Eliza Power reviews a somewhat lacking production of I am a Camera at Southwark Playhouse
I am a Camera may be best known as the drama behind '60s Broadway musical, Cabaret. But in this production, directed by Anthony Lau, life is far from a cabaret.
Set against the emergence of Nazi Germany, novelist Isherwood is suffering from writer's block. Confined to a small room in a boarding house in Berlin with a protective yet interfering landlady, he struggles with his inability to work. His boredom is only alleviated by his attachment to ex-pat party girl, Sally Bowles, a seemingly captivating young woman whose troubled existence tips the writer into his own emotional abyss.
Anthony Lau's energetic direction, coupled with the evocatively louche stage design by James Turner, successfully captures Isherwood's Berlin, while Lau's choice of live music scoring the production, from a group of talented musicians, evokes the ambiance of Berlin's pre-war decadence. The atmospherically dank vault of the Southwark Playhouse adds to the claustrophobia, complementing the desperation of the characters. However, too much emphasis on the comic elements of the play does, at times, turn an intelligent script into a bedroom farce.
The production is also marred by the lacklustre pairing of the two lead performances. Harry Melling's Christopher Isherwood is a likeable character, sweetly naïve and easily manipulated into a platonic love affair with the exuberant Sally Bowles. At the opening of the show, Isherwood asserts “I am a camera with it's shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.” Melling does his best to inject the passivity to the character, yet lacks the passion and drive to portray the down-on-his luck novelist fighting for every word that could save his flailing career. Rebecca Humphries' take on party girl, Sally Bowles, whose desire for love leads her into tumultuously brief liaisons, is more fitting for pantomime than dramatic performance. Her frenetic display may have drummed into the audience that she is flawed, but she conveys none of the psychological layers required to create the tragically sympathetic character. In the end, her constant mania, bounding across the stage and screaming became wearing, and only serves to obfuscate Bowles' inner turmoil.
However, the remaining performances were particularly strong. Sherry Baines as Bowles' mother, stole the second half of the performance: with her icily cool, clipped manner she hit the right comic notes. Oliver Rix shone as the American playboy Clive Mortimer, offering the promise of a prosperous and improved life to Bowles and Isherwood, yet failing to deliver. Joanne Howarth's metamorphosis from loving house Frau to Nazi sympathiser is great, alongside Freddie Capper's intelligent performance as Fritz, a Jewish man masquerading as an Aryan, and Sophie Dickson's elegant Natalie, struggling to juggle her natural instincts alongside her strict, Jewish upbringing.
Despite a few weaknesses, all in all, this is a theatrical production which does justice to a play that continues to resonate in our own troubled times.
I am a Camera runs at Southwark Playhouse until 22nd September
Image: FreddieCapper (Fritz Wendel)Harry Melling(Christopher Isherwood)Photo by Nicolai Kornum
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