A Curious Night at the Theatre
Jul. 2nd, 2013 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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As this featured what might be Andrew Scott’s last performance as Moriarty (well probably… you never know what the devious duo of Moffat & Gatiss have up their sleeves) I thought I’d do a quick write up.
A Curious Night at the Theatre was a gala evening masterminded by Luke Treadaway, the Olivier award winning star of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in aid of two fantastic charities Ambitious about Autism and The National Autistic Society. It combined a new story written by Simon Stephens featuring Christopher (Treadaway) the autistic hero of the play which was a mixture of live action and filmed sequences along with live music and stand up.
The evening was hosted by Mel Giedroyc (best known for co-hosting The Great British Bake Off) who was in great form and kept proceedings together well. There was live music from The Boxettes (very cool beat boxing girl group who make their own backing music with their vocals), The James Christy Band (which was weirdly just the one guy), Bat for Lashes (who has a hypnotically beautiful voice) and Derek Paravicini who despite being both blind and autistic is a virtuoso pianist. His piano playing was just extraordinary - so accomplished. His performance of Flight of the Bumble Bee made me want to leap to my feet.
And musically the evening was rounded out by surprise guest Chris Martin of Coldplay who did an un-miked acoustic performance of Viva La Vida and Paradise. Oh and he promptly pledged £10,000 to the charities which was matched by Jude Law.
Apart from music there was stand up from Simon Amstell (whose colourful comments about what he’d like to do to Justin Bieber had me crying with laughter) and an auction at which tea at The Ritz with Matt Smith went for £6,000. Special credit must go to the many people who after a rather moving plea from the gentleman running the auction whose son is on the autistic spectrum to raise as much money as possibly each pledged £1000 and £500 in return for nothing.
But the main portion of the evening was devoted to Christopher battling Moriarty! The play started with Christopher being told by his teacher Siobhan (Niamh Cusack) that she has to go off on teacher training for a week and so he’s getting a new supply teacher to look after him (Jude Law). That night while playing Tetris (up to level 39) Christopher is interrupted by the Doctor (Matt Smith on video).
The Doctor wants to enlist Christopher’s help. Moriarty has developed a computer virus that when unleashed on twitter, facebook and the like will stop people being able to understand metaphors. The ability to understand metaphors the Doctor explains to Christopher is what makes humanity unique (“You’re the only species that when I say “You’re talking bollocks” knows what I’m talking about”.) Without any metaphors the Doctor warns they’ll be no music, no poetry, no plays. So Christopher is tasked by the Doctor to break the code of the virus and stop Moriarty’s dastardly plan. But he’ll need the help of the best codebreaker at MI6. Christopher rightly points out that he can’t just phone up MI6 but the Doctor isn’t concerned as he knows someone he can help. Her majesty in fact - who has quite the crush on him. One phone call to her majesty (and the promise of a booty call with bonus Breaking Bad series 5 watching) and Christopher’s meeting is all set.
Matt Smith’s video taped appearance really emphasised just what a brutally difficult task his successor is going to have stepping into his shoes. 5 minutes of Matt Smith as the Doctor talking directly into a camera whilst standing against a plain white backdrop and he was just utterly magnetic. He delivered the lines at a machine gun pace and he’s just so playful and joyous as the Doctor he’s incredible to watch. His segment was a jokey, breaking the fourth wall segment but worked really well. He was also very good natured about jokes sending up his current appearance (Christopher gasping in horror and asking him what he’d done to his hair, “Christopher we have a serious problem” “Is it something to do with why you’re gone practically bald?”).
With his task in hand Christopher has to sweet talk Jude the supply teacher into taking him to Buckingham Palace (in his convertible vintage Mercedes no less). It must be said Jude Law was an amazingly good sport. The script sent him up something rotten joking about him having posh cars, giving him a great speech about why he wants to be a supply teacher (he doesn’t want to be in movies, make money, date actresses anymore - he just wants to help little kids make collages) and none of the cast knowing what films he’s been in in a skit which name checked Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston among others. When he bounces in excitement and demands “a go” (after an extraordinary moment in which Christopher dreams of being an astronaut and is lifted in the air by his fellow cast while a vista of the universe is displayed on stage while the lights shine as stars (Curious Incident is an extraordinary mix of mime, physicality, lights and visuals)) a cast member loudly declares that he’s not carrying “that fat fucker”. Good on Jude for having such a sense of humour about himself.
Having sweet talked Jude Christopher is taken to Buckingham Palace where in a short filmed clip we see Helen Mirren in full regalia as the Queen. Although Christopher is more excited at seeing a corgi than the Queen. It was a short & sweet clip but Mirren was suitably commanding. At one point drumming is loudly heard and Mirren walks out of frame for a moment - a reference to the recent incident where (rather brilliantly) she appeared at the stage door of the theatre mid performance in full royal regalia and told the drummers outside who were interrupting the show to fuck off.
