The MAD Festival, which has been in the pipelines as an O’Reilly – and Keble – project for a while is finally coming into the theatre, and comprises of a series of informal rehearsed readings of underappreciated modern American plays as well as a night of cabaret-style modern American music, followed by a drinks reception celebrating of all the plays.
DOUBT by John Patrick Shanley, directed by Josie Mitchell
Tuesday 12th February, 7.30pm
Some people will have seen the excellent film adaptation of Doubt, starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, but I think fewer people are aware that it is actually an adaptation of a Pulitzer Award-winning play. Put simply, this is a play about a priest who may or may not be a paedophile. What makes Doubt so frustrating and wonderful is that whilst every member of the audience will have an opinion one way or another, there is no certainty. Trust me, I’ve read the play at least five times. I’ve made lists of evidence. It’s about gut response. The problem is, the stakes are high when you are accusing someone of sexual deviation.
So, yes, the play engages with some serious stuff. This week, I found myself directing a scene in which a mother tells the school principal that the priest can “have” her son. What does she mean? Well, the play definitely doesn’t provide easy answers. Instead it’s got lots of repressed anger and verbal fireworks. Is Father Flynn innocent, we just don’t know. If you want to form own opinion, you better come see for yourself.
THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA? by Edward Albee, directed by Dan Byam Shaw
Wednesday 13th February, 7.30pm
So often, in plays I’ve directed or been in, we’ll have spent weeks looking at really small details in the text, developing nuances and polishing performances, only to discover a week before it goes on that no-one can remember any of their lines. So I’m actually quite excited at the prospect of doing a reading rather than a play.
The Goat is a brilliant script – it either won or got nominated for most prizes there were going when it came out ten years ago – and one that I think will work well as a rehearsed reading. Obviously you’re limited doing a reading in a way that you’re not with a full play but I think it will suit being heard as much as seen. It’s a play about prejudice and preconceptions but it’s also about language itself (and before we get too carried away, I should say it’s also about a man fucking a goat). I can guarantee you won’t have seen anything quite like it.
THE CRYPTOGRAM by David Mamet, directed by Will Felton
Thursday 14th February, 7.30pm
Cryptogram, n. A piece of cryptographic writing; anything written in code or cipher.
As its title suggests, The Cryptogram is a play about codes. Our cryptographer is a young boy, John, who has trouble sleeping. John attempts to cipher meaning out of his surroundings, which seem more and more alien to him with the continued absence of his Father. However, these surroundings are populated by the confusing figures of Del, a family friend, and Donny, his Mother. Both Del and Donny engage John in evasive language games in which the boundaries of waking and sleeping and meaning and nonsense become blurred. At some point in the play, John seems to loose his childhood. Written by David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo, House of Games), and as a play that is concerned more with language than action, it is very well suited to the ‘rehearsed reading’ format of the MAD festival. Sudoku and crossword lovers, epistemologists and philologists, young adults from broken homes and adults considering whether or not they should break one: this is the play for you.
ANGELS IN AMERICA: PERESTROIKA by Tony Kushner, directed by Jack Sain
Saturday 16th February, 7.30pm
It seems like yesterday that Part One of Angels in America was on at the Playhouse. In fact, it’s been two weeks. I firmly believe that Millennium Approaches works as a standalone play, but for anyone who is curious about what happens to the characters after an angel crashes into their world from the other side, then this is the night for you. If you didn’t see the first part, it’s a great final opportunity to see Tony Kushner’s weird and wonderful mind come to semi-staged life with the original cast.
I’m very lucky to have the opportunity to do a reading of Perestroika: the MAD Festival allows us to spend a few detailed hours on the text itself, and with a show like Angels in America a full production means focusing on immense technical challenges. I can’t wait to get back into a room with the insanely talented team from the original show and have a chance to explore the play as what it is, and I hope people enjoy the surprising journey that the characters take.
