The Last Confession...
I’ve never watched Suchet on stage before, so I was a bit excited about how that would be. I expected him to be great and he indeed was! So powerful and compelling, a true master on stage! He expressed the nature of Cardinal Benelli, his crisis of doubt and his ambitions with such great empathy and emphasis, it was brilliant! Suchet also mastered to perform Benelli's despair to a point that almost made your heart break, you just wanted to be up there on stage trying to comfort him or remove that despair if you could... It was extremely touching and went straight to my heart. I was deeply taken and moved by his performance and truly impressed! He made a very authentic and believable character as in all of his work.
Journalists, presenters, some reviewers and even director David Jones have liked to draw parallels between Benelli’s investigations and interrogations and Poirot's... I can’t imagine why... The only similarity is the possibly murder issue, the rest you can forget… In common, forget everything about comparing this character with any other character Suchet has done. Of course there are always elements from one character you can compare with another - but Suchet is a character actor and he is so good at it, that you just leave all his other characters behind you while watching him in a new role, and that goes for this one, too. His performance up there clearly confirmed that he is a magnificent actor - and it was a true delight finally to experience him on stage! What a joy! My expectations held more than water, indeed, and I wouldn't have missed his performance for anything in the world!
What I didn’t expect was to be taken by another actor, too... Richard O’Callaghan, who performed Pope John Paul I, did a splendid performance in his portrayal of an extremely kind but very determined Pope. He was so endearing, you just wanted to take him in your arms and keep him there! In spite of his endearing character he was not without strong opinions and deep feelings. There is a scene where his outburst of anger and frustrations over the Curia being neglecting his instructions reaches you with such great impact... It's so intense that you feel his deep emotions way down from your head to your toes and just want to be up there punching that Curia for being so stubborn and arbitrary.
Bernard Lloyd’s Cardinal Villot, Secretary of State in the Vatican and a really tough guy, makes an impression on you, too, when he breaks down during the interrogations, and Maroussia Frank, performing a very humorous and wonderfully down-to-earth nun, gives a welcoming and fresh female touch within all this Man Power. And then you’re in for a big, big surprise concerning Michael Jayston’s Confessor… on who he turns out to be... I won’t reveal it now, since the play is still on, but you do get surprised, really... it’s one of these Wow-moments...
There is a lot of humour, heavy arguing and "life" in the play. The whole production is very well done, very fresh and fast-going. The set design on stage with all its gratings and grills gives you the impression of being in a prison where all sorts of schemes and intrigues can take place and it underlines the Vatican to be an extremely closed and framed world, I think. Together with the rest of the cast, the music, the costumes (love all these red frocks the cardinals are wearing, it’s a very hot and strong colour) it all works very well. I do wish I could have watched the play once more, because I missed a lot, especially a lot of the lines. There was so much to focus on that I didn’t get it all... (so if someone out there has the script, please send it to me... I mean it, I really would love to read it!) If I hadn’t been out of focus it wouldn’t have been a problem because all the performers had excellent articulation and were very easy to follow, it was a joy listening to them.
The story itself is rather intriguing! Was Pope John Paul I really murdered? That’s up to you to decide... The thought of it is very, very interesting and very thrilling! His death would definitely benefit a number of people, particularly the ones he wanted to dismiss. And there were some connections to the Mafia, I think... oops, sorry, I really wouldn't know... but the Vatican Bank (and a couple of cardinals like Marcinkus and Villot) was said to have been involved directly or indirectly in organized crime through its connection to the Italian bank Banco Ambrosiano and the shady Roberto Calvi - so all in all the scenario could be plausible. Furthermore the play shows that the Vatican is more filled up with politics, power, manipulations and titles than it's filled with God... No matter if John Paul I was murdered or died from natural causes; his sudden death left the Catholic Church unreformed as it has been for nearly thirty years. This strong and powerful institution has such a great impact on many people’s lives, and it makes me dizzy to think of what it would have meant of radical changes within the Catholic World had his ideas come off...
The Royal Haymarket Theatre is an experience in itself. What a fantastic building! It’s so beautiful with it’s classical lines and pure, white colours and columns outside and lots of golden panels, chandeliers and soft carpets inside (goes well together with the idea and sense of the extremely wealthy Vatican, I think...) I was sitting in the front row B in the Stalls (when I booked it I thought it would be the second, since B usually comes after A... but apparently the A row doesn’t exist, at least not in this production) - but Wow, what an experience! The stage was extended with what looked to be a marble stairs of three or four huge steps down towards the Stalls - and when the performers now and then went down those stairs, you could have reached out and touched them! It was extremely intense! You could see everything up there! Even the inevitable, wonderful spitting! And the tears in Cardinal Benelli’s eyes during his touching despair...
The theatre is very comprehensible, it’s not that big and it makes you feel a certain intimacy you would never feel in a larger theatre. Not only that, the light was on, on the audience during the performance, at least in the stalls, not spotlights of course but a cosy soft light - it made you feel as if you were sitting in your own living-room... I’ve never experienced that, unless it was some kind of an experimental play or theatre... This intimacy you feel with the actors in these surroundings is an advantage for the audience, but I can't imagine the actors prefer it... Because it must be very difficult to be up there performing if you can see the audience's reactions and expressions that clearly... Must be hard to keep your concentration... I’m sure performers learn a technique to avoid eye-contact in these situations. In fact that was very obvious in the play that almost every actor knew how to make fix-points on spots "somewhere in the air" in order to avoid visual contact... I could have sworn, though, that at least the Confessor once did look directly at a person among the audience, but his role demanded a very staring and silent character during larger parts of the play, so I guess he could “afford” it... besides I might be mistaken on that...
After the performance a small group of “autograph-hunters” (including me) went to the backstage door waiting for the actors to come out.
Suchet surrounded by admirers at Haymarket Theatre backstage door, 5th of September 2007 - Photo © Sanna
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get more than this single photo with Suchet right, the two others turned out to be blurred... I do treasure the one I did get right and I’m very thankful for the autograph I got in my programme, too...
Suchet seems to be a very dear and sweet man, I’m glad to have met him and grateful for having been able to watch him on stage. Hopefully there will be many more plays to watch in the future. Thank you, Mr. David Suchet, for a splendid performance!
Sanna - 12th of September 2007
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