It's October 2019 and as I write this it's the morning after I have been to see a stage version of My Beautiful Launderette, a groundbreaking British TV movie of the 1980's.
Prior to the performance I went to an 'In Conversation' with Hanif Kureishi and Gordon Warnecke, who played Omar in the film and is playing Papa in this stage adaptation at the Curve in Leicester. It was a great retrospective and both seemed to enjoy the trip down memory lane, but in spite of it being discussed I felt we never really got the answer to why revive it now (the period has not been updated) and for what purpose? What is it saying that is new? It's an expensive project for a trip down memory lane. I have to to say out of 125 minutes of performance, I wasn't really engaged until the last 15 minutes. Great acting, great direction from Nikolai Foster but overall it didn't move me. This raises the question for writers, why revisit work if it has nothing new to say? 1984 was a year of the National Front having a base among the British white working class, it was a year that on TV screens we discovered boys kissed each other and did a lot more too. In 2019, the Right may be on the rise again all over the world, but a stage Skinhead from Millwall doesn't really say a lot to me about that, and as for boys (or indeed girls) having same sex relationships and being open about them, hasn't that become a normal part of society? I'm sure there must be merit in this adapted revival, but thus far I fail to see it.
0 Comments
|
AuthorA blog detailing my thoughts and other stuff ArchivesCategories |