A big thank you to our very first Entry Pass reviewers, Jade Hunter, Robert Walport and Davina Moss, who came to the Press Night of Fram on Thursday 17 April. Jade, Robert and Davina joined the professional theatre critics on the evening to give their response to the play and you can read their reviews below. As you can see, this play is certainly provoking a wide range of responses.

 

Fram, the new play by Tony Harrison, seems to have surpassed all expectations. With its eye-catching sets, a clever script, difficult subject matter and some stand-out performances, some may say that Harrison has bitten off more than he can chew.

Fram tells the story of Norwegian explorer Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, (Jasper Britton) his suicidal companion Johansen (Mark Addy) and their quest on foot to the North Pole in the 1890s. Before Nansen appears though, we are in contemporary Westminster Abbey where the late Gilbert Murray (Jeff Rawle) resurrects actress Sybil Thorndike (the brilliant Sian Thomas) and announces that he is to write and perform a play at the National called Fram; the name of Nansen's ship. This sets off a whole bundle of characters telling the story of Dr. Nansen.

Sian Thomas gives the stand-out performance as actress Sybil Thorndike, whose speech about starvation is brilliantly delivered and highly emotionally charged, showing both Thomas' fantastic talent as an actress and Harrison's great writing. Teamed with Jeff Rawle's Gilbert Murray, they are the perfect people to begin the play; you find yourself hanging on their every word. Jasper Britton also gives a powerful performance as Nansen.

At just under three hours, it would seem that Fram may be a tad too long, but given that it's a play written entirely in rhyming verse it may have to be forgiven. Tony Harrison's words send the play in a completely different direction and add to its authenticity. However, at some points the plot is empty and raises a few questions which are left unanswered.

It seems that despite being a lot more than just a play about a ship, as the poster dictates; Fram has bitten off the perfect mouthful, even if it is a bit too long.

Jade Hunter

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"Fram" starts well. We are quickly introduced to our narrator and a wittily staged sequence ensues as the characters navigate the National Theatre Building via projections. It doesn't amount to much but it's amusing and little of the rest of the piece comes even close. What follows is quite the most depressingly heavy-handed work I've ever seen. Any room for character development is rapidly crushed by vast quantities of lecturing on a variety of ethical issues. These aren't real characters, they're mouth pieces for political ideas. Many of the arguments I'd agree with, but not when delivered in this manner. Nothing in theatre should be boring, and this is mind numbingly so. Even the pretty lighting and revolving set fail to disguise the fact that you've accidentally walked into a lecture.

The performances are uniformly good, although there's not much the actors can do to save this sinking ship. Mark Addy gets the bulk of the coarse jokes and delivers them well but misses the mark when it comes to recounting his suicide. Jeff Rawle gets a whole raft of obscure early twentieth century jokes which are amusing to a very small subset of the audience but he creates probably the most compelling character. Sian Thomas has one moment at the end of the first act when she has the audience on tender hooks but is otherwise pretty forgettable. Viviana Durante gives it her all in a beautiful but pointless ballet solo. This sequence was possibly my favourite section of the show but should really have been cut to reduce the running time, it didn't really serve a purpose and the play was way too long.

To be honest this is a complete disaster. For the most part it's horribly dull and at times could be considered manipulative and exploitative, the Kurdish Poet sequence comes out of nowhere and is in pretty poor taste. The National Theatre does plenty of amazing work, this however can be consigned to the scrap heap.

Robert Walport

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Tony Harrison's Fram is dividing the theatrical world.

There are some things everyone agrees with. No one can doubt that the sets are spectacular: an iced, nearly-full size shipwreck rises majestically from the floor and the Arctic icecaps become a theatre merely by the addition of a proscenium arch. No one can doubt that the acting is impeccable - particular mention must be made of Sian Thomas' comical and captivating Sybil Thorndike whose impressive monologue closes the first act on a high note - and no one can doubt that the message is clear.

But still the show is causing rifts.

Tony Harrison is a poetic genius, certainly. Yet much of Fram's first act is humorous in a way that leaves one searching for meaning, while much of the second half is meaningful in a way that leaves one searching for humour. When the mask of tragedy stifles the wails of the starving, we begin to think wistfully of the play's near-slapstick beginnings as two characters run free of Westminster Abbey to play on "Larry's" stage.

Yet divisive as this production has been, I couldn't help but love it. Whether art has a place in reality, humanity's effects on the planet, Darwinism vs. humanitarianism, the horrors of famine - we all know the issues raised. And yet Fram's combination of spectacle and creative direction help us see them from new angles.

Davina Moss