Normal People: an adaptation of beauty and pain in the noncommunicable

Just as a pre-warning, this is going to be one of those posts you are probably sick of after last weekend. It’s going to be a plea to watch Normal People as soon as you can, and hopefully an ode to its story that will make you want to do so.

I am relatively new to the world of Normal People. I was aware of Sally Rooney and the accolades she’s been (rightfully) showered with since the novel’s 2018 release, but I had never read her work. That was until World Book Day this year, on the train from Nottingham to Sheffield with nothing but my Kindle to keep me company. I downloaded the book out of the blue and devoured its contents. I soon realised that the book was becoming one of the best I had recently read: one of love, class and mental state in today’s climate. It is a tale heady with rich and incessant internal monologue from the two protagonists, Marianne and Connell. Their thoughts and feelings are communicated through Rooney and then to reader, rarely direct from character to character. When the news came of BBC Three’s adaptation I couldn’t wait, and my hopes were high- I love this story.

As a pair, Marianne and Connell are joined though circumstance, but their relationship is fractured by differences in class and social circle. They are somewhat only level in their intellect and attraction to each other. Behind (heavy) closed doors, the pair become close and feelings develop- but the politics, macro and micro, of their social situation create barriers. The pair go through immense feeling, whilst their lives move at the routine pace they are expected to. Rooney is dissecting the intoxicating percolation of the Irish class system into the minds of young people. The plot, dense with literary reference, echoes the mantra of 18^th Century dramatic realism: everything is happening to the person, whilst nothing is happening to the people.

The internalisation of such a delicately subtle plot is surely a challenge to translate from literature to television- it is rarely attempted. I wondered if there’d be constant voice-over playing, or something else obvious. There is no need though. The actors’ performances, the writing, the sound and the lighting of adaption weave into each other, creating a web that communicates Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell’s (Paul Mescal) emotional developments. It builds beautifully, without leaving the viewer in need of a climax- we feel fulfilled to have seen and shared what we have with the two lovers. It is enough.

Whilst Rooney’s novel is great, this is one of the rare occasions when a TV adaptation is on par with, or perhaps surpasses its literary inspiration. The story feels very real, and I know I’m not alone in being unable to find the word to describe what it is that makes it feel so. The depictions of school and university are raw and gutting without overdramatising; it is the experience of ‘normal people’ and our everyday lives. Lenny Abrahamson’s direction is masterful and touching.

The production is incredibly tranquil- it is stripped back and ambient so the emotional power of the story can be communicated without question. There's one point that demonstrates this perfectly... Connell and Marianne are on a train and an acoustic cover of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ is playing: it creates a moment where the viewer and characters are being moved to the same conclusion. We are brought to the realisation that it is only love keeping the couple apart, as they have finally overcome other barriers. It feels freeing. As they physically move through Italian towns, they are understood to be moving through their fear of being together and it feels as though the song is being heard by them as well as us. It proves Normal People to be a perfect transference of storytelling, from page onto screen.

National Theatre Home: One Man, Two Guvnors

‘CRIMINALS, GANGSTERS, PRINCESS MARGARET’

In 2013, the National’s Olivier stage hosted Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors. It became The Performance that catapulted James Corden’s career and, of last Thursday, it became available for you to watch at home- on YouTube. Hailed as one of the best shows ever staged by the National Theatre, it works as a brilliant opener to the theatre’s efforts in solidarity from the arts.

Under Nicholas Hynter’s direction, the piece was an almighty hit. The play works as an English adaptation of the old and beloved, Servant of Two Masters- a piece of Italian commedia del’arte: one of the earliest forms of what we know today as pantomime , it’s a piece complete with exaggerated stock characters, gender swaps, mistaken identity and, of course, a love story. One Man, Two Guvnors has all this in abundance, but with a lovable British flair, making the well-known tale accessible to audiences up and down the country.

Corden stars as our ‘harlequin’ Francis, who gets tangled in a comedic web of lies and disguise. As the title suggests, he ends up being the one minder for two masters. The two masters are of course linked, but all is to be revealed- no spoilers here. He bursts onto the stage to deafening applause; his entire performance proves well deserved of the accolades he received. He argues a magnificent case for celebrity casting in theatre; the character of Francis is like bringing his Smithy onto stage and letting him run riot on the Olivier.

Set in 1960’s Brighton, the play humours the little drama of British suburbia. The piece is decked with racial, national and regional stereotypes- as the stock characters of commedia del’arte have been replaced with stock characters of little Britain: the spiv, the boarding school toff etc.. The writing’s vigour and self-awareness make it void of offence; it acknowledges the growing diversity of 60s Southern England and we laugh in its comedic nostalgia.

Ignoring Corden’s stardom, the writing of this play sure stands out as man of the match here. It is packed with punchy and hilarious one liners. Whilst watching, I had to keep pausing (one of the beauties of at home streaming) in order to scribble them down- they just kept coming! There’s a standout feminist prediction, stellar with dramatic irony, from bookkeeper Dolly (Suzie Toase). She says, ‘I predict in 20 years-time, they’ll be a woman in 10 Downing Street… and then you’ll see exactly what woman can do’, to rapturous applause, then says, ‘you’ll see a more just and fair society’, to rapturous laughter. Bean’s writing is at its best when it is directed straight at the audience. Each character has a continual monologue: a mocking of the Shakespearean soliloquy, and if there’s ever a stage to mock Shakespeare, it is sure to be the Olivier...

Its self-referentiality heightens the boisterous nature of the piece- it’s a play you won’t forget. It is sheer entertainment, and a treasure in the National’s chest. It has everything for theatre lovers, and everything for those new to plays. It has music, skits, audience participation (the famous Christine Patterson bit) and chases from wing to wing… It might be titled One Man, Two Guvnors, but it is not at all a one man show. It is a production bursting with masterful actors, who are masterful comedians. Despite streaming it at home, the show’s energy is palpable and you’re sure to laugh out loud. With the closing musical number singing out: ‘tomorrow looks good from here’, National Theatre Home has started a legacy- the perfect, and somewhat patriotic, effort at stirring optimism in the nation.

A link to where you can watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzqcRwWVv8k