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Reviews: Vertigo
Responses from our Young Critics’ Circle (19-Sep-08) [ Young Critics' Circle Review ]
 ‘VERTIGO’ Adapted by Jonathan Holloway. Directed by Giles Croft.
 Giles Croft’s ‘Vertigo’ is the deceptive tale of private detective Roger Flaviéres, hired to follow an old acquaintance’s wife, the hauntingly beautiful Madeleine. The first obstacle being, of course, that he falls in love, and when she takes her own life, his sanity is shattered. Watching a newsreel some years later, however, a face appears on the screen that looks uncannily like Madeleine’s…
The story is told through Flavières’ memories, triggered by hypnosis in a psychiatric hospital. An intricate set and a warm welcome from Dr. Jacques Ballard (David Action), our guide throughout, makes a gripping beginning. Acton helps us to feel involved in an otherwise mainly 4th wall production, and he is always a welcome face.
Ben Keaton’s Flavières subtly drops a mark on the sanity scale every time we see him. Sadly, the accent goes with it, but is the only memorable flaw in an otherwise excellent performance.
More than half of the production’s characters are played by theatrical chameleon Robin Bowerman. So clearly enjoying himself on stage, he is a pleasure to watch. You find yourself looking forward to his next heart-warming, (there is no other word for it, apologies) fruity laugh.
A mixture of delicate moments, dark comedy and a well earned conclusion make a far better second act. Phillipa Peak shines here, leaving Madeleine behind in Act 1, and putting on Renée (and some clothes). Peak and Keaton’s final confrontation is certainly the most satisfying scene in the entire production. This concludes Act 2 with the truth; a shocking, unpredictable guilty pleasure that leaves you smiling for a long time afterwards.
The brilliant lighting and Croft’s quirky ways of dealing with staging problems provide plenty of pleasant surprises. Seize your chance, seat and Minstrels and you’re set for a fantastic evening.
Hazel Monaghan

Vertigo

"It’s mysterious" The last words Giles Croft, the director of Vertigo said to us before we walked into the psychological thriller. Just minutes into the performance and this had already been proven through the stylistic gestures between the doctor and nurse and the flicking of the harsh, white light when Roger Flavieres was brought back to reality in the clinical hospital, in which he was sectioned. Being lectured by a doctor and watching a "live" hypnosis was not what I expected to see when I had researched into the original novel and film. However the idea of the story of Roger shadowing his friend’s wife and having an affair with her in the 1940’s, inside the story of Roger years later in a hospital re-living his obsessive past was so convincing and intrigued me as an audience member.
Although the set remained in the hospital throughout, there were many changes of locations which were symbolized through props such as industrial trolleys topped with a bottle of alcohol and glasses to represent the home of his friend and the hospital bed which doubled as a luxury bed in a hotel room for Roger and the woman he believed to be Madeleine. The bed was especially an effective part of the performance as it created a visual trick to the audience when the dead body literally sank into the bed underneath Roger. This captured me as it was not only unusual to watch but was also quite emotional to see Roger lie on top of the dead woman he was in love with.
Vertigo is certainly a must see for anyone who likes to be involved as an audience member and also enjoys shocks and thrills during a performance. There is no ending to the surprises on set and the twists of the storyline, which compliment the original story well and express it to the audience clearly.
Jodie Black

Vertigo

Part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary season of the Nottingham Playhouse, Vertigo is an adaptation by Jonathan Holoway based on the novel The Living and the Dead by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. The play set in 1940’s France, is a captivating story of Roger Flavileres, an ex-police officer who becomes fixated by Madeleine, the wife of a friend, when he is asked to shadow her, only to be left devastated when she appears to have committed suicide. Years later, during an innocent cinema visit, his life is turned upside down when Madeline appears on screen, sparking a glimmer of hope inside him that she is still alive.
Despite the complex plot and the occasional distraction of props being moved, director Giles Croft and playwright Jonathan Holloway have made the play more understandable and entertaining through the effective use of lighting, a narrative character and the simplistic, clinical set which reminded the audience that many of the events were simply memories, rediscovered through hypnosis and the state of the male protagonist’s mental health.
The audience were thrilled when the play burst the restrictions of the stage and invaded the front row but the main spectacle involved Roger clinging onto the outside of the spiral staircase which, to the horror and delight of the audience, revolved to symbolise his fear of heights.
Overall, Vertigo is an exciting play delving into the mind of a man torn between lust and insanity, full of thrills and surprises. It is suitable for ages sixteen and over who want to be enthralled by such a twisted plot.
Rachael Hoy
What the critics say (19-Sep-08)
One can’t have seen every movie in the world…
So Giles Croft’s production of Jonathan Holloway’s stage adaptation will not be given a compare ’n’ contrast job by me. Nor can I contribute any knowledge of the French crime novel on which the screenplay was based …
I can report only what Croft, Holloway and their cast of four do, which is to create a puzzle that is simple to solve (that’s the plot bit) but holds our attention by making us keen to discover how the characters solve it.
… what we see is a re-enacted trauma, with the doctor and his nurse (Robin Bowerman) playing peripheral characters, all taking place upon James Vartan’s wonderful hospital set, where his wall of silhouetted bottles and pill boxes resembles a monochrome Damien Hirst.
The final catastrophe is included, which is good drama though rotten medical practice, but in other respects Holloway’s structure works admirably in showing Ben Keaton’s Roger, the former detective who let a colleague fall to his death, being entrapped in a plot that leads him to witness the beautiful Madeleine’s suicide. Or is it murder? And is she Madeleine?
… Philippa Peak’s … early gravity and later panic are well done, and Keaton’s doomed hero moves steadily from eerie detachment to rage and takes us into the dangerous heart of obsessive desire.
Jeremy Kingston, The Times
IT’S a superb clinic set, all gleaming taps and white tiles and towels. And, as is often the case when Giles Croft directs, it’s very linear, and on two levels, which in this instance are connected by a metal spiral staircase.
A psychologist/psychiatrist begins to lecture us on drive and instinct and how a collision between them can result in vertigo. He has a catatonic patient in pyjamas as an exhibit, and a male nurse is standing by. The patient is hypnotised into reliving his past. A tantalising start.
… David Acton, who’s good at slightly crazed, self-satisfied scientific types, does Dr Jacques Ballard well. Phillipa Peak, as Madeleine and Renée, is sexy and convincing, and she fills and unfills those forties costumes splendidly. Ben Keaton does well.
This play is adapted from the same French novel as the notable fifties film with James Stewart and Kim Novak. It makes you want to see that film if you haven’t already done so, and, perhaps even more, read the novel, Cold Sweat: From Among the Dead, if it’s still available.
But, what with its twist ending, this makes a good evening’s entertainment in its own right.
Alan Geary, Nottingham Evening Post
It’s no surprise that adapter, Jonathan Holloway, takes a purist line and returns to the ambience and starkness of the original novel by French thriller writers, Peirre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.
…  We are guided through the action by psychologist, Dr Jacques Ballard (David Acton), with his assistant Gratin (Robin Bowerman), who, with theatrical economy and intensity, play multiple roles to recreate the plot. The set (courtesy of Jamie Vartan) is a clinical staging of consulting room, couch, hospital bed with the all important spiral stairway to represent the high tower and the inner turmoil of Flavieres’ vertigo. It’s a good set with an important feeling of height. But it is also a stage for us the audience to watch the show, recalling the way these circus shows of hypnotising people were fashionable entertainment in France in the early 40s.
Central to the plot is the mysterious Madeleine, played hauntingly by Phillipa Peak. Beautiful and elegant, she lures Flavieres into madness. She, too, switches roles to good effect. Keaton (Flavieres) is particularly effective moving between persona - the mentally unbalanced patient, the man overwhelmed by the femme fatale and the duped, enraged lover.
This new adaptation cuts out some of the more ludicrous aspects of Hitchcock’s film, no bad thing for a sophisticated modern audience. It substantially differs from the story in the film, adapting to the more confined space of a theatre stage. Director Giles Croft resists well the temptation to use video film as a backdrop, distancing himself totally from the film. His economy of action is a tribute to his skill of imaginative portrayal of the story.
… full marks for the ending – strong and totally convincing!
Theatreworld
 
The twisty melodrama holds the attention
Metro
The vertiginous theme is underlined by the sense of a city teetering on the brink of occupation; the production also brings out the Orpheus and Eurydice theme, explicit in the novel, which Hitchcock chose to ignore. Roger Flavieres, a former detective with a poor head for heights, has a fleeting opportunity to reclaim the woman he loves from death: Orpheus was instructed never to look back, Roger must remember not to look down.
…
Turning Boileau and Narcejac’s story into a psychoanalytic treatise is a bold experiment
Alfred Hickling, The Guardian
 

Remarkably, playwright Jonathan Holloway seems to have accomplished a pretty mammoth task with almost enviable ease in his adaptation of the popular novel and film. Whereas some of the casting seemed initially bizarre (Ben Keaton takes on the role of dashing retired policeman Roger Flavieres, who is best known to me as boring Father Austin Purcell in popular 90s sitcom Father Ted), the obvious experience and collective talent of the cast shines through to create an atmosphere that oscillates between severe tension, hysteria and detached calmness. ...
    

Obviously, you can google it to find out what happens if you don’t already know, but I recommend you don’t as the twisting, turning and unpredictable narrative is one of the joys of this tale. … this is an impressive effort from an established production team.
    
 Michelle Dhillon, NG Magazine