Na
zijn succesvolle productie A view from
the Bridge ging een ander toneelstuk van Arthur Miller, The Crucible, in een regie van Ivo van
Hove op donderdag 31 maart in première.
Naar
de all star-productie - met o.a. Saoirse Ronan en Ben Whishaw – werd al maanden
halsreikend uitgekeken. Vrijdag
1 april verschenen de recensies.
Een dag na de première, daar moet je in Europa niet
mee afkomen. Je mag al blij zijn dat een recensie twee dagen na de start
verschijnt. En dat ondanks de moderne communicatiemiddelen. Maar om die truc te
snappen moet je weten hoe het er in de Amerikaanse toneelwereld en
entertainment aan toe gaat. Veertien dagen voor de première beginnen de
previews, zeg maar try-outs. Er wordt verwacht dat de voorstelling zo goed als
afgewerkt is. Slechts details kunnen wijzigen. Daarom dat de critici al tijdens
die ‘proefperiode’ komen kijken. De première is er voor de notabelen. Een
ongeschreven wet, en daar houden de critici zich aan, is dat recensies pas na
de parade-avond verschijnen. Door ruim vooraf de voorstelling te hebben gezien
lukt het dus al de ochtend na de première een kritiek te publiceren.
Succes is op Broadway eigenlijk niet weggelegd voor
zuiver toneeltheater. Daar heerst Entertainment. Dat een Vlaming het lukt het
balcon van de roem in New York te bereiken, mag dan ook een wonder heten. Il
faut le faire. Nogmaals blijkt dat Vlamingen in staat zijn de wereld te
veroveren. Niet met kogels maar met woorden. Van Hove is het gelukt een quote
van Oscar Wilde gemeengoed te laten worden: ‘I love acting. It is so much more
real than life.’ Want het theater waar The
crucible doorgaat, het Walter Kerr Theatre heeft een capaciteit van 800 man en is avond na
avond uitverkocht. En het zijn niet enkel New Yorkers die komen kijken. Uit
heel Amerika stroomt het volk toe. Broadway is dé straat waar men eens in zijn
leven moet zijn geweest.
Maar goed, over naar een greep uit de recensies, want om daar mijn lezers op te tracteren ben ik vroeg opgestaan.
Maar goed, over naar een greep uit de recensies, want om daar mijn lezers op te tracteren ben ik vroeg opgestaan.
Een bloemlezing.
The New York Times (Ben Brantley): The
director Ivo van Hove and a dazzling international cast...have plumbed the raw
terror in Arthur Miller's The Crucible...And an endlessly revived historical
drama from 1953 suddenly feels like the freshest, scariest play in town...Parallels
between Miller's then and latter-day nows have never been hard to reach for.
What makes Mr. van Hove's interpretation so unsettlingly vivid has little to do
with literal-minded topicality. Instead...Mr. van Hove divests a historical
work of period associations, the better to see its inhabitants as timelessly
tragic and as close to you and me as the people in the seats next to us -- or,
if we're honest, as our fallible selves. And more than any of the many
Crucibles I've seen, this one insists that we identify with not only the
victims of persecution but also with those who would judge them.
Time Out NY (David Cote): Van
Hove's electrifying and audacious staging achieves what more revivals should:
It makes old work seem new, blows away the dust and exposes caulked
cracks...the cast is ridiculously stuffed with talent...
Financial Times (Max McGuinness): I approached this
production of The Crucible with some trepidation. Ivo van Hove, perhaps the
most lauded theatre practitioner working today, directs the incomparable
Saoirse Ronan in her stage debut alongside such seasoned luminaries as Ben
Whishaw, Sophie Okonedo, Ciarán Hinds and Jim Norton. Philip Glass has written
the music. … But van Hove has once again pulled off an
inspired reimagining of a theatrical classic.
The Washington Post (Peter Marks): The
look of feral resolve in Saoirse Ronan's eyes is so intense that an audience
has not a moment's hesitation believing in the havoc at her fingertips in
director Ivo van Hove's stunning new Broadway revival of The Crucible. ...The
portrayals across the board infuse Arthur Miller's 1953 drama of vengeful mass
hysteria with a stomach-knotting urgency that doesn't dissipate until well
after the last of the evening's wrenching twists.
TheaterMania (Zachary Stewart): It's a visually striking production, laden with dynamite performances. ... This is the best production of The Crucible I've ever seen.
Associated Press (Mark Kennedy): She's [Saoirse Ronan] awfully good in it, but the real sorcery is delivered by Ben Whishaw. The English actor is astounding. He plays doomed farmer John Proctor and holds nothing back, going from slightly arrogant to flustered to full-out broken over the course of the play, a master stroke by a 35-year-old making his Broadway debut.
The Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney): Almost operatic in their intensity, [Van Hove's] productions are designed to leave audiences agitated and uncomfortable, which is notably the case with this distressing 1953 drama, with its steadily amplified sense of horror and indignation. … The face of this production is Saoirse Ronan, icy and commanding in her first stage appearance...As strong as the ensemble is, the indispensable anchoring forces are Whishaw and Okonedo, both of them devastating.
New York Post (Elisabeth Vincentelli): You may be mystified, but you won't be bored -- the gorgeous-looking production weaves a creepy spell every minute of its nearly three hours.
Deadline (Jeremy Gerard): Arthur Miller's 1953 drama The Crucible is a big play -- big ideas, big cast, big emotions. In a season of multiple Miller celebrations...Ivo van Hove's lucid and often mesmerizing production at the Walter Kerr Theatre honors all of those big factors without overwhelming us -- unless it's by the sheer impact of a company so right in nearly every detail, from the major roles to those less so...Van Hove and his incomparable troupe -- led by beautifully felt performances from Ben Whishaw (The Danish Girl), Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) and Soairse Ronan (Brooklyn) -- play it straight. I think the impact must be quite similar to that felt by theatergoers 63 years ago.
TheWrap (Robert Hofler): Whishaw delivers a very feral John Proctor, with something of the little-D devil in him...But at the heart of van Hove's direction is what the play is all about: how the perverse convergence of politics, greed, religion, and, yes, sex creates mass hysteria.
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): A lone wolf prowls through Salem in Ivo van Hove's eye-popping and wholly unconventional revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible... But in Miller's play, the hysterical girls are the antagonists...With Ronan as his chief asset, and Ciaran Hinds as a relentless political prosecutor, van Hove brilliantly manipulates that counterintuitive aspect of The Crucible.
The Crucible is nog t/m 17 juli te zien in het Walter Kerr Theatre op Broadway. Extra lekkernij: productie met originele muziek van Philip Glass. Naar verluidt was hij haast elke repetitie aanwezig en maakte notities die leidde tot een muziekscore die de voorstelling een extra boost gaf. Van zodra ik voldoende donaties heb, boek ik een ticket en trek naar New York.
TheaterMania (Zachary Stewart): It's a visually striking production, laden with dynamite performances. ... This is the best production of The Crucible I've ever seen.
Associated Press (Mark Kennedy): She's [Saoirse Ronan] awfully good in it, but the real sorcery is delivered by Ben Whishaw. The English actor is astounding. He plays doomed farmer John Proctor and holds nothing back, going from slightly arrogant to flustered to full-out broken over the course of the play, a master stroke by a 35-year-old making his Broadway debut.
The Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney): Almost operatic in their intensity, [Van Hove's] productions are designed to leave audiences agitated and uncomfortable, which is notably the case with this distressing 1953 drama, with its steadily amplified sense of horror and indignation. … The face of this production is Saoirse Ronan, icy and commanding in her first stage appearance...As strong as the ensemble is, the indispensable anchoring forces are Whishaw and Okonedo, both of them devastating.
New York Post (Elisabeth Vincentelli): You may be mystified, but you won't be bored -- the gorgeous-looking production weaves a creepy spell every minute of its nearly three hours.
Deadline (Jeremy Gerard): Arthur Miller's 1953 drama The Crucible is a big play -- big ideas, big cast, big emotions. In a season of multiple Miller celebrations...Ivo van Hove's lucid and often mesmerizing production at the Walter Kerr Theatre honors all of those big factors without overwhelming us -- unless it's by the sheer impact of a company so right in nearly every detail, from the major roles to those less so...Van Hove and his incomparable troupe -- led by beautifully felt performances from Ben Whishaw (The Danish Girl), Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) and Soairse Ronan (Brooklyn) -- play it straight. I think the impact must be quite similar to that felt by theatergoers 63 years ago.
TheWrap (Robert Hofler): Whishaw delivers a very feral John Proctor, with something of the little-D devil in him...But at the heart of van Hove's direction is what the play is all about: how the perverse convergence of politics, greed, religion, and, yes, sex creates mass hysteria.
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): A lone wolf prowls through Salem in Ivo van Hove's eye-popping and wholly unconventional revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible... But in Miller's play, the hysterical girls are the antagonists...With Ronan as his chief asset, and Ciaran Hinds as a relentless political prosecutor, van Hove brilliantly manipulates that counterintuitive aspect of The Crucible.
The Crucible is nog t/m 17 juli te zien in het Walter Kerr Theatre op Broadway. Extra lekkernij: productie met originele muziek van Philip Glass. Naar verluidt was hij haast elke repetitie aanwezig en maakte notities die leidde tot een muziekscore die de voorstelling een extra boost gaf. Van zodra ik voldoende donaties heb, boek ik een ticket en trek naar New York.
guido lauwaert
gent, 2016-04-02
gent, 2016-04-02
THE
CRUCIBLE van Arthur Miller – regie Ivo van Hove – scenograaf Jan Versweyveld – Walter Kerr Theatre
– tickets: www.broadway.com/shows/crucible
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten