London Arts & Letters  

Latest Posts  |  Archive  | 

Michael Frayn Weaves Genius Into His 'Afterlife'

by Zoe Strimpel
Wed, 11 Jun 2008 at 9:53 PM

Print

Send

RSS

Share:

The world premiere of Michael Frayn's "Afterlife" took place last night at the National Theatre, and it was an absolute firecracker. As with "Copenhagen" and "Democracy," Mr. Frayn uses history as his starting point — in this case, the heyday and decline of the Austrian-Jewish theater impresario Max Reinhardt (played masterfully by Roger Allam). Through this broad theme Mr. Frayn weaves his special brand of elegant, complex genius that turns on multiple layers of history and calls to literature and thought throughout the ages.

"Afterlife" is a re-enactment of Reinhardt's pre-war theatrical operation set in his luxurious Baroque palace (bought for next to nothing in the economic disaster after World War I), which he turned into a retreat for artists and actors. It is true to records of Reinhardt's character, his passions, and those who lived on the inside of his life.

Deeper in there is a play within a play — handled with a skill that even Hamlet would have approved of. (Indeed, references to that work are sprinkled throughout.) It is Hugo von Hofmannsthal's "Everyman," a softer version of the English morality play. Reinhardt launched von Hofmannsthal's play in 1920 at the Salzburg Festival, which he also founded (and which still runs today). The character Death is the sinister core of "Everyman," creeping up on the title character — and us — without warning or pity. Death escapes Reinhardt's seasonal production of the morality play with alarming frequency, ultimately catching up with the central characters in his actual life.

It is unclear whether Reinhardt explicitly identifies with the Everyman character (though why else would he run the play every single year until his exile to America?), but certainly when he dies he is as humble as can be.

Like the players in "Everyman," the characters in "Afterlife" speak in rhyming couplets. It is a stunning paean to the musicality of English and a treat to hear an ancient form rendered so cleanly and easily in a modern play. Fingers crossed it comes to New York.

London Arts & Letters Homepage