You remembered all that?

The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews...

A Mirror : Trafalgar Theatre

I like to think I'm mostly neutral to star casting, but when I saw this had Jonny Lee Miller in it, I was sold.  He's had an interesting career (did you know he was in a Doctor Who episode in '82?) and we're currently working our way through Elementary, so I knew I'd have bragging rights with my daughters if I saw him (but, of course, they expressed no interest in me going at all).  I knew nothing about the play or the theatre though, so was intrigued as to what it was all going to be like.

And the intrigue only increased as the house opened because the tannoy welcomed us to the wedding of Joel and Leyla and when we got to our seats there was an order of service, the text of which suggested we were now in a repressive state with us being told to give praise to The Motherland (capital letters are so important for this sort of thing!).

And as we got closer to curtain up (although no curtain was seen all evening), various members of the cast took a wander around the theatre - including Jonny who was stood at the end of my row and gave me a wave.  And did I get a picture of him?  I think you can probably guess the answer to that...

Eventually, everyone ambled down to the stage and the wedding ceremony started - with the house lights up, which was a bit of a surprise.  And, at this point, I have to warn you that mild spoilers are going to happen here - I try not to do such things, but if I don't do so here then there's nothing more I can say about it.  So I apologise, but if you plan on seeing it you should stop right here.

OK, I'm pretty sure that's lost no-one but it's better to be safe than sorry before I tell you it's not really a wedding at all!  It's a front to enable the people on stage to perform the most subversive of activities - I warn you, you'll be shocked!  Yes - it's a PLAY!  OMG!!! (at which point the house lights finally went down)

But, funnily enough, things aren't that straightforward because the play features several other plays, generally being re-enactments of earlier portions of the play (confused yet?) when viewed through a slightly different lens.  At times, the play(s) get interrupted by the authorities which means it/they have to revert to being a wedding (sometimes requiring audience involvement) to throw them (and us) off the scent.  And then, right at the end, we learn that everything we've seen is both true and not true - it certainly has some sort of an ending, but I can understand that people might consider it to be unsatisfactory/confusing.

All in all, it's a bit of a moral maze without being too in-your-face about it so I suspect plenty of people missed it entirely.  The title is clever because there are several times in the play that "a mirror" is held up either to fiction to show the truth behind it or to the truth to disguise it with fiction.  It does feel a bit A-level Drama discussion topic at time but in a lot of ways that's a compliment because it tells you there's content here to be considered - The Guardian tells me it's Pirandellian.

Having got to the end, I've realised I've not mentioned any of the actors - it's pretty much an ensemble piece with Jonny Lee Miller, Aaron Neil, Geoffrey Streatfield and Tanya Reynolds (other actors do appear, but not in a major capacity). They're all good, but Jonny obviously drew the eye for me - at times he's a bit over the top but I suspect he was asked to do that.  Of the rest, I would say that Tanya stood out for me - her role has more of a journey than most and she handles it well.

The set isn't anything to write home about and doesn't really do an awful lot across the play - which feels a bit odd because it feels like something they would have thought about, so maybe I just missed it.  But if they did, I TOTALLY missed it.

One slightly off-piste observation - surprisingly, no-one gave a standing ovation for the play.  Which, objectively, is perfectly fair because the play is perfectly fine but nothing more - but I have to point out there was not one standing ovation (that I could see from my seat anyway), which is something I don't think I've seen anywhere before.  Which, given some of the dross I've seen which has got people on their feet, seems bizarre - so I can only assume this theatre attracts a different kind of audience (or maybe people REALLY didn't like it!)

So let's talk about the theatre starting with the fact that not only did I not know where it was, when I saw it was in Whitehall I was sure I must know where it was, but I didn't - it turns out that was because I've confused Whitehall with The Mall all these years (which I don't think I can blame on the theatre).  It's a lovely smaller theatre which is very art deco (it was built in 1930) so it's beautiful to look at - but I also had an excellent view from the back row of the circle (at least until the tall woman sat in front of me) which was still surprisingly close to the stage.

Two more weird comments from me - firstly being that the play is two hours with no interval which always strikes me as a boundary choice.  Ninety minutes with no interval is fine, as is the case for two and a half hours with an interval - but half way between is, well, half way between.  Personally, I would have preferred thirty minutes of padding with the opportunity for an ice cream and a toilet break, but I appreciate the artistic considerations involved.  And my final unimportant observation is that Jonny seems to be aging on a different calendar to the rest of us - yes, the man is slightly bulkier than he was in Trainspotting but that was 28 years ago and I can assure you that I've changed a lot more in that time period.

Overall, I'd say it was an enjoyable night out, but nothing more than that - it's a clever play, but a reasonably basic production which never really elevates it.  The theatre's nice though - which is a good job because I'm back there next month!

The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Very impressive
Long Day's Journey Into Night - A LOT of words!