Plays

After visiting Chichester for their Theatre Festival I've come to the conclusion that there are two kinds of play: those which deal with serious matters and those which don't. "Taking Sides" was in the first category and "Hay Fever" was in the second. That doesn't mean to say that one should scoff at those in the second category for surely one can go to the theatre to just have some fun.
I have seen three or four productions of Noel Coward's "Hay Fever" over the years and I recall laughing aloud in one of them; but this production at Chichester with Diana Rigg did not make me laugh once, not even a chuckle, not even a smile, only a feeling that I could be somewhere else maybe doing some charitable work for the sick or for Africa.... The audience was full of people of a certain age; by that I mean that the majority appeared to be over 70. I felt that they really wished to enjoy the production and though there was some laughter I felt that it was rather forced.
Ronald Harewood's play "Taking Sides" fell into the category of "serious stuff". It dealt with the interrogation of Willhelm Furtwangler, the celebrated conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, who was accused of collaboration with the Nazis during WW2. It was more than just interesting, it was gripping dramatically although one knew the eventual outcome - that he would not be found guilty and that he would be rehabilited to conduct many more concerts. Michael Pennington gave a superb performance as this charismatic but troubled man who argued his corner well though knowing well that he was in a very tricky position morally. Harewood ticked all the boxes in this kind of play where he used all the evidence of research and "taking sides" was a good title because you could never come down on one side or the other - the arguments were so strong on both sides.
At the very end there is a powerful scene where the interrogator, an American major, has to shout to be heard above a recording his assistant has put on of a part of Beethoven's 9th (opening movement) - a striking coup de theatre but one which rather unbalanced it in favour of Furtwangler which I can't believe was Harewood's intention.
Now I will play a recording I have of Beethoven's 5th by Furtwangler and the Berlin Phil: what an opening! Daniel Barenboim has talked about the "raw intensity" of Furtwangler's conducting. He's hit it right on the head, raw intensity it is. So was that passage from the 9th in the play.
I shall also get hold of a copy of "Hay Fever" and read it. Surely it cannot be as dull as the version I saw!