington’s aunt and uncle and the explorer who taught them English and kick-started their love of marmalade, although a move away from the original story, was poignant and provoked much sympathy from the audience when Paddington was forced to leave the jungle in search of his new home. The evacuation aspect of the original novel (1958), i.e., Paddington waiting at the train station with his suitcase and a label around his neck reading ‘Please Look After This Bear’, would have been very affecting for the parents reading the book to their children given that the evacuation of children into the countryside from the towns and cities during the war had only taken place roughly fifteen years prior. It was particularly interesting to see that this aspect was highlighted rather than brushed over in the film. The antiques shop owner, Mr Gruber, who helps Mrs Brown and Paddington as they attempt to find the explorer who invited Paddington’s aunt and uncle to London, is a refugee from Hitler’s Germany and his reminiscence of arriving in London is beautifully filmed as well as touchingly sad. The Telegraph’s reviewer Robbie Collin suggests that this was a nod to Bond’s original, and whilst this is almost definitely the case (see review here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11239741/Paddington-review-a-total-delight.html ), it’s also important to note the large number of refugees living in Britain today and how relevant Paddington’s story is to them.

Another interesting element is the nod towards animal testing and cruelty with Nicole Kidman’s portrayal of the embittered Millicent Clyde working at the Natural History Museum as a taxidermist stuffing and preparing exotic animals for display. This almost Frankenstein-esque element of the film, Paddington being pursued through a snow storm by a scientist clad in laboratory whites eager to dissect him, modernizes the story as much as the contemporary setting and costume. The film definitely proves that Paddington is a story with many universal elements, the most important of which is acceptance. This is shown at all sorts of levels in Paul King’s adaptation, whether it’s Mr Brown’s acceptance of the fact that living a full life is a life full of risks (he is a paranoid, overprotective risk assessor in the film version), Mrs Brown’s acceptance that her children are growing up, or the whole family’s acceptance of Paddington as a new member of their family. Finally, this is definitely a film to watch with your adaptation hat on, but don’t be surprised if you find a marmalade sandwich underneath it! The joy is contagious!

 

Paddington’s Marmalade Sandwich