Reviews

Realism is a fascinating production about what happens inside an ordinary bloke's head, when he decides to do nothing all day.

Conversations with his dead mother, sexual memories and fantasies and visits from a childhood friend rattle by, influenced by the mundane tasks he is undertaking. A rant against a billing mistake becomes a production number from the Black and White Minstrel Show. The inside of Liam's brain is an interesting place.

National Theatre Live presentations are recordings of live performances, filmed in the actual theatre with a live audience in attendance.  This production was recorded in May this year.  I’ll come back to this mode of presentation below.  Simon Russell Beale plays the eponymous king and the production is directed by Sam Mendes, a name familiar to us from cinema (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road, Skyfall) as from theatre.

Orphans by Lyle Kessler is a gritty play about two orphan brothers, Treat, a petty criminal and Phillip, an innocent restricted to the house due to possible life threatening allergies, and the impact on their lives when Treat decides to move up from petty theft and kidnaps a gangster. The arrival of Howard into their narrow world upsets the violent yet delicate control Treat has over his brother.

I was unprepared for the emotional clout of this production.

Walking into a gloomy empty space and finding no seats for the audience was discomforting. We crowded together. Never venturing far from the mob some noted three lots of debris caught on pieces of wire lattice: one trapped mostly ‘feminine things’; another contained assorted pieces of hospital equipment; the third had an industrial theme. Tucked back behind these was a pile of plastic – dirty containers of all sizes mainly.