203. Josh O'Connor is a hit, Ava Pickett does it again and the fate of Sunday in the Park with George
The WhatsOnStage Podcast
Hosts Sarah Crompton and Alex Wood recap a busy period of theatre outings, ranging from high-praise reviews to industry concerns. They discu
Key takeaways
- Josh O'Connor delivers a transformative performance in Golden Boy at the Almeida Theatre.
- Ava Pickett's play Bloodsport is noted for its smart, contemporary Essex setting and powerful dialogue.
Main topics
- Golden Boy review
- Ava Pickett and Bloodsport
Notable quotes
Not all value is written on a dollar bill.
Conclusion
The episode highlights the tension between the immense artistic vitali
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:07) Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the What's On Stage podcast with me, Sarah Crompton. And Speaker 1 (0:13) me, Alex Wood. Speaker 2 (0:14) Haven't managed to get together this week, Alex. I'm very sorry. Life seems to be too full and too busy for both of us. Speaker 1 (0:21) We have been running around everywhere. As we've teased, we've got a new episode coming up with the two leading stars of... as you like it at the RSC, which will be coming out next week, I believe. So exciting. Yeah, we recorded that earlier than this, but that will be going out later. So we've sort of, yes, we've just been running around so much, I just said, okay, for today, please, can I just have a day where I'm Speaker 2 (0:48) not braving Speaker 1 (0:49) Southwestern Railway in order to get Speaker 2 (0:52) by. Honestly, I might do, the rest is delayed trains podcast. Honestly, I went to Coventry yesterday to go to a funeral, in fact, and we got to the train station to come home. We all had things to do in the evening. A group of us had gone up for it. And there was that terrible moment where across the board there just was cancelled, cancelled, cancelled. But in fact, it turned out they were all cancelled for separate reasons. And there was a train an hour later, so that was all right. It meant I got back in time to see Golden Boy at the Almeida Theatre, which was at... the first topic on our agenda. And then we're going to talk a bit more about some other new writing that I've seen, Bloodsport. And what else we've got on our agenda? Kimberly Speaker 1 (1:40) Akimbo, you saw that? Oh, yes. Yes. Speaker 2 (1:43) Yes, so Kimberly Akimbo, Bloodsport, AI, the new... NT season. It's a packed agenda this week. Yes, and Speaker 1 (1:51) a little bit of unfortunate news from the producers of Sunday in the Park with George. They're probably not too surprising when Jonathan Bailey exited, but we'll dig into that a bit later. But we'll start with your euphoric reaction to Golden Boy. I really love Golden Boy. It Speaker 2 (2:09) is interesting thinking about theatre criticism and why you write. There's a certain type of play I know I like. I like those big, unwieldy, early 20th century American plays. And I like those films as well. I like film noir. I like musicals from that period. I like the novels of that period. It's a period that really interests me. And I was fascinated to see Clifford Odette's Golden Boy because I'd never seen it, as I said, I think on last week's podcast. For whatever reason, it's not very often done. And this production, directed by Sam Yates, stars Josh O'Connor. And watching it last night, I know why it's not often done. It's a slightly clunky play. It's about a violinist who wants money and so he becomes a boxer. And violin is definitely art and humanity and goodness and boxing is definitely the dollar and bad and corrupt. Speaker 2 (3:10) And there are sort of lines that overstate that. But it's a terrific story and it is brilliantly told. I mean, the first half just whizzes along and you think, oh, my goodness, this is so exciting. And all the conflicts there. And Sammy Yates has done brilliant and brilliantly clever things with the production to make it. He's cut a lot of characters. He's made it move very fast. And he has at its centre just a knockout, obviously. I haven't said that in my review, but I'm going to say it. Knockout performance from Josh O'Connor, who hasn't been on stage since the aborted Romeo and Juliet, which never happened on stage at the National Theatre. It was rehearsed as a stage production, but then it went out on film opposite Jesse Buckley. He hasn't been here since then because he's been busy building up. celebrity film career. Oh my goodness, he's good. He's just amazing. Speaker 1 (4:14) He's Speaker 2 (4:14) amazing. Speaker 1 (4:15) You said very aptly in your review and also in last week's podcast that he's the sort of person that could play both a violinist and a boxer. And there's such a small pool of actors that can pull off both of those things. Speaker 2 (4:29) Yeah, and he's actually miles too old. He's 36 and