The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

The Potsdam Quartet at Jermyn Street Theatre

The Potsdam Quartet at Jermyn Street Theatre | Theatre review
5 November 2013
Jo Eckersley
Avatar
Jo Eckersley
5 November 2013

The Potsdam Quartet is perfectly suited for Jermyn Street Theatre: tucked away from the modern bustle of Piccadilly on a small side street, the venue is intimate and classic. The parameters were set for a precisely paced, wittily scripted play about love, art, politics and esprit de corps.

Set in the summer of 1945 and written by David Pinner, the play is based on the real lives of The Griller String Quartet – one of the first and most successful ensembles in the modern mode. We meet them at the peak of their career, in the Green Room, fighting with each other between performances to an assembled group of the most important men in the world. Despite the magnitude of the situation, there is a decidedly playful atmosphere in the room.

Michael Matus plays Aaron Green, a man as highly-strung as his bow and despised and admired by his peers in equal measure. His posture is particular – he struts rather than stalks, squeezes a stress ball and twitches his facial muscles. It’s a successful characterisation, and a success that is matched by his peers.

Philip Bird, who plays Ronnie Taylor, puts on a prudish, damaged voice. He engineers his limbs with graceful purpose and does a wonderful wounded face. Stefan Bednarczyk is brilliant as John Healey, Ronnie’s lover. As in a musical composition, his tone changes slowly as the play progresses: an indignant, sour voice slowly melts and rises up again. It is a beautiful dramatisation of proud and bitter heartbreak.

The fantastic script is full of tension and humour: when the quartet begins to fall apart, and each individual is in a state of crisis, trembling northerner Douglas (Daniel Crowder) finds some vodka. Before long, everyone is dancing around the room and Ronnie starts to do “‘his signets”’ – a move taken from Swan Lake involving a delicate flapping of crossed hands over his pelvis – to cringing from the others. Director Anthony Biggs superbly choreographs the four men stumbling out of characters in unison – a perfect quartet making one note together again.

Joanna Eckersley

The Potsdam Quartet is at Jermyn Street Theatre until 23rd November 2013. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

Related Itemsreview

More in Theatre

“When you’re presented with different dilemmas in life, you respond accordingly”: Debbie Kurup on The Cher Show

Mae Trumata
Read More

2:22 A Ghost Story at Criterion Theatre

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

The House of Shades at Almeida Theatre

★★★★★
Csilla Tornallyay
Read More

Grease at Dominion Theatre

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

House of Ife at Bush Theatre

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More

Banter Jar at Lion & Unicorn Theatre: “An authentic and timely one-woman show”

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs at Soho Theatre

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Julius Caesar at Shakespeare’s Globe

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

Operation Mincemeat at Riverside Studios

★★★★★
Joe Milo
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • Banter Jar at Lion & Unicorn Theatre: “An authentic and timely one-woman show”
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • The Road Dance
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Innocents
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Top Gun: Maverick
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Harka
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Rodeo
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Alma Viva
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • “When you’re presented with different dilemmas in life, you respond accordingly”: Debbie Kurup on The Cher Show
    Theatre
  • Top Gun: Maverick
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Rodeo
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Alma Viva
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • 2:22 A Ghost Story at Criterion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The House of Shades at Almeida Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Original recipe of the week: Hasselback Potatoes
Tasleem Mullhall at 50 Brook Street | Exhibition review