Saturday 16th September 2023, matinee
The question at the heart of ‘The Mirror’, currently in its last week at the Almeida, seems to be, how can you write a play about politics and art whilst remaining artistic and not becoming political?
The trope of totalitarian regimes banning books, and art becoming a catalyst for revolution, is a well-worn one. But with this new play, Sam Holcroft revisits the theme with a highly inventive and tightly written play, and cracks apart some of the cliches associated with ‘art’ and its purpose in society.
As we enter the theatre, we are told that ‘the ceremony’ will last 2 hours long without an interval, and there is an order of service on the seat. The wedding, it soon transpires, is a cover for an ‘illegal’ play which we are about to witness, and so we are immediately invited to ponder on what makes this particular play so subservise.
The beauty of the writing is that it is not at all clear to start with. It is set in the offices of the Ministry of Culture, where a young writer is invited to meet a high-ranking official, who appears to want to nurture his talent, and help him to write something that will both fulfil his potential as a writer, and be acceptable to the regime. So far so good, we are in familiar territory. But when the author responds by continuing to send in apparently verbatim transcripts of the conversations he is having, and the political and personal ramifications of ‘recording’ and ‘dramatising’ private conversations start to play out, the plot comes slowly to the boil, before thickening nicely to an ending which we won’t reveal here.
This device is a clever one – it allows the author to ‘show not tell’ whilst also enabling her to comment on what happens when words are taken out of context or conversations selectively recorded. What starts out as friendly advice from a Government minister to an aspiring playwright soon becomes a fascinating study of what it means to ‘survive’ as an artist in a hostile environment.
Just as importantly there is also plenty of entertainment value in watching the characters inexpertly read out dialogue from previous scenes, including a commentary on each other’s acting abilities, and the play-within-a-play element is used to great effect.
The highest praise we could probably give is that we left feeling that there was a very strong message contained within the play, but even now we are pondering over exactly what this is, whilst also turning over in our minds the artistry and skill of the writer.
Jonny Lee Miller shines as the Government minister who is trying to convince himself he is doing the right thing, and the journey from benefactor to tyrant is sadly all too convincing. He is joined by Tanya Reynolds, Geoffrey Streatfield (particularly amusing as the arrogant ‘state-approved’ playwright) and Michael Ward to create an effective web of intrigue, ambition and cynicism, unfussily directed by Jeremy Herrin.
As if to prove some esoteric point, a few days after we saw this play, we received a survey in our inbox, telling us that “some of our funding requires us to provide greater detail about our audiences and their experience”. We have written before about the subject of audience segmentation and the endless drive towards tick-box approaches to art, but to receive a survey like this after this particular play was rather ironic. There must surely be some kind of message in that…….
At time of writing, this production has now ended, but you can find more information and nostalgia here.
rageoffstage 