he's playing a 21-year-old. But he's entirely convincing as a young man. And what's immensely touching about performance is that all the time the boy kind of sneaks out and he's got, when he's being really tough and saying, you know, I'm going to take on the world and I don't want to play the violin and I don't care about my hands. You can see the other side of him all the time. And he's incredibly good at that. And I've always been struck both on film and on stage by what an intense performer he is. He listens very hard and you feel he's absolutely there with you. And it's particularly rewarding in this production because everyone else is so good as well. Every single person down to the smallest part is brilliant. I mean, Stanley Townsend. as his father, is heartbreakingly good. Daniel Mays as his manager, brilliant. Hayley Squires, everything just works. And so it's one of those evenings where you feel everything coming together and being held in a very hard grasp by a director who absolutely knows what they're going to do with the play. Speaker 1 (5:47) And Sam Yates is definitely... Speaker 1 (5:51) After Vanya, which he did with Andrew Scott, the solo Vanya, he's really on a winning streak right now. And I think he's probably very much in demand as a director, both on stage, but he had his debut feature film in 2024. So he might be snapped up by the world of film. I think earlier on in his career, he did shows like The Phlebotomist, The Yellow Road. Which I loved, actually. Yeah, I remember that. Speaker 2 (6:15) Very weird. Speaker 1 (6:17) Yeah, he's definitely one to watch. And Vanya was a huge box office success when the film version came out. And thankfully, Golden Boy is also getting a cinematic release in November. So for anyone who can't see it at the Almeida because it sold out in about four seconds, it will also now be shown in screens across the country. Speaker 2 (6:36) And I think it will work really well because it is cinematic in the best way. I mean, cinematic in the sense of not... using lots of images though there is a bit which is very clever that they for the fight scenes they put them inside the boxing bag so O'Connor sort of dances around this boxing bag the fight director's Kate Waters and he's punching it and there are cameras in it so as he as the bag spins you get um a film on the wall which is really clever and works brilliantly And because it stylizes the fights, because the trouble with boxing plays is that, you know, you have got to show fighting on stage. And it does so brilliantly. And I think that will work. But what I also loved about it is it's got such a sense of what it's doing with the words and how Odette's had things to say and he's worth listening to, but how he says it a bit too much. So not only does it cut, a lot, but it moves so beautifully, which the Vanya did as well, between scenes. And there's one moment that I really noticed where there's a great speech, but very obvious speech about art and culture and that, you know, it's important. And he lets noise sort of build over it. So it makes it very exciting. And I, yeah, I did just sit there and think, I love this, you know, for me. I nearly gave it five stars, but then I didn't because I thought, well, it's not quite perfect. But to me, it was perfect. I was absolutely held. I felt very happy. But I've had some amazing nights in the theatre. I was going to say, Speaker 1 (8:17) you've actually had a very starry start to the autumn because you've had Tilda Swinton in Man to Man. Amazing performance. And Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss in Electra Persona as well. And I think for you, the biggest... celebrity that you finally get to share an auditorium with is Ava Pickett in her play Bloodsport after Helen of Troy had its world premiere at Stratford East. Speaker 2 (8:42) Yeah, my heroine. I just love Ava Pickett. I think Bloodsport's brilliant. I took a friend who was up in London and was a bit cynical about the idea of Helen of Troy coming home from the wars and finding herself in contemporary Essex. But it's amazingly well sustained. I mean, it's such a... It's such a smart idea. And again, features extraordinary performances from Michelle Dockery as Helen and Laura Aikman as her best friend, C, who stands for Clytemnestra and who is an amazing creation in a tight-fitting white dress and high heels is worried about blood on her cream carpet all the time. Very funny. And then most impressively, I thought, Ethan Morehouse as the chorus, which is choric. It's written as poetry and as commentary on the action and very much what is setting Helen of Troy in Essex and making the parallels about male anger, essentially, in ancient Greece and today. And he is just so precise. and exciting with how he lands the words. And I think there are problems. I mean, it's never quite explained