Cast
Gino – Jude Law
Hanna – Halina Reijn
Joseph (Giuseppe) – Gijs Scholten Van Aschat
The Priest/ The Inspector – Chukwudi Iwuji
Johnny – Robert De Hoog
Anita – Aysha Kala
This play is based on an Italian film from 1943 Ossessione. The company for this production of the play features both British and Dutch actors.
Gino turns up one evening at the roadside restaurant/petrol station and totally changes Hanna’s life with her much older husband Joseph. She is not happy in that life but too scared to leave as she does not want to be alone and poor again. A lot of the emphasis is on how much she feels that she needs the money and stability without any love or passion.
A play showing how two people can be drawn towards each other in passion but it doesn’t then follow through in the way you first think. I thought the initial meeting of Gino and Hanna was very good in terms of believable between the actors. Law really pulls out all of the stops in his role. Halina Reijn was outstanding, I was very impressed with her performance from start to finish.
I will admit though that I still struggle with plays as they always seem to have quirky moments and are very off the wall and different. At times with this I didn’t really have much of an idea what was going on to be brutally honest. That doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the acting performances as I did, they were all very impressive.
We get shouting, screaming, kissing, nudity and opera. Yes, the latter really did surprise me as well, but it was certainly used to a very good effect. Really giving it a different edge, something I was not expecting at all.
I really do enjoy the National Theatre Live broadcasts at the cinema. It is a perfect idea for everyone to have a chance of seeing some amazing productions especially when you cannot get to the West End. The only issue I have with these is that they are always on a Thursday and I usually work late and cannot attend them. So I got pretty lucky with that, when you think of paying £8.10 (if you have an Unlimited Card) you would never be able to pay that to go to a Theatre. Plus if it encourages more people to watch theater productions then I am all for that!
The stage looked incredible and well massive, I don’t think I have a theater with a stage so large. Yes, that sounds well pretty crazy but sometimes I guess watching on a screen from a cinema you can see different ratios to sitting in the audience at the theater. Jude Law really did lead the line very well for the play, and I must add that he is in extremely great shape, he does spend a lot of the show without a shirt on. I guess that is a good selling point for this one.
I am interest to see if anyone attended the screening or if they have managed to catch the play live?
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