Christopher’s next stop is MI6. Or more precisely Ben Whishaw as Q filmed at what looked suspiciously like the outside balconies of the National Theatre. Whishaw is incredibly charming as Q and he and Christopher were quite the pair. Together they solved the code but how was Christopher to use it to defeat Moriarty? The only way was for him to meet Moriarty himself. And as Q explained anyone who had seen Cock (in which Whishaw and Andrew Scott starred) would know that a meeting with Moriarty was something he could definitely arrange.
And then finally it was the turn of Andrew Scott. Dressed in Moriarty’s grey suit we first see him sitting in front of a roaring fireplace. With the exception of a gag (which ran throughout the show) of Treadaway having an unusually toned body given he’s supposed to be playing a 15 year old, Scott played the role dead straight. He wasn’t Andrew Scott riffing on Moriarty. He was just Moriarty. Same psychotic stare, deathly cold delivery made somehow worse by that musical lilting accent and twitchy body language. Moriarty is very unimpressed by Christopher and his irrational fears (Christopher hates anything yellow or brown) and after comparing him dismissively to Sherlock baits him to explain how he plans to defeat his computer virus. Christopher says he’ll do it by believing in people. Moriarty is greatly amused and delivers a cold speech about, well, how rubbish humanity is basically. But Christopher knows he can be beaten. And he’ll beat him by getting a group of people together, away from the internet and all the other interruptions of modern life and get them focusing on one idea - to help people like him with no promise of reward. Moriarty drawls that if Christopher can do that he’ll give him 3 minutes on his computer and let him input his code. But he doesn’t believe he’ll manage it.
And with that the play ended with Christopher presumably besting Moriarty by getting everyone to attend his gala! How meta. Ok so that bit didn’t entirely make sense but then it didn’t need to. It was all down to the performances and the emotions evoked by them. Andrew Scott was again really quite unnerving as Moriarty and Luke Treadaway was just perfect as the earnest Christopher who never questions his belief in people. Plus it was great to see Scott’s Moriarty again - no matter how briefly.
A really superb, clever & funny night at the theatre. Well done to Luke Treadaway for organising it. The night raised £83,000 with Chris Martin and Jude Law pledging an additional £10,000 each.
If you’d like to donate to the event you can do so at www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/curiousnights
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is on at the Apollo Theatre. Do go and see Treadaway in the role before he leaves in August if you can (he really is superb). Note he only does Wednesdays to Saturdays due to the demands of the role.
As this featured what might be Andrew Scott’s last performance as Moriarty (well probably… you never know what the devious duo of Moffat & Gatiss have up their sleeves) I thought I’d do a quick write up.
A Curious Night at the Theatre was a gala evening masterminded by Luke Treadaway, the Olivier award winning star of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in aid of two fantastic charities Ambitious about Autism and The National Autistic Society. It combined a new story written by Simon Stephens featuring Christopher (Treadaway) the autistic hero of the play which was a mixture of live action and filmed sequences along with live music and stand up.
The evening was hosted by Mel Giedroyc (best known for co-hosting The Great British Bake Off) who was in great form and kept proceedings together well. There was live music from The Boxettes (very cool beat boxing girl group who make their own backing music with their vocals), The James Christy Band (which was weirdly just the one guy), Bat for Lashes (who has a hypnotically beautiful voice) and Derek Paravicini who despite being both blind and autistic is a virtuoso pianist. His piano playing was just extraordinary - so accomplished. His performance of Flight of the Bumble Bee made me want to leap to my feet.
And musically the evening was rounded out by surprise guest Chris Martin of Coldplay who did an un-miked acoustic performance of Viva La Vida and Paradise. Oh and he promptly pledged £10,000 to the charities which was matched by Jude Law.
Apart from music there was stand up from Simon Amstell (whose colourful comments about what he’d like to do to Justin Bieber had me crying with laughter) and an auction at which tea at The Ritz with Matt Smith went for £6,000. Special credit must go to the many people who after a rather moving plea from the gentleman running the auction whose son is on the autistic spectrum to raise as much money as possibly each pledged £1000 and £500 in return for nothing.
But the main portion of the evening was devoted to Christopher battling Moriarty! The play started with Christopher being told by his teacher Siobhan (Niamh Cusack) that she has to go off on teacher training for a week and so he’s getting a new supply teacher to look after him (Jude Law). That night while playing Tetris (up to level 39) Christopher is interrupted by the Doctor (Matt Smith on video).
