A NEW LONDON PLAY-WITHIN-PLAY
                                              By Steven Emanuel
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area & London theater
                                                                 Weeks starting July 12, 2008
                                                                 Vol. 10, No. 127
            LONDON---Theater people are a sentimental lot.    And of course they like attention, so it's not surprising that theater people are among their favorite subjects.    In his new play “Afterlife,” Michael Frayn applies his dramatic-biography technique--earlier used on Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg (in "Copenhagen") and Willy Brandt (in "Diplomacy")--to one of the theater's own heroes, an early-20th-century impresario called Max Reinhardt.    A problem here is that the rest of us scarcely know who Reinhardt was.   But Frayn's portrait of him is nonetheless something of a tour de force. 
            Sensing, perhaps, that straight-out biography wouldn't be enough, Frayn has wrapped it in a complex sort of play-within-a-play.   Reinhardt is preparing the medieval mystery play “Everyman,” which is to be performed on the steps of  Salzburg cathedral.    “Everyman,” the ancient play, is about the fall  of a rich man, who is judged because he has forgotten God.     This becomes the theatrical background for the fall of Reinhardt, who is himself a rich man, and who suffers exile when Austria is taken over by the Nazis.
            The first act of  “Afterlife” is mostly concerned with the Everyman play, and is very, very good.    That's because in spite of its age and unknown provenance, Everyman turns out to be an excellent theater piece in itself.   Its story is compelling, and one waits breathlessly to see how it ends.   It's poetic, too; in this version it is all in rhymed couplets.    One might expect that to sound like jangly doggerel, but it in fact it is rather good poetry, and adds to the general pleasure.     Frayn contributes by adding a lot of additional business, including a bit of music and even some balletic numbers that might almost be considered dance.   Much of this --for example, a long choreographed sequence in which the waiters for a banquet are being given their instructions--has nothing much to do with either Everyman or the emergent Max Reinhardt story.   It is simply there to give additional entertainment, like the arias that punctuate an opera.   But what of that?  These bits are very well done, and provide a delightful multimedia experience. 
            After the intermission things go downhill a bit.    Now the emphasis shifts from the Everyman subplot to the weal-to-woe story of Reinhardt himself.   This is all drearily predictable.    Once we have been told that Reinhardt is a wealthy Jew in pre-Anschluss Austria, we know what is coming.    Exiled to America, he falls out with his old friends and his career comes to an end; only his lover, the actress Helene Thimig, his self-effacing assistant Gusti, and his old butler Franz stay with him to the end.    This act lacks the brio of Act I, and whether or not one is moved by Reinhardt's fall depends on whether you care about him or not.
            Personally, I didn't care very much;  Reinhardt seems a rather cardboard character.   We are told that he is a dedicated artist, and that he is unworldly, and that he is admirable--but we are simply told these things, we are not made to feel them.   Is he supposed to be a modern Everyman?    He's too two-dimensional for that.   As a result his fall falls short of tragic.   I wished that Frayn had forgotten about Max Reinhardt and simply gone on with Everyman, with whom one can more easily identify.
            Mr.  Frayn likes to present theoretical problems, and make his audience think.   And this play is full of problems and conundrums, some of which are provocative; but others are non-sequiturs, or lead nowhere.  For instance: The fall of Reinhardt is supposed to be a re-enactment of the judgment of Everyman.   But Everyman, after a fair trial, is judged by God; whereas Reinhardt falls victim to the spite of Adolf Hitler.    Is there really a similarity between these two stories?     Another puzzle is the play's sole villain, the local Salzburg Nazi--later gauleiter--Friedrich Müller.    Müller is a surprisingly well-mannered Nazi; more like a polite Englishman playing a Nazi, really.    He is even given some fairly reasonable arguments to explain why he is a Nazi.    This makes him less menacing than he is clearly supposed to be, and one wonders why Frayn chose to present him in this way. 
            Reinhardt's helper and sidekick, throughout his years of success, was a chap called "Katie" Kommer, played here by Peter Forbes, who practically steals the show.    Forbes has this character, a Viennese dandy out of Schnitzler, polished to a wonderful shine.     Abigail Cruttenden, as Reinhardt's lover Helene, is a bit shrill for my taste; one wonders why Reinhardt wants a woman who nags at him so much.   Roger Allam, as Reinhardt, does about as much as one can with this rather thin part, although he does seem to bobble his lines more often than he should.    The rest of the large cast is very fine, and in general the quality of the acting makes this play seem better than it really is. 
            Not to mention the quality of the production!   Director Michael Blakemore, designer Peter Davison, and costumer Sue Willmington have all outdone themselves.   Without being tricky or lavish, this is simply a beautiful production, with Willmington's gorgeous medieval costumes for the Everyman bits coming in for special praise.    What a fine job the National Theatre can do, when it gets things right!
         "Afterlife" is sure to have an afterlife, but I suspect it may not succeed very well, unless it can have productions as good as this.   On the other hand, if the National keeps on giving us productions of this quality, who cares what plays they do!
            Michael Frayn's new play "Afterlife" is playing at the Royal National Theatre, London, U.K., until Aug. 30.   So you still have time.
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        Steven Emanuel is a regular London-based theater reviewer for artssf.com.
    Coverage of theater in London or New York stems from the observation that those plays, if vital, gradually make their way to the West Coast.
   These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly)will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into recordings by local artists, and a few departures into books (by authors of the region) and theater as well.
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