Where is the vanguard?

If there is something that stands out in the present theatrical season in London it is the huge proportion of classical plays and successes that have been running for decades which are being staged or re-staged.

To mention but a few: Pygmalion, Journey’s End (based on a classic book first published in 1928), The Wizard of Oz, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Chicago, Legally Blonde - the Musical, Mamma Mia, Billy Eliot - the Musical and Priscilla - Queen of the Desert as well as shows based on the memory of Freddie Mercury’s Queen (We will Rock You) or Michael Jackson’s shows. Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard; Emperor and Galilean – an Ibsen play from 1873, and several Shakespeare plays add to the menu of sure-fire hits on offer.

Where are the experimental works, the risks, the provocation, the novelty?

We seem to be left with War Horse, a play first performed on Broadway and which was the theme of a Stephen Spielberg movie. Pardon my scepticism.

It seems that photography and art galleries (the new hobbies of the British jeunesse dorée) are more promising this season. I’m waiting to finish my course to have time to check for  myself.

London, July/August, 2011