Been So Long
Young Vic, London
Orwell: A Celebration
Trafalgar Studios, London
New writing for British theatre experienced a boom in the mid-1990s and we are still living with the aftershocks. But these reverberations come in many different guises, as is obvious in this revival of Che Walker’s 1998 play, Been So Long. Although Walker has kept the basic outline of his play, as well as much of its exuberant language, he has turned a slight story into a bouncy, occasionally hilarious, musical.
Set in a losers’ bar in Camden, Been So Long has two plotlines: in one, vicious white boy Gil is determined to hunt down Raymond, a local black lothario, because he claims he stole his girl three years ago. In the other, Simone and Yvonne, two feisty women, hit town and Simone falls for Raymond. Will this be just a one-night stand or can they stay together? Keeping an eye on everything is Barney, the quiet barman.
As well as being a snapshot of Camden street-life, the subject also of Walker’s The Frontline (which was revived at Shakespeare’s Globe earlier this summer), Been So Long is a study of beautiful losers. Each of the main characters is damaged by their experiences (family break-up, prison, lack of love) and the question is whether damaged people attract each other – and can they overcome their hang-ups? In the end, the muted optimism of the final scene suggests that they can.
Because of Arthur Davill’s music, a sex war play quickly becomes a Barack Obama moment: the final rush of sound, the joy of the dancing and the feel-good energy of the production, directed by Walker himself, means you leave the theatre on a high. Although most of the songs tend to slow down the action, one or two of them are great – and Walker’s cast, led by Cat Simmons and Naana Agyei-Ampadu as Simone and Yvonne, belt them out good and proper. Best of all, Omar Lyefook gives Barney a soulful integrity which carries his songs beautifully.
In the fun and fury of a rough and ready production, dominated by a huge set which feels out of kilter with the idea of a squalid bar, the staging does tend to obscure the play’s greatest asset, which is Walker’s language. With its moments of sexual ecstasy, inventive insults and ornate formulations, the dialogues really sing, revealing a world of revels and dreams far from the everyday. It’s a pity that they take a backseat to the music.
Words are similarly central to Orwell: A Celebration, a compilation of superb extracts from Coming Up for Air, Shooting an Elephant, A Hanging and part of the ending of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Staged to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the first publication of Orwell’s influential dystopia, this event is beautifully edited by Dominic Cavendish, superbly directed by Gene David Kirk and excellently performed by Hal Cruttenden, Alan Cox and Ben Porter.
Not only do Orwell’s observations, especially about our obsession with our bodies and our childhood pasts, with fast food and with untimely death, seem still highly relevant, but also the elegant simplicity of his language is a provocative lesson in clarity of expression and humanity of feeling. In a world where Big Brother and Room 101 have quite different meanings to their originals, it is salutary to be reminded just how great a visionary Orwell was. And this is really great stuff.
Aleks Sierz
