• Advertise
  • Request Review
  • Write for Us
  • Privacy
  • Login

Theatre Bubble

The UK Theatre Network

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Opinions
  • Interviews
  • Guides
  • Ed Fringe

Network at the National Theatre

November 15, 2017 by Antonia Windsor Leave a Comment

Review of: Network
Price:
£20

Reviewed by: Antonia Windsor
Rating:
4
On November 15, 2017
Last modified:November 15, 2017

Summary:

A super charged production of the hit 1976 film in which Bryan Cranston (Walter in Breaking Bad) plays a haunted and heroic Howard Beale

More Details

Most ticket buyers of this sold-out stage version of Paddy Chayefsky’s 1976 Oscar-winning film Network will have booked to see Bryan Cranston (aka Walter in Breaking Bad) make his UK theatre debut. And they won’t be disappointed. Cranston’s rendition of depressed TV news anchorman Howard Beale who becomes a ratings sensation after calling bullshit on national television (in response to a firing because his ratings were too low) is a theatrical tour de force. He makes the journey from tired to depressed to “mad as hell” and out the other side to prophetic and zen-like as though he were playing King Lear. In his acting he holds on to the truth amid a production that offers us image overload, just as his character tries to do in the chaos of ratings wars and political instability.

As you take your seat in the auditorium of the Lyttelton Theatre the stage is already alive with activity. The space has been transformed by designer Jan Versweyveld into a working television studio with a glass box of a control room on one side, and a working restaurant on the other. The couples in dark clothes sipping wine at the 20-odd tables are not low-paid supernumeraries, but instead audience members who have signed up for the “Foodwork” package – a five-course meal and close-up view of some of the more intimate scenes in the show that are performed alongside them. It is a manifestation of one of the play’s central themes, the blurring of fiction and reality; we get to witness real responses to fictional encounters.

The sheer number of people on stage at any one time in Ivo Van Hove’s production; combined with cameras offering us filmed images of different parts of the set, the audience and at one point of a scene taking place outside of the theatre, along with plenty of archive footage from 70s America means there is a cacophony of images on stage that is sometimes hard to watch. Despite having Cranston in the flesh just 10 metres away, our eyes are instead drawn to the close-up on the cinema-sized screen at the back of the stage, teaching us the overwhelming power of the screen to suck our attention.

Lee Hall’s script is tight, if somewhat wordy, and he manages to retain the best of the film, while reapportioning “air time” to the various plot-lines. The affair between Beale’s old friend and colleague Max Schumacher, played with great empathy by Douglas Henshall, and the cold television exec Diana Christensen, played with steely ambition by Michelle Dockery, provides a welcome variation in pace from the guns-blazing high energy of the TV studio. And the excellent short scene between Shcumacher and his wife, played with great sincerity by Caroline Faber, gives us a much-needed slice of simple human interaction. There are also plenty of one-liners to break the tension: “We’ve had 900 calls complaining about the language, so what the fuck are we going to do about it,” says an irate network boss (the f-word is peppered liberally through the script, as is the phrase “goddamn”).

Tal Yarden’s video design is stunning, if verging on sensory overload, the multiple portraits in the “mad as hell” scene gave me goosebumps.

If we are left in any doubt that Beale, as the “angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisy of our times”, can still speak to us today there is a postscript to the show in which we see the inauguration of all the presidents since the film came out. Obama gets a cheer from the audience, Trump gets a boo. I am sure as prophetic as Chayefsky’s film was, he would never have imagined a future where a reality TV star became president of the US.

 

Creative Team
Director: Ivo van Hove
Set and lighting designer: Jan Versweyveld
Video designer: Tal Yarden
Music and sound: Eric Sleichim
Costume designer: An D’Huys

Network is running at the National Theatre until March 24 2018. The show is sold-out, however tickets are still available through Day Seats and Friday Rush. at www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Avatar

Author: Antonia Windsor

Filed Under: Featured, Review Tagged With: Bryan Cranston, Lee Hall, Michelle Dockery, National Theatre

Join the discussion Cancel reply

NEWS / Living Record Festival of digital arts announces programme

Living Record Festival is a month-long Digital Arts Festival curating and presenting over 40 original pieces from a range of [Read More]

INTERVIEW / Open Bar on A ChristMESS CAROL

Tell us about Open Bar Theatre and also how you came about and how the name came about. OBT: Open Bar [Read More]

NEWS / Ayomide Adegun awarded The Luke Westlake Scholarship 2020

22 year old South Londoner Ayomide Adegun is currently in his 2nd year of the BA Acting course at Royal [Read More]

NEWS / Late Night Staring at High Res Pixels announced

A new play repurposed for online viewing from the creative team behind Scrounger, and the first of the Finborough Theatre’s [Read More]

NEWS / Crimes Against Christmas becomes an audio advent calendar

Typically at this time of year theatre company New Old Friends would have just finished an Autumn tour and be [Read More]

Top Posts & Pages

  • 10 Tips to Help You Prepare for Your Reality TV Auditions
  • 5 Stage Elements to Consider for a Rousing Theatrical Production
  • My Children! My Africa! Tristan Bates Theatre
  • Katy Owen: How to Apply to Drama Schools*
  • Actor's Corner: May
  • Interview with John Ward, director of Electra at the Bunker Theatre
  • The Way Back Home- Young Vic
  • Stuart Slade - Writer of BU21
  • Yasmin Paige on Actually
  • The Quiet House is coming to the Park Theatre with an important message
  • Avatar

    Antonia Windsor
    Author

  • November 15th, 2017
  • comment iconNo Comments
  • FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail

    Newsletter

    Enjoyed what you've read? Get even more great content directly to your inbox - Completely Free

    About Theatre Bubble

    Theatre Bubble is the news, review and blogging site created by Blue Pie Media and run by a dedicated team of outstanding editors and writers: we're always looking for new contributors - to find out more click here.

    Contact Us

    News: news@theatrebubble.com
    Reviews: reviews@theatrebubble.com
    Website: webmaster@theatrebubble.com

    Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2021 · Blue Pie Media

    Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

    Email sent!