Cate Blanchett Killed It!!

We saw the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Gross und Klein (Big and Small) a few nights ago.   It was at the Barbican, which was the first time we'd seen something at this complex.  The Barbican is a funny place, when we first moved to London our temporary flat was literally across the road from it.  It is way more than just a theatre though, it's a massive maze of courtyards, flats, passageways and staircases.  You walk in there looking for a shortcut through to the tube and end up walking up and down flights, desperately scouring maps and feeling like you'll never escape.  All the times I went in there I never once saw any sign of the theatre, cinemas or concert halls which are all located there.

Luckily this time we came in from the other direction, and that way it is much easier to find.  Once you find it the complex is pretty good, so much space, except for the bathrooms.  It's like they built this wonderful arts centre and then at the end someone goes, oh no, we forgot to include toilets.  So they had to convert some broom closet into toilets.  Apart from that it's great, the most comfortable theatre I've ever been to.  Another thing which I really loved is that instead of just the usual 4 entrances to the stalls, every row has it's own door.  Then when the performance is about to start, all the doors close simultaneously, pretty freaky seeing something like 40 doors all swing shut together.

But on to the play, look it was weird, German surrealism, written in the late 1970s.  I thought it was pretty good, but then I went in with incredibly low expectations.  I knew Cate Blanchett was going to be great, but none of the reviewers seemed to have any idea what the play was really about.  It's about this character, Lotte, Cate Blanchett, who through 10 scenes tries desperately to form any sort of human connection, but is constantly rebuffed.  And that's about it.  But that sells Cate Blanchett's performance massively short.  I mean without her, you would have left at the interval, but she was that mesmerising.  The whole play was basically a vehicle for her to strut her stuff, and she has some serious stuff to strut.  It's hard to describe how good she really was in it, but if you ever get the chance to see her on stage I would leap at it with both hands.

I took it to be a comedy, I don't know if that was intention, but I think if you like surreal humour then there are some cracker moments.  I loved the fact that all the actors were Australian too, and it felt like the translation had been done by an Aussie.  I guess it was kind of fitting then that I was watching a 1970's German surrealist play in the middle of London, and feeling like I was back in Sydney.