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Mika Jo
Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you are listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mika Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I'm a professional theatre critic here on social media and today we are going to be talking all about Alterations, the most recent opening at the National Theatre in London. And you may be saying to yourself, Mickey Jo, a National Theatre Review. We haven't had one of those from you for a good long while and it's true, I have been neglecting this one of the most exciting artistic theatrical hubs in in the uk really, for no good reason. It has been far too long since I've been up to date with what they've been doing at the National Theatre and this year I am newly determined to try and bring critical coverage of almost all of their programming here to you on social media. So stay tuned for more from the National Theatre. In the meantime, we're here to talk about Alterations. This is a revival of the play by Michael Abencetz. It's part of the Black Plays archive which is homed at the National Theatre and it's presented in a new production here, directed by Lynette Linton in its largest ever staging with new additional material by Trish Cook. And it stars the brilliant Arinze Kene as Walker Holt, a Guyanese immigrant to 1970s London working in the garment industry, determined to achieve a dream of success for himself. The play talks about powerful realities for individuals from the Windrush generation In the late 20th century, a period which has already been meaningfully explored during outgoing artistic director Rufus Norris's tenure at the venue with such previous works as the extraordinary Small Island. And this charming comedy offers even more theatrical insight into that perspective. So we're going to be talking about today. We're going to be talking about the narrative, its themes, the performances, the really striking design elements and other creative choices. As always, if you have already seen Alterations at the National Theatre, or if you're planning on seeing it soon, let us all know what you thought about the piece in the comments section down below. And if you have any other theatrical recommendations adjacent to this talking about similar themes, let us know about those as well. Finally, if you do enjoy this review and want to stay up to date with the rest of my critical coverage, make sure you are following me wherever you are, seeing my face or hearing my voice, whether that's right here on YouTube, on podcast platforms or across rest of the theatrical Internet. I will be sharing many more reviews soon as well as coverage of the upcoming awards season, with the Olivier Award nomination set to be announced imminently. In the meantime, though, here is what I thought about alterations at the National Theatre. Now, this is a rarity for me, but I did actually make notes during this particular press night performance. I wrote four or five pages in the dark, and I'm not going to lie to you, everybody, it did not go well. But what I believe I was trying to get at here is this sense of two different scales within the narrative. You have the actual synopsis and the story which is unfolding, which is not really unlike a sitcom, both in scope and in turn. The whole thing taking place in one shop, with a handful of sewing machines, with a rack of garments, and with various bags of trousers being forever brought in and taken away. We meet the employees who work there, working for Walter. Walter, who is determined that he will soon have enough money to be able to buy a shop of his own and really achieve the dream that he has, for some time now, since arriving in Britain, been working towards a dream which many traveled a great distance in pursuit of, and upon arriving in the uk, seemed to be impossibly out of reach in a society and a culture rigged against them because of institutional racism. But finally, it looks like sheer dedication to the system may in fact pay off for Walter. However, so many of his personal relationships are at breaking point. His wife feels personally neglected. His friends and employees do as well. It doesn't help that another of his more lax employees may also be pursuing a romantic relationship with Walker's wife, promising her a level of respect and attention that Walker seems incapable of providing or uninterested in providing at this current time. All of these characters, very animated, very eccentric, Walker himself particularly lively even in his frustration as everyone is bringing him problems and delaying this goal. That he feels he is so close to the finish line is so visible to him, which is where this greater dimension to the whole thing comes into it. Because there is this additional weight and depth to what's happening here beyond the sort of sitcom premise. Because the reality of what Walker finds himself striving for is so much bigger than just a financial goal, a professional goal. It represents to him this important personal achievement. It's all entangled with his pride and his self respect and his sense of self in a society, in a community, in a country where he has become othered. It also represents the fulfillment of a promise to a previous generation. And as all of the comedy of these situations is playing out, he often steps forward and enters his own sort of trance, like state where visible only to him is the future he is working towards, the shop that he dreams one day to own. And at the edges of the stage, he sees almost ghost like figures of the past. A couple from Guyana in the West Indies. He sees visions of the future at the same time. And both the tone and the nature of the staging shift in this moment as well. It becomes more dreamlike, it becomes aspirational. We share in Walker's sense of profound longing before he is pulled back to his particularly challenging circumstances, surrounded by individuals with a little less personal investment in his dreams and his success. To them, it's just an impossibly long and difficult night spent altering the lengths of a seemingly unending parade of trousers. One of the characters describes it as a damn trouser epidemic. To Walker, it's the final hunter, 100 meter sprint of what has been a personal marathon. Let's talk a little bit more then about this material, these characters and the conversations which they bring to the stage. Now, what's brilliant about this cast of characters is we have a handful of different perspectives. And one of the key factors at play here is a striking generational divide. On the one hand, you have Walker, his wife Darlene, and his associates Buster and Horace, each of them with a slight variation on a similar perspective. Each of them triumphant to find dignity and respect and hope. But there's also the young delivery boy, Courtney, who has a strikingly different outlook on what it means to be black in Britain in