Year : 2003 (7 October to 19 November)
Theatre : Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London
National Theatre webpage for this Play
National Theatre education pack
You can download an Education Pack from the National Theater for this play HERE
Reviews
The Stage
Nicola Walker’s innocent Marianne is radiantly transformed by
love followed by her graphic downfall as a despairing ragdoll.
Guardian, Michael Billington
A stunning new production by Richard Jones that gets to he heart of this bittersweet evocation of 1930’s Vienna. A riveting portrait of a society waltzing towards the abyss.
Daily Mail, Michael Coveney
Beautifully played by the luscious Frances Barber
Part of the riotously successful £10 season
Independent, Paul Taylor
Frances Barber: vivid and vampish
Sunday Express, Mark Shenton, 19.10.03
A classic European play returns to paint a beautifully orchestrated canvas of life in 1931 Vienna, with a superb ensemble of actors including Nicola Walker, Joe Duttine and Frances Barber, and musicians animating every corner of the big Olivier stage.
Independent on Sunday, Kate Basett, 19.10.03
Intensely modern, shot through with satirically droll and poignant naturalistic details. It is exhilarating to see a bold, spare, avant-garde set with a continental feel in the Olivier. As a designer-cum-director, Jones creates haunting images on an operatic scale, building up a kind of open-plan symphony of small lives. There are droll bits of invention too, not least dive-bombing swimmers vanishing, with synchronised sloshes, into the stage pit. The emotional impact at other points is devastating. Barber’s screaming grief, when she sees what has happened to Marianne, is raw and shocking. David Harrower’s new translation has some vibrant mouthiness, while Nicola Walker’s sallow but passionately burning Marianne is superb.
Six degrees
Frances Barber, cast member, also appeared in Shiner [Movie].
Joe Duttine, cast member, also appeared with Nicola in Sweetheart [Stage].
Nicholas Sidi, cast member, also appeared in Spooks episode 903 as well as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time [Stage].
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