The Doctor wants to enlist Christopher’s help. Moriarty has developed a computer virus that when unleashed on twitter, facebook and the like will stop people being able to understand metaphors. The ability to understand metaphors the Doctor explains to Christopher is what makes humanity unique (“You’re the only species that when I say “You’re talking bollocks” knows what I’m talking about”.) Without any metaphors the Doctor warns they’ll be no music, no poetry, no plays. So Christopher is tasked by the Doctor to break the code of the virus and stop Moriarty’s dastardly plan. But he’ll need the help of the best codebreaker at MI6. Christopher rightly points out that he can’t just phone up MI6 but the Doctor isn’t concerned as he knows someone he can help. Her majesty in fact - who has quite the crush on him. One phone call to her majesty (and the promise of a booty call with bonus Breaking Bad series 5 watching) and Christopher’s meeting is all set.
Matt Smith’s video taped appearance really emphasised just what a brutally difficult task his successor is going to have stepping into his shoes. 5 minutes of Matt Smith as the Doctor talking directly into a camera whilst standing against a plain white backdrop and he was just utterly magnetic. He delivered the lines at a machine gun pace and he’s just so playful and joyous as the Doctor he’s incredible to watch. His segment was a jokey, breaking the fourth wall segment but worked really well. He was also very good natured about jokes sending up his current appearance (Christopher gasping in horror and asking him what he’d done to his hair, “Christopher we have a serious problem” “Is it something to do with why you’re gone practically bald?”).
With his task in hand Christopher has to sweet talk Jude the supply teacher into taking him to Buckingham Palace (in his convertible vintage Mercedes no less). It must be said Jude Law was an amazingly good sport. The script sent him up something rotten joking about him having posh cars, giving him a great speech about why he wants to be a supply teacher (he doesn’t want to be in movies, make money, date actresses anymore - he just wants to help little kids make collages) and none of the cast knowing what films he’s been in in a skit which name checked Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston among others. When he bounces in excitement and demands “a go” (after an extraordinary moment in which Christopher dreams of being an astronaut and is lifted in the air by his fellow cast while a vista of the universe is displayed on stage while the lights shine as stars (Curious Incident is an extraordinary mix of mime, physicality, lights and visuals)) a cast member loudly declares that he’s not carrying “that fat fucker”. Good on Jude for having such a sense of humour about himself.
Having sweet talked Jude Christopher is taken to Buckingham Palace where in a short filmed clip we see Helen Mirren in full regalia as the Queen. Although Christopher is more excited at seeing a corgi than the Queen. It was a short & sweet clip but Mirren was suitably commanding. At one point drumming is loudly heard and Mirren walks out of frame for a moment - a reference to the recent incident where (rather brilliantly) she appeared at the stage door of the theatre mid performance in full royal regalia and told the drummers outside who were interrupting the show to fuck off.
Christopher’s next stop is MI6. Or more precisely Ben Whishaw as Q filmed at what looked suspiciously like the outside balconies of the National Theatre. Whishaw is incredibly charming as Q and he and Christopher were quite the pair. Together they solved the code but how was Christopher to use it to defeat Moriarty? The only way was for him to meet Moriarty himself. And as Q explained anyone who had seen Cock (in which Whishaw and Andrew Scott starred) would know that a meeting with Moriarty was something he could definitely arrange.
And then finally it was the turn of Andrew Scott. Dressed in Moriarty’s grey suit we first see him sitting in front of a roaring fireplace. With the exception of a gag (which ran throughout the show) of Treadaway having an unusually toned body given he’s supposed to be playing a 15 year old, Scott played the role dead straight. He wasn’t Andrew Scott riffing on Moriarty. He was just Moriarty. Same psychotic stare, deathly cold delivery made somehow worse by that musical lilting accent and twitchy body language. Moriarty is very unimpressed by Christopher and his irrational fears (Christopher hates anything yellow or brown) and after comparing him dismissively to Sherlock baits him to explain how he plans to defeat his computer virus. Christopher says he’ll do it by believing in people. Moriarty is greatly amused and delivers a cold speech about, well, how rubbish humanity is basically. But Christopher knows he can be beaten. And he’ll beat him by getting a group of people together, away from the internet and all the other interruptions of modern life and get them focusing on one idea - to help people like him with no promise of reward. Moriarty drawls that if Christopher can do that he’ll give him 3 minutes on his computer and let him input his code. But he doesn’t believe he’ll manage it.
And with that the play ended with Christopher presumably besting Moriarty by getting everyone to attend his gala! How meta. Ok so that bit didn’t entirely make sense but then it didn’t need to. It was all down to the performances and the emotions evoked by them. Andrew Scott was again really quite unnerving as Moriarty and Luke Treadaway was just perfect as the earnest Christopher who never questions his belief in people. Plus it was great to see Scott’s Moriarty again - no matter how briefly.
A really superb, clever & funny night at the theatre. Well done to Luke Treadaway for organising it. The night raised £83,000 with Chris Martin and Jude Law pledging an additional £10,000 each.
If you’d like to donate to the event you can do so at www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/curiousnights
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is on at the Apollo Theatre. Do go and see Treadaway in the role before he leaves in August if you can (he really is superb). Note he only does Wednesdays to Saturdays due to the demands of the role.