the 1970s. He still lives on the same estate where Walker once lived, which Walker is critical of, an area where the black residents have essentially been criminalized in the wake of a recent riot. And when, after a decent amount of comic indifference, Courtney is finally asked by the two older men about his outlook and about his ideas of his own prospects, he offers a sort of a scathing admonition as he tells them, neither of you have any idea what it means to be young and black and British today. In fact, he qualifies simply what it means to be young today, regardless of race. He talks about the very limited job prospects. He also talks about identity and the realities of assimilating into a culture where he is not welcomed, but whereupon he is made to feel like he is neither West Indian enough for those who came before him or English enough for those he now lives amongst. He also isn't the only indication of the next generation. Within the play, there is conversation about Walker's daughter, principally had by his wife Darlene, who suggests that Walker neglects his responsibilities as a father. One of the issues behind her irritation with him. She tells a familiar story about the sacrifices that she has made as an immigrant parent so that her daughter may know greater opportunities for success. And she remarks that when she left Guyana, she had hope and she had dignity and respect, these being many of the core values sought by most of the characters we meet in the play. There's also a fear, however, from Darlene that echoes much of Courtney's experience, because she simultaneously hopes that her daughter will be proud of where her family had come from. And finally, there is also an unseen character yet to arrive, because Walker's colleague Buster, who is perhaps also his closest friend, is any moment now expecting his first child, representative of the idea of the second generation and again, promise for the future. Now, alongside all of this, there is also a voice from the older generation, represented by a white gentleman named Mr. Nat. It is for Mr. Nat that Walker and his associates are altering all of these pairs of trousers. And though we initially meet him as another successful middle class white businessman, we come to find out that there is actually a great deal more nuance to his personality. And his story intersects with Walker's, with Darlene's, in unexpected ways. In fact, it's during his conversation with Darlene, incidentally, some of the most interesting dialogue in the play, that she reveals many of her hopes and concerns for her young daughter. The big revelation comes when Mr. Nat speaks about his own own struggles as a Jewish immigrant to Britain. And having encountered many of the same realities that Walker is facing in this way, he has had to make many of the same choices and potentially experienced many of the same personal follies in pursuit of prosperity and success. He worked extraordinarily hard to get to where he now is, at the expense of friends and family. When he and Walker finally have a weighty conversation about this decision and about the realities that came with that. It could come as a war warning if it seemed like for Walker there was any other choice that he could make. But much as the dream would be to really have it all in this land of freedom, we do get the sense that for each of them as immigrants in a very challenging system, the expense of their choices is a devastatingly necessary reality. All of which sounds thoroughly deep and heavy, and necessarily it is. But there is also this lovely, warm comedy to the thing, because alongside each of their personal convictions and this thing that they are striving for, everyone we meet on stage is at least a little bit foolish. And every stalagmite of tension that arises on this stage is quickly shattered by the warmest comic twist, some of which then turn sentimental and moving. There is a moment where Walker and Darlene are dancing sensually to some reggae music, eliciting a very big response from a wildly responsive audience. Who are the press? Night performers were particularly engaged with all of the romantic revelations, particularly Horace being in pursuit of Darlene. But afterwards, when it seems like she might be able to rekindle the passion that she had with Walker, despite her frustrations about the fact that, you know, her dreams were neglected when they came to the country together, that she thought it was about them achieving success together and that he's now only focused on himself. This is where the complexities of their marriage is captured in a moment of comic embrace which turns to sweetness. And there are huge laughs throughout. There are moments where it almost feels a little familiar, of, like, open all hours. And there's a brilliant sequence right towards the end where Walker and Horace, who is trying to gain the courage to tell him about the relationship that he hopes to forge with Walker's wife, are both drinking more and more as time is hurtling forwards towards their deadline in altering all of the trousers. And in juxtaposed scenes, they are merrily laughing hysterically with each other and at each other's throats. Walker, too, as played by Arinze, is not simply this solemn figure. He skips through the air even in these moments of hysteria, and he allows us to laugh at many of his misfortunes. But so carefully balanced is the tone of the thing that when it shifts into this different gear, we know we are entering something a little more important. Talk more about the creative choices that frame this piece so interestingly now present from the very beginning, is this sense of Walker's nostalgia for the old country. But something that creeps in, as I mentioned, as we progress through the play, is a figure from the future, a young black man dressed in a contemporary way, who almost seems to strike an apprehension into Walker, a sort of a sense of fear, or at the very least, uncertainty. There's also a very interesting moment of communion, a sort of a mutual understanding between this vision of the future and those from the past as they acknowledge each other across Walker, who by this point has fallen to his knees in a sort of abject hopelessness. With the arrival of this figure, we hear contemporary music. Underneath that is one of so many brilliant creative choices. There's really exceptional use of. Of staging and set pieces and lighting. As we enter into Walker's mind, there's something that happens with a larger row of garments that lowers down from the flies, adding to the couple of rails of garments that they have in the store. It's the sense of increasing the capacity. It's the notion of the shop that he would have, that would be bigger, that would be broader. Later on, we see two actual set pieces enter in alongside his shop, and we see this sort of a dreamlike sequence of the store that he hopes to have. Employees smartly dressed in uniforms, men