(Rated 3.5/5 )
This is a
delightful little play by Nicholas Wright about the discovery of movies and
what makes them work. It is set in a Jewish shtetl (small town) and, though the
characters are in fact fictional, based on the stories of many of the real life
pioneers of the motion picture business in America, who came from such
communities in Poland, Russia, Hungary…, we feel the magical emotion of the
underlying real life stories, experiences and insights set before our eyes as
though happening in the moment.
The entire cast
are good, but Sir Anthony Sher puts them all to shame as timber-merchant Jacob
Bindel. His performance is truly phenomenal in warmth, humour, drama, poignancy
and sensitivity. He totally convinces as a Jew of the time – to those of us
maybe who were/are not! His character was not to become the successful movie
mogul in Hollywood – that honour went to Motl Mendl (Damien Molony) who was to
become Maurice Montgomery (Paul Jesson) – but, as many of the time and also now,
he was the one with the big ideas to never get the credit. He understood how to
convey emotion (without words) on film and what would make a great story. And
it was Motl’s love interest, Anna Mazowiecka (Lauren O’Neil), who inspired the
close-up and came up with the idea of cutting pieces of film to make the story.
The set was
lovely and seemed authentic, as were the costumes. The snippets of black and
white film conveyed both the films made by the characters, but also gave such a
beautiful sense and atmosphere to the whole production.
I said this was
a little play even though in fact it had so much in it! It felt little in that
it was a story of everyday people of the time, in a little village far away
from where main events were happening and where cinema would be born. But this
little story was the conception of something massive.
Travelling Light – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2012
Twitter: @RestrictReview
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