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The Guardian
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
From Amsterdam to the West End: the avant-garde hit factory behind The Years and Oedipus
The Royal Court and Regent's Park Open Air theatre were among the victorious venues at Sunday's Olivier awards, which recognise the cream of London's Theatreland. But there was reason to celebrate in the Netherlands, too. The bold West End productions Oedipus and The Years, which picked up four awards between them, have their origins at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA). The theatre's artistic director is Eline Arbo, who adapted and staged a version of Nobel prize-winner Annie Ernaux's The Years for an all-female cast. After its success in the Netherlands, Arbo was invited to London's Almeida theatre to direct the show with British actors. Among them was Romola Garai, who won the Olivier award for best actress in a supporting role, while Arbo was named best director. The production received rapturous reviews and has transferred to the West End where its run (which ends on 19 April) has been accompanied by regular reports of audiences fainting during its abortion scene. Garai calls Arbo a 'genius' and said that the production's power is a result of fusing several elements of theatre-making from around Europe. 'Eline is Norwegian so she comes from that tradition of Ibsen. Amsterdam has ITA's incredible tradition of physical and quite conceptual work. And England has this usually narrative-based, text tradition. I think The Years is a perfect example of how when you marry those elements together you can make really great, exciting work that feels very challenging in the best way to an audience.' Arbo, who became the sixth woman to win the best director Olivier award, said she was delighted by how British audiences had responded to The Years. 'There are talks [for ITA] to come more to England,' she said. 'For us to be able to show these productions to a British audience, and have that collaboration, is so important. It's one of our biggest missions: how to share different perspectives from different cultures. We are an international house.' Arbo said that increasingly 'politicians want to close borders' but it is vital 'to have that exchange of perspective to develop culture'. Brexit, she said, had not been a significant obstacle for her to work in the UK. When Rufus Wainwright's version of the film Opening Night flopped in the West End, the composer suggested British audiences lack 'curiosity' after Brexit and that the British press had turned on the project for being 'too European'. Opening Night was directed by the Belgian Ivo van Hove, Arbo's predecessor at ITA, who combined a 20-year tenure leading the Dutch ensemble with high-profile, often star-powered freelance productions in London. It was Van Hove who invited Britain's Robert Icke to Amsterdam to adapt and direct a new version of Sophocles' Oedipus in 2018. 'I'd written an English script that was translated – they acted and talked to each other in Dutch and to me in English,' Icke told the Guardian. 'It had the potential to be profoundly alienating but I loved it. Icke won best revival for Oedipus at the Oliviers and said in his acceptance speech that the chance to stage a new version of his adaptation at the Wyndham's theatre had been 'amazing'. After an ensemble of ITA actors performed it at the Edinburgh international festival in 2019, the London production paired Mark Strong, in the title role, with Lesley Manville as Jocasta. Manville, who won the Olivier award for best actress, said that Icke's time at ITA had 'shaped a lot' for him. 'After that production he did some reworking of Oedipus. He was very happy and comfortable working in Amsterdam … He obviously saw that it could have another life here.' Its success has left Manville 'almost wanting to text Sophocles!' she joked. Three years ago, Rebecca Frecknall was the toast of the Olivier awards as her version of Cabaret picked up seven prizes. ITA took note of the rising star director. She was invited to Amsterdam to direct a version of Strindberg's Miss Julie with the ensemble in 2024, designed by another Brit, Chloe Lamford. Earlier this month, Frecknall was announced as ITA's Ibsen Artist in Residence, a position previously held by Icke. Frecknall said that Arbo had been 'a great support in delivering my first ITA production last year' and added: 'It's going to be wonderful to have a home at this incredible theatre for the next three years and to keep working with their talented ensemble of actors.' You wouldn't be surprised if she and Arbo are back celebrating at the Oliviers before too long.
BBC News
20-03-2025
- BBC News
Guernsey Police warn public about unlicensed taxi dangers
Police in Guernsey have warned islanders about the dangers of using unlicensed taxis, following a court Police said people should plan return travel before nights out, either getting a lift from a friend or family member or using a licensed warning comes after The Royal Court found that unlicensed taxi driver William Edward King, 44, had imprisoned and sexually assaulted a woman in a car in April 2023, when he picked her up after a night out."Please do not take the risk with your safety or the safety of others," police said. Police said King picked up the woman and a male friend before dropping the friend then drove her around the island before she fell asleep and she later woke up "to find the driver sexually assaulting her," they was deemed unfit to stand trial, but a fact finding hearing on 7 January found he had "done the physical acts that make up the offences", police said, adding that he was at risk of carrying out further "serious sexual harm" to women and was "detained at His Majesty's pleasure – imprisoned" and made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO), police said. The order will run until at least 2030, according to the Royal Court, and comes with various conditions, including any work or volunteering King takes on needing to be approved. Guernsey Police said it wanted to "reassure the community that even in these unusual circumstances" it would "rigorously pursue measures to protect the public".
Telegraph
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
A Knock on the Roof: This skirts the issue of the war in Gaza
The Royal Court is caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to Gaza, which has of course dominated the news since the massacre of October 7 2023, with the BBC's recent compromised documentary and a grotesque AI video envisaging a gawdy Trumpian make-over of the Strip the latest rounds in the info war. To avoid the subject looks like a failure to engage with the issues and bear witness to suffering on both sides – but it's such a minefield that it's eminently possible to satisfy no one, add nothing and stir anger. New artistic director David Byrne inherited a financially shaken institution and one reeling from accusations of anti-Semitism, following the outcry over the perceived (if excised) bias in Rare Earth Mettle (2021). His counter-intuitive move was to programme a surprise hit about the furore around Roald Dahl's anti-Israeli/Jewish prejudice, Giant. Still, I can't imagine he'd be rushing to restage Caryl Churchill's controversial short play Seven Jewish Children (2009) – in which Jewish adults reflect on what to tell their children about Israeli actions and forge a shared narrative line. Due caution aside, A Knock on the Roof, written and performed by Khawla Ibraheem – who's based in the Golan Heights – represents an odd half-way house. One can lay aside the demand that the theatre should be fully addressing October 7, and the hostage crisis. Even so, this particular focus on the Palestinian perspective – seen at the Traverse theatre last summer – seems too narrow by half. The title alludes to the IDF practice of firing bomblets on buildings to warn of an impending strike, in theory allowing for evacuation. It's a tactic much used in the current war, but Ibraheem's script dispenses with directly contemporary references; there's no mention of October 7, or Hamas. Markedly depoliticised, the emphasis is on the personal: a young mother called Mariam repeatedly frets about how she will escape her flat, with belongings and six-year-old son, should that 'knock' come. Ibraheem has charm and a stylishly dressed presence that enlists your sympathy in the descriptions of a daily life that morphs from logistical challenges (an absent partner, erratic electricity supplies) to full-blown mental crisis. Limber moves and running on the spot denote the adrenal, obsessive dread and the obstacle course to clear the area in time, what's rehearsal and what's real blurring as she describes reaching safe havens that are themselves blasted. Smartly directed by Oliver Butler, in its localised, confined way, it's engaging and informative. Still, we've had so many reports on death, displacement, food insecurity and warzone horror that the monologue feels like a side-glance at reality in Gaza rather than an urgent dispatch from it. The project has been in development since 2014, which perhaps explains its finesse and its neatness but also its curious sense of abstraction and removal. What are people saying around Mariam, what news coverage does she glean, where is her anger directed? I can't help feeling that the piece would be better suited to the Upstairs space – and conversely, the terrific futuristic drama there (More Life), would fill the main-stage better.