being measured for suits, everything very charming. But this dream, every time that it is invoked, is also tantalizing, is also just that little bit out of his reach. It gets closer and closer every time as he nears the finish line of this particular order and begins to allow himself to believe that this is really going to happen. But throughout, I think the most striking visual we are offered is this descending rail of clothes, this faltering dream that rises back up before it is within reach. There are also a couple of moments when we tell stories from the past. The playing space is lit from behind with this flickering spotlight. When Walker talks about going to the cinema when he was younger, there was a conversation had between him and Darlene about when they were younger lovers, when they would walk along the seaside. We hear the sound of the waves, and this higher rail moves gently up and down like the tide going in and out. That's quite stunning. A golden lighting glow also washes across this moment to really land it. But it all dissipates by the harsh light of reality. This is the work of lighting designer Oliver Fenwick and set and costume designer Frankie Bradshaw in director Lynette Linton's production. And it's both a really charming theatrical answer to how to tell this story within one particular location and the possibility of a man who has spent hours without sleep in this shop going slowly insane. Now, set as we are in the 1970s, it's Frankie Bradshaw's stylish costume design I want to talk a little bit more about, because they are gorgeous. I love the look of this era anyway. But all of the garments we see both worn, displayed and used as props within the show are so brilliantly familiar of the era and so fantastically helpful in landing all of these very characterful personalities. In particular, the way that Walker dresses himself, the way that Horace dresses himself, standing out in these stylish clothes, these nice shirts, these purple hues, aspiring, as he is, to wealth and happiness and, as we come to find out, romance. And since we've arrived to a conversation about the piece's characters, let's finish by talking about the Performances now Arinzer Kenny is quite spectacular as always. He is so alive in this characterization. There is such a palpable hope and a longing. But he's also so charming. Even in his frustration, even in his stubbornness and his premature anger, his employees and his eagerness to dismiss them as soon as they question him, as soon as they have any kind of a personal skirmish in the name of his pride. He makes so many abrupt decisions in spite of himself. But through this, and despite the testimony of his clearly neglected and long suffering wife, you still long to see him achieve everything he set out to. He spends so much of it moving between this charmingly funny hysteria and these moments of profound reflection. And then towards the end, pulls back even another layer, allowing us to glimpse the deeper meaning of why this dream means so much to him. Not only would this mean getting to make his own suits rather than continuing to work in alterations, there's also what that represents getting to create with his own ideas, with his own voice, with his own identity. Rather than exhausting all of his energy trying to assimilate into this culture, we also see him coming to terms with the realization that there is a selfishness to his dreams of success. There is dialogue about the memory that when they all got off the boat, there was a stronger sense of community, of helping each other, and the notion that when one black man succeeds, he forgets about everyone else. This also resonates for him personally as he watches his marriage crumbling in front of him. He talks about getting this dream, whatever the price may be. It's at that exact moment that the arrival of his wife Darlene on her return during the play is invoked as she walks back into the store. And fascinatingly, he talks about the early 20th century blues and folk musician Lead Belly, one who experienced a lot of personal plight during his lifetime and who has gone on to be extraordinarily influential. This anecdote constituting a huge arrival for this late stage conversation about dignity and about what that meant at the time. And the real idea behind him getting this shop being that it would mean freedom for him financially and personally. By extension, in a society where Walker's freedom is not assured, the shop would represent protection. Section. Cherelle Skeet plays Darlene. She does really brilliant work. It is with her first arrival that we finally find substance and drive. The whole thing feels a little bit meandering prior to that, as we're setting up the notion of what's going to be happening with all of the trousers, all of the different working relationships kind of riffing on the comedy of the tensions between these different men. But it's with Darlene's entrance that the whole thing suddenly gains a sense of purpose. Purpose. And it's the unexpected common ground that she finds with Mr. Nat, played by Colin Mace, that proves some of the most interesting fodder in the entire thing. He does terrific work as well, steadily offering us the chance to glimpse some of the greater dimensions of his character, talking about the dignity that he needed to find coming to the country, talking about the challenges of his experience. There's a really beautiful moment between him and Walker right towards the end of the play where there's this sort of quiet acknowledgment of Walker's understanding of what it means to address him by his real name and not the one that he took in order to assimilate culturally. And while the play is obviously a very important one, rooted in the black voice in the 1970s and talking with tremendous and necessary specificity about that experience, that moment also expands the thing and talks more broadly about the immigrant experience and the recognizable notion of being other. Finally, there's also commendably urgent and sort of sorrowful work done by Rafael Famitab as the young man Courtney, and really first rate comic support from Gershwin, Eustache Jr. And Carl Collins as Buster and Horace. This is one of those rare plays that is deeply funny while also movingly important. Beautifully staged with some incredibly charming performances. I enjoyed it very much. It is an absolute gem. Go and check it out at the National Theatre's Lyttelton space and then come right back to the comments section of this video and let me know what you thought. If you have seen it already, let us all know what you thought in the comments section down below. Thank you so much for listening to this review. I hope that you enjoyed if you did, make sure to subscribe right here on YouTube or follow me on podcast platforms for more theatrical reviews coming very soon. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. 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