I rarely go to the theatre - I find the whole set-up oddly embarrassing and phoney - but I really wanted to see this new play, recently written by Polly Stenham when she was 19. It's created such a stir, I wondered if it would be like seeing the first production of Streetcar Named Desire or Look Back in Anger- a historic moment in the theatre, a turning point.
It stars Lindsay Duncan and Hannah Murray, who's also Effie, the youngest and darkest character in Skins. For a while, although it was quite harrowing,I was anxious i wasn't feeling what i was supposed to feel, then shortly before the end it overwhelmed me. You know how great actors can sometimes make you feel that they are addressing you personally among all the hundreds in the theatre? I've been very happy when, just a couple of times, people have told me they thought my book had been written just for them. It's the best thing anyone can say. Well, watching this play, by the end, I was feeling the same, thinking This is my life, my ultimate fears.
I write in my book about how drama, tragedy emerged out of Greek initiation centres. In tragedy as in initiation our ultimate concerns at last concern us as much as they ought. Tragedy and initiation rip open the carapace of habit that helps us to get by day to day and makes us face the reality of our life-choices.
When I was a teenager in Ipswich I was taken to very good rep theatre all the time there. It was part of the life of the town somehow, and conscious that my teenagers don't get to see Ibsen or TS Eliot or Stoppard or Arthur Miller or indeed Shakespeare, I recently made them watch a DVD of Bergman's Autumn Sonata - which i think is as good as Ibsen. Watching it again emotion gripped the inside of my chest - again shortly before the end - so firmly that it could've picked me up and thrown me across the room.
Bergman is a great artist. I didn't write much about esoteric cinema in my book, because i didn't want it to be too unbalanced in favour of the 20th century, but it's perhaps something to return to.
Hannah Murray played Cassie in SKINS by the way.
I found THAT FACE a totally absorbing play. I think it benefited from having no interval.
Posted by: Felix | July 05, 2008 at 04:03 PM
Hannah Murray played Cassie in SKINS by the way.
I found THAT FACE a totally absorbing play. I think it benefited from having no interval.
Posted by: Felix | July 05, 2008 at 04:05 PM
yes, Cassie, of course - thanks. A wonderful actress. I loved the way she did the turning of the tables on the older girl in the first scene.
Posted by: jonathanblack | July 06, 2008 at 10:52 AM
I think I'm the only one who's never seen Skins!
Posted by: Nick | July 06, 2008 at 03:45 PM
I haven't seen Skins! either, but I am about to watch Donnie Darko, not that that counts, but hey I'm looking forward to it.
Posted by: Al | July 06, 2008 at 05:45 PM