The Shawshank Redemption at Wyndham’s Theatre

The Shawshank Redemption at Wyndham’s Theatre

18 September, 2009
by: Sandraleong

First things first, it must be said that this theatrical production of Stephen King’s Shawshank Redemption has enormous shoes to fill.  Comparisons with that seminal film starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman – also adapted from King’s novella - are unavoidable. What do you do when you’re benchmarked against a piece of work that film buffs have labelled as one of the greatest and most life-changing films of all time?

Owen O’Neill and Dave John’s adaptation at the Wyndham’s delivers everything you’d expect from a big-name and lavishly budgeted West End play: a proven yarn and an able cast with a laundry list of credentials. The set-up is promising. Walking into the theatre, you’re struck by an imposing lattice of iron bars that towers over the stage, marking the claustrophobic confines of Maine’s notorious Shawshank Prison.  On one hand, it’s hard to go wrong. On the other hand, it’s also dangerously easy to fall short - by offering nothing more than an audience would already have seen on DVD.

Shawshank is about Andy Dufresne, a banker sentenced to two life terms in the slammer after being wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, and his friendship with fellow inmate Red. While the movie is a delightful slow burn, steadily drawing out the themes of hope, friendship and redemption, the play is less adept at this.  The first half hurtles past, navigating pivotal plot moments - such as the first shoots of kinship between the two main characters and Andy’s beating at the hands of the Sisters - in an almost perfunctory manner. The passage of time is critical to the original story but here, it rushes by at warp speed.  The unfortunate result is a marked lack of intimacy between the audience and the cast. The lack of emotional exposition means their plights don’t quite resonate with us, culminating too in a rather dipstick treatment of the key themes.

To be fair, the second act plays catch up adequately, with poignant scenes that bring out the pent-up desperation of the inmates and their quiet yearning for freedom.  As corrupt prison warden Stammas denies Andy a second trial, the latter flies into an incandescent rage – the most animated we have seen him so far.  When inmate Brooksie is granted parole he locks himself in a watchtower, convinced he cannot survive outside the prison walls.  He walks out downcast, a sad reminder that the real world will be no less cruel to him. A few new plot variations are thrown in, such as a comically out-of-sync prison band and others I won’t give away – all hints of this Shawshank attempting to come into its own.

If there are flaws to this production, the cast are not to blame.  Playing Red, Reg E Cahey boasts a charm not unlike Freeman’s, one part weather-beaten cynicism and another childlike playfulness. Geoffrey Hutchings’ turn as Brooksie is equally endearing; though Kevin Anderson is less strong as Andy, a challenging character fraught with unspoken tension. The stage direction is also noteworthy - a chess-playing scene between Andy and the Sisters is set up perfectly, both sides posturing on opposite ends of the stage in a West Side Story style confrontation.

Seen on its own, Shawshank is not bad at all.  What drags it down is the albatross of the celluloid version, which is powerful in so many more ways, namely in depicting the measured process of coming to terms with one’s past.  While the storytelling and pacing here is no doubt an issue,  perhaps one could also put it down to a weakness of the dramatic theatre form.  The visual strength of film allows more to be said with less effort, something the stage has always struggled with. 

In all, the production surely deserves brownie points for courage. In terms of shoe-filling, it’s still about two sizes too small.


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Sandraleong