Play: The Starry Messenger

Last night and tonight, I booked with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS). Last night, it was for The Starry Messenger, at Wyndham's, starring Matthew Broderick. I waited the longest time to book this, because I had theatre tokens, earned from posting photos to Seatplan, and every time I thought of booking it, I was either away from where my tokens were, or it was out of office hours - and they have to be booked by phone, or in person. Well, I was to be glad I waited - they finally released really cheap front row seats in the stalls! (Restricted view, it's a tall stage.) And I was within arms' reach of my tokens, mid-afternoon. After being kept forever on hold, I was put through to someone who had to have everything spelled out for her, and emitted a big sigh when I told her I had a theatre token. So she had to log into that site. But it was all worth it, to get a ticket for that price..

Of course, I knew something would go wrong: and then the office social was scheduled for last night. Ah well - curry night it was then, venue TBD. Anyway, I sold my ticket to another of the group. And then I found out that there were leaving drinks on last night that most people were going to (honestly, they couldn't organise an escape from a paper bag) - so I ended up booking another seat to The Starry Messenger! in the same row. Just as well - I could pick them both up myself, and they are supposed to be collected by the person that made the booking. Technically. Some of us are arranged to meet for food in the Bear and Staff, across the road, beforehand.

I headed off in good time, in brilliant sunshine. My bus arrived as I waited to cross the road - never mind. Another arrived as I approached the stop - to be followed by yet another! So I hopped in the back door of that one, and didn't have to run at all. Four of us arrived at the allotted time, one a little later. Which did make a difference.. anyway, it was really lovely, sat in the upstairs dining room, with a view of the theatre:

And the food was lovely, too! Well, when it arrived.. at least you know it's cooked from fresh, and the chicken was indeed done to a turn. They have a range of pies and burgers too, and I think we were all well fed. Caveat - it did take 45 minutes for our food to arrive (we only had mains). Happily, when we headed across to queue for the box office, we spied two of our group near the head of the queue - which saved us a lot of time. Not enough to meet the group beforehand, unfortunately. And when I'd collected the tickets, I soon found the person who'd bought one, and we made our way down to the stalls.

Hard to tell what you're looking at, here. Well, the "starry messenger" of the title is a middle-aged astronomy professor, played by Matthew Broderick. Calling him a "starry messenger" is pushing it a bit, but anyway. What you see here - and periodically through the play - is his classroom, where he teaches an introductory course. Interestingly - I have a background in this - the maths on the blackboard, which is based on real-life material, is an awful lot more advanced than the easy-peasy stuff he's feeding his class.

I liked the classroom scenes - for a variety of reasons. Firstly, they rang very true, with the annoying students - the middle-aged lady who can't understand the simplest concepts, and complains loudly about it, is hilarious. Oh, I'm so glad I'm out of that. Secondly.. for the classroom, they lower a wall, on which the blackboard and screen are hung. This is positioned very close to the front of the stage. It makes it a bit cramped for them, but it does mean that the action is all close to the edge of the stage - which means that the front two rows of the stalls can actually see what's going on! Seriously, for the rest of the performance, we could only see people from the waist up if they were standing - if they sat, we could see the tops of their heads only. I took to hoiking myself up on my elbows at the start of each scene, to see what the set looked like.. Well, we were warned. This is a very high stage, and a very restricted view.

When I was asked, at the interval, what Matthew Broderick had been in, I could honestly only remember him as Ferris Bueller. Someone later reminded me he'd been Inspector Gadget too - true, although I didn't see that. Anyway, not so much - but for what I've seen him in, I wasn't surprised at last night's performance. He's always seemed wooden to me - it's just that, in other things, it suited. Lordy, he's WEIRD in this! Now, I was as close as anyone in the theatre, and I can testify that he's just as wooden up close. Heavens, he raised his eyebrows in one scene near the end of the first half, and gave me an awful shock! It was like he had to remind himself to have human expressions.. His expression doesn't generally change throughout, he seems very stiff in his movements, and his delivery of lines has absolutely no emotion behind it, seeming as though he is working through a logical script of what intonation is appropriate for any given sentence. Seriously, he's like a robot - it was fascinating to watch.

The rest of the cast seemed perfectly human, and played their parts excellently. When we could see them. As someone remarked later, it was weird to have Elizabeth McGovern have second billing (as his wife), when she wasn't on stage as much as Rosalind Eleazar, the (much younger) single mother for whom he develops feelings. Well, assuming he's capable of feelings, which I doubt. She's a trainee nurse, and we get some hospital scenes with her which are the best in the play - the elderly guy she's caring for is played by the terrific Jim Norton; for all that he's supposed to be dying, he has more life than anyone else in this. He must also suffer the ministrations of his fussy, bossy daughter (Sinead Matthews) - terrific, as are the rest of the cast.

Just as well they are, or this would be utterly unwatchable. Not to mention there seems to be no point to the story, in which very little happens and there's no real conclusion - oddly, for an award-winning writer. The best part of the production, we all agreed, is the projected star display at the end, which spills over the whole ceiling of the auditorium - worth staying for, all on its own. Indeed, an interesting, astronomical background lies behind the set throughout, and provided very pleasant gazing, for those of us who could hardly see anything else. Runs till the 10th August - you'd be better off staying home and watching an astronomical documentary though. Ah well, it was good to see everyone - Facebook is alive today with group members slating the production.

Tonight, I'm off, with UITCS, to Jude, at Hampstead Theatre. Fifth day in a row I'll have seen the organiser, who also came along on Wednesday.

And tomorrow, back - for the first time in a ridiculously long time - with London Dramatic Arts! We're at King Hedley II, with Lenny Henry, at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. As usual, she closed RSVPs too early, but I asked, and she reopened them. Be good to see them again!