A life as Everyman – Michael Frayn’s Afterlife August 17, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : London,Reviews , trackbackWhen Michael Frayn’s new play, Afterlife, opened in June, it was to mixed reviews. Using the medieval miracle play Everyman to tell the life of Max Reinhardt, the German Jew who established the Salzburg festival in the 1920s with the play as a centrepiece, is either appreciated or not.
Everyman, or Reinhardt (played by John Allam), is summoned by Death to the presence of God to be judged. He calls upon his friends to join him on the journey, but they decline. His worldly goods are no use to him. The Poor Neighbour, spurned by him early in the play, changes into Muller, the Nazi who takes over his house after Austria is occupied and Reinhardt flees to America.
The many women in Reinhart’slife are represented by two, who are Everyman’s redemption. His mistress and later second wife, Helene Thimig, played by Abigail Cruttenden is Faith, and his Deeds are represented by his secretary, Gusti Adler (Serina Griffiths).
Frayn weaves the stories of Reinhardt and Everyman together to present an impression of the character of the man more than biographical detail. He appears to have lived as if on a stage, better with an audience than making conversation in a small group, shown through the rhyming couplets and repetition of parts of the script, breaking of into ordinary prose when events are more mundane. As he rehearses his household staff for a banquet, you see the Reinhardt who was notorious for directing every last detail of a play, down to the actors gestures and tone.
The sets are spectacularly simple. Most of the play is set either on the steps of Salzburg Cathedral, where Everyman is performed, or in Leopoldskron, the baroque palace which Reinhardt and Thimig restored and which he believed would be his most lasting legacy. Each is represented by huge, white frontages which move back and forward as the scene changes and imply grandeur.
In the end, Reinhardt’s real legacy is the annual production of Everyman, which continues this summer in Salzburg, and so this play grasps the significance of the man. It is clever and polished, like Reinhardt himself.
It is on at the National Theatre until 30 August, and well worth seeing.
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