Gore Vidal Makes His Debut
Gore Vidal made his London stage debut at the National Theatre on Friday night as the announcer of the scene headings in Mother Courage.
And he sat at the back of the stalls in a wheelchair while he delivered them live through a microphone, attended by stage-management.
Or at least that’s how it sounded; his recorded voice will be heard at future performances.
His wry crackle of an almost live voice was dead right for the play, and the headings, and he took a prolonged round of applause when his close friend Fiona Shaw brought him - one of the truly great men of American letters in the last century - to the stage at the end.
There was obviously nothing planned, but he called for a microphone and, struggling gamely to his feet, with much assistance, declared “And the war goes on…”
For his generation who had been in World War Two, he said, the continuation of wars around the world, specifically in Afghanistan, were a source of sadness and regret.
The participation of Vidal in Deborah Warner’s production came as a complete surprise, and not many in the audience recognised him as they crowded into the stalls and back to the bars after a very long (two hours) first act.
There is no mention of him in the programme, except on a last-minute addendum slip which also informs us that Stephen Kennedy has taken over the role of the Chaplain from Peter Gowen.
One wonders whether this was all part of the upheavals before the opening, which led to cancelled previews, and audiences being told there would be no more of the show after the interval, that sort of thing.
Vidal’s great friend Tennessee Williams loved Mother Courage, and was moved to tears by the final image of the old boot pulling her cart onwards, probably for ever, having lost all her children…interestingly, Fiona Shaw denies us this emotional indulgence by never once letting the tragedy get in the way of her own frightening mercantile obsessions.
I saw the first National Theatre production with Madge Ryan in 1965 at the Old Vic, and absolutely loved it; director William Gaskill has since said he made the great mistake of slavishly copying the Berliner Ensemble production.
But Deborah Warner’s revival is brutally updated, brutally modern and brutally enjoyable, and Kushner’s translation does full justice to the superb speeches of Courage and the Chaplain in the last third of the play.
Kushner’s translation was made for the Public Theater in Centarl Park, New York, in 2006, when Meryl Streep played Courage, with a score by Jeanine Tesori, who later collaborated with Kushner - and the director, George C Wolfe - on Caroline or Change.
Ever since Angels in America, Kushner has had a strong association with the National, and I’m glad we’ve heard his Courage. But I wonder if Nicholas Hytner should not have commissioned a new translation from a British dramatist for this important occasion.
It’s just a thought, and I can see the arguments for using the Kushner. And I’m glad we’ve got Gore Vidal onboard at last. What great old English man of letters could possibly have done the job better? Can’t think of one.