The Shawshank Redemption Play

Although an enjoyable story, adapted somewhat for the stage, the Shawshank Redemption, currently showing at the Wyndhams Theatre in the West End, is a sorry disappointment.

Nobody was expecting this stage production to stack up favourably alongside one of the best loved films of all time, but this didn't even come close.

Word must have got around as I saw many empty seats. In fact, our tickets for the balcony were reallocated along with many other people, I believe in order to fill up half empty Stalls. Not a positive sign.

We took our seats just in time to see the curtain rise, and from the offset, my friends and I agreed that the majority of the acting was wooden at best, with at least 2 of the cast hamming it up like champs, perhaps to compensate for their colleagues almost plank-like stiffness.

Although by no means the only offender, I was disappointed to see that Red, played by Reg E. Cathey, (an accomplished actor with over 50 film & TV credits!) seemed not to have mastered the skill of conversational acting. When being spoken to, his arms just hung rigid by his side. This gave him the look of someone who, rather than listening, was just waiting for his turn to speak.

This stiffness evident across most of the cast was compounded by major problems with the speed at which the cast delivered their lines. It seemed rushed with many of the characters appearing over-eager to speak, anticipating their cue and blurting their lines rather than listening to the previous line, understanding and then responding to the words. This rapid-fire approach meant the script took on an incoherent quality at times. I can't imagine this was the intention of the scriptwriters. There was simply no time to think about the lines in each exchange.

Although things improved markedly in the second act, even then it was still only on a par with a decent Sixth Form drama production.

The lead role of Andy DuFresne, played by Tim Robbins lookalike Kevin Anderson was fairly well represented, although you never really came to care about or like him, and this is a problem in a production which relies so much on the power of friendship.

The story itself has been adapted from the film in parts to accommodate the demands of a stage performance and this is largely successful, however I did wonder at the reasoning behind a couple of details.

Brooks the aging prison librarian was constantly referred to as "Brooksie" which just didn't sound right in an American accent.

In the film, in a conversation about Andy's serial rapists, Red says that they aren't homosexual as they would 'need to be human first', yet in this production, not only do the assailants refer to themselves as 'Sisters', but they even request gay pornography from Andy's library, which doesn't really sound like 1940s Maine to me.

Warden Stammas renamed for the stage was played by Mitchell Mullen whose appearance, voice and demeanour instantly reminded me of Peter Griffin from Family Guy. He didn't portray any of the dark menace so well executed in the film. The same can be said of Shane Attwooll who swore a few times but just wasn't the right man to play the huge, bullying Prison Guard Hadley.

In conclusion, I felt like I was watching the first few nights of a production that needs a lot of work. With this cast and a set design that fails to reflect the claustrophobia of prison life, I fear it just isn't going to get much better.

2/5.

The Shawshank Redemption is one of my favourite movies of all time so I was nervous about going to see the play because it had such high standards to live up to; it's a brave director who tries to bring to the stage one of the top 100 movies of all time.

For those unfamiliar with the movie (em, why?) it was based on a novella called Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King. It didn't do so well at the box office but became a massive hit on VHS (remember them?) and DVD before going on to be voted one of the best movies of all time by just about everyone.

In a nutshell it is the story of 20-year friendship between two inmates, and their struggle to survive inside the notorious Shawshank penitentiary in Maine, USA in the '40s,'50s and '60s. To try an describe it in a summary wouldn't do it any justice suffice to say both the original book and the film are brilliantly observed studies of friendship, the human spirit, the nature and perception of good and evil and, yes, redemption.

And so to the play, which I saw at London's Wyndham's Theatre. For legal reasons it's based on the book rather than the film but there is not a huge amount of difference between the two save for differences in various subplots.

So what did I think? Well for the first 20 minutes I hated it and wanted to leave. This is because they try and cram the whole back story and the first third of the book into this time so it seems like everyone is talking on fast forward and you just feel like you are being dragged along with no chance to talk a breather and understand what is going on.

After that though it settles down to a normal rhythm and it becomes markedly better. It's hard not to compare the movie to the play and so on balance most of the performances for me weren't as good with the exception of Shame Attwooll who plays the psychotic head guard Hadley and is fantastic. The two lead actors are okay in the roles of Red and Andy but Kevin Anderson who plays Andy isn't particularly likeable which makes it hard to care about him which is tricky as he's the main protagonist.

The staging is quite simple. There is a single prison set which is refreshing is an era the revolving, all-singing, all-dancing sets where bells and whistles substitute for good stories.

With such a great heritage it would be hard to absolutely wrong with something like this but it could have been a lot better which is a shame.

Still a least I have the DVD....