The Father and the Assassin - National Theatre

[Dave B]

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-father-and-the-assassin

First preview last night, any early views?

I am hoping to get a Rush for it next week, I got an easy Rush ticket for Middle earlier today.

[jampot]

May 13, 2022 13:17:29 GMT Dave B said:

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-father-and-the-assassin

First preview last night, any early views?

I am hoping to get a Rush for it next week, I got an easy Rush ticket for Middle earlier today.

I'm going Sat night..

[jampot]

Saw this tonight and thought it was in great shape. Solid performances and decent narrative made it more excessable than I thought it would. Simple use of revolve. Won't be winning any awards for stage production.

[Steve]

Saw this tonight and thoroughly recommend: the Gandhi assassination is given the "Amadeus" treatment, with Shubham Saraf's assassin, Nathuram Godse, a roguish, surprisingly winning, monologuing chip-on-the-shoulder Salieri-type gradually boiling over with resentment about Paul Bazeley's surprisingly mischievous and spritely Gandhi's supposed betrayal of India's majority Hindu population. The epic and the personal are beautifully intertwined in a complex yet clear story about the war between humanism and nationalism for India's soul.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Watching this, I was reminded of Andy Nyman's Charles Guiteau in Sondheim's "Assassins" at the Menier. He was the one assassin in the show completely exultant about the murder he committed, the most convinced of the righteousness of his actions, and consequently, the most disarming, charming and exuberant of assassins, albeit utterly deluded in his reasoning.

Shubham Saraf's Godse is a lot like Guiteau, except, like Mark Rylance's equally conspiratorial and ebullient Richard III, he has his