079 – The Hills of California, by Jez Butterworth
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It is the Summer of 1976, and Britain is sweltering through record heat and sunshine. The proprietress of the Seaview guest house in Blackpool lies dying upstairs, and her three, possibly four, daughters are coming together to say goodbye to her. This is the setting of The Hills of California, a new play by Jez Butterworth, which as we record this episode is playing at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London
A new play by Jez Butterworth is a theatrical event. He has written eight plays over the past 30 years, including his breakout hit Mojo, The River, The Ferryman, and most famously Jerusalem, which we covered in episode 50 of the podcast. As in his last play, The Ferryman, The Hills of California is a multi-generational family drama that features a large ensemble cast. Do not be misled by the play’s title, however, as we are not in sunny California, but in the baking back-streets of Blackpool. The Hills of California, as described in Johnny Mercer’s song of the same name, stands in for a far-away dream for Veronica and her four daughters in Blackpool.
The play alternates between the daughters’ reunion in 1976 as their mother is dying, and scenes from their childhood back in 1955, when Veronica had dreams of molding her four girls into a famous singing troupe in the model of the Andrews Sisters. She drills them in song and dance routines, determined that one day they will perform at the London Palladium or even Carnegie Hall. Needless to say, things don’t turn out as they’d all hoped for. The play is a portrait of lost dreams, of deeply ingrained patterns of love and hurt within a family, and of suppressed and mutable memories.
I am joined to explore this major new play by Dr Sean McEvoy, who is a Fellow in English at Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge. Sean is the author of Class, Culture and Tragedy in the Plays of Jez Butterworth published in 2021, and a great fan of his work.
Listen to our episode on Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem here:
050 Jerusalem
Sean McEvoy
Dr Sean McEvoy is a Fellow in English at Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge. Sean has taught drama at sixth form, undergrad and post-grad levels, as well as published books on Shakespeare (Shakespeare – The Basics), Tragedy (Tragedy – The Basics), and riots on the stage (Theatrical Unrest: Ten Riots in the History of the Stage 1601-2004), but most importantly for our purposes he is the author of Class, Culture and Tragedy in the Plays of Jez Butterworth published in 2021.
Sean recommended Bingo by Edward Bond.
113 – Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
Published 24th August
Tom Stoppard’s 1993 play, Arcadia is viewed by many as his finest play, renowned for the breadth of its intellectual interrogations and its formal invention. The play is a structural masterpiece of ideas, as well as a teasing detective story, joyous comedy, and emotionally rich exploration of love and loss.
As we record this episode a wonderful new production of Arcadia is playing at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End, following its acclaimed run at the Old Vic theatre earlier this year. I am delighted to share the challenge and the pleasure of exploring Stoppard’s dazzling drama with the director of the new production, Carrie Cracknell.
112 – Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
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David Mamet’s modern American classic, Glengarry Glen Ross, is a blistering commentary on the cut-throat reality of the American dream, and its poisonous impact on those who have bought into the myth and machismo of that dream. The play had its world premiere in the small Cottesloe theatre at the National Theatre in London in September 1983, and was first performed in New York the following year, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Mamet also wrote the extended screenplay for the star-studded 1992 film version.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play was playing at the Old Vic theatre in London, with an all-female cast. This is a particularly provocative idea, because one of the primary themes of this play is masculine identity, and the salesmen in this Chicago office do not hold back in their display of machismo.
To explore Mamet’s unflinching slice of 1980s dog-eat-dog capitalism, I am joined by arts journalist Mark Lawson.
111 – The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht
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Bertolt Brecht’s ‘gangster spectacle’, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, is both an exuberant and funny piece of theatre, and a chillingly topical political satire. Set in the 1930s Chicago of Al Capone, Brecht presents a parody of the rise of Hitler through the character of the gangster Arturo Ui. The play is a universal cry for vigilance against the rise of unscrupulous, populist leaders who threaten democratic societies and global peace.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company was playing in Stratford-upon-Avon, starring Mark Gatiss as the title character.
I am delighted to be joined by both the show’s translator, playwright Stephen Sharkey, and by Brecht scholar, Professor Tom Kuhn, to guide us through Brecht’s political parody.
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