On a whim I went and saw Nation at the National Theatre last night. Nation is a play with music based on the Terry Pratchett novel of the same name. It’s been adapted for the stage by Mark Ravenhill, which was an odd thing considering I was only familiar with his earlier work like Shopping and Fucking. Nation seemed to me a slight departure for a playwright who’s works have mostly been in the ‘in-yer-face’ style. What was a playwright who had previously written a great scene where a character gets raped with a knife doing writing what is ostensibly a Young Adult’s fantasy book. However, what I didn’t know is that Ravenhill seems to have tamed a bit in recent years, even writing a pantomime.
Yes, a pantomime.
To tell you the truth, I probably wouldn’t have bothered if I hadn’t picked up a £5 ticket offer for some insanely good seats. I’m not a big Pratchett fan. This could probably get my nerd status revoked, and I have honestly tried, but Pratchett just hasn’t captured me in the same way as other fantasy authors. In fact, the thing that stands out for me from Pratchett’s novels is a single quote.
62 books. 1 quote. Not bad.
I’m being unnecessarily harsh about Mr Pratchett. I also enjoyed the Hogfather when it was on TV. I also had a read of Guards! Guards! the play, and thought it was quite funny, if not a little too nerdish. Anyway, back to Nation.
Nation is the first non-Discworld novel that Pratchett has put out since 1996. It’s an alternate history of our world set in the 1870s. It tells the story of Mau, a native of ‘The Nation’ who finds himself alone after a giant wave washes away everyone he knows and loves, until he finds the ghost (read: white) girl. Daphne, who thinks that she’s the sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy is stranded on the island with Mau. They fall in love, things happen and they ostensibly save the world (paraphrasing here).
Nation is flawed. I felt that I couldn’t really get attached to the story. There were some interesting and funny characters within the story, and there were some great moments, but the story as a whole left me feeling a little empty. It was nice enough but I had a sense that I’d seen it a million times before. It seemed a typical Pocahontos/Avatar style white person meets and falls in love with a native style story.
In saying that, Nation by National Theatre was an absolutely revelation. In fact, the play itself is about the only thing I can fault in the production. The cast were great, and did the most with what they had to work with. The staging was brilliant, the lighting, set and sound design were truly impressive and the puppets and puppetry were fantastic. It’s an extremely strange and disconcerting feeling for me to say how much I enjoyed the production, considering I really didn’t like the script all too much. The production values were so high that they overshadowed the piece itself, which in this case is a good thing.
I’ll start with the cast. The two leads, Gary Carr and Emily Taaffe were very strong. They both had great comic timing and made the most of what was often trite dialogue. Carr, who plays Mau, is an exceptionally talented man. It’s always pleasing to see a production where the lead character actually stands out above the rest. He played Mau with such conviction and seemed to own the stage with his every movement. Taaffe, as Daphne, was spot on. She managed to be likeable and irritating at the same time, which was absolutely perfect for the character. What I was most impressed with was that she never turned the character into a caricature, which would have been so easy. The other standout, by far, was Jason Thorpe as Milton the Parrot. His movement and delivery of lines were perfect. According to the woman behind me, the parrot was a Shakespearean device. I just thought it was a nice piece of comic relief in an otherwise boring story. Each to their own. The rest of the ensemble were extremely good, but hard to pick out individually.
Secondly, the direction. Melly Still did an exceptional job with Nation. It’s often hard to see the direction behind a show. However, the staging of Nation was hard to ignore. The way that the actors interacted with the set, lighting and soung, along with the interaction between the actors themselves was awe inspiring. There were moments where my jaw simply hit the floor, especially towards the end. This is an incredibly well staged, tight production. In addition, the use of puppets for the slightly surreal animals of the island was inspired, providing menace and comedy in equal measures.
Finally, the design. I would recommend seeing Nation for, if nothing else, the set, lighting, sound and projection design. The way all elements interacted was a thing of beauty. The I have never seen such an effective use of sound and projection within the theatre before. I sound like I’m gushing, but in all honesty, it absolutely floored me. One scene in particular, where Mau is shown paradise and then taken back to the stark reality of the world was beautiful. The juxtaposition of the stage filled with tiny, pretty lights, to the barren world that was created with one lighting change was inspired.
That happened to be a long winded, rather conflicting review. All in all, I would recommend seeing Nation. It runs until the end of March at the National Theatre. What it lacks in story, it makes up for as an experience.
£5 tickets aren’t bad, either.
