‘The Stage’ review – Honour Bayes
Picasso’s
Artful Occupation
Published Thursday 13 March 2014 at 14:05 by Honour Bayes
After impressing with his autobiographical testament to
British socialism, The Tailor’s Last Stand, last year, Ian Buckley has moved
into a more fictional imagining of the fight against fascism. Picasso’s Artful
Occupation is based on real events - documenting a day when the artist had to
catalogue his collection with Nazi soldiers in occupied Paris - but it does not
give any real insight into what it might have been like. Neither is Buckley
able to use the encounter to frame a wider historical discussion around the
socialist struggle during the Second World War.
Kenneth Michaels’ faltering production feels under-baked.
The cast does not appear to be listening or responding to each other, instead
operating at preconceived intensities of performance with jarring results. A
sensible decision not to affect accents is soon undermined by this fractured
style, and it is hard to pin these interactions into a time or place, or
associate any of these people with their real-life counterparts.
Gary Heron is unable to portray the charm that made Picasso
a great lothario or the artistic empathy that made him a great artist. Roberto
Landi’s “sensitive” officer Willi Frisch and David O’Connor’s “bullish” officer
Franz Hebbel both feel frustratingly two-dimensional.
Production information
Baron's Court
Theatre, London, March 11-30
Author:
Ian Buckley
Director:
Kenneth Michaels
Producer:
RedNeedle Productions
Cast:
Gary Heron, Roberto Landi, David O'Connor
Running time:
1hr 30mins
Production information displayed was believed correct at
time of review. Information may change over the run of the show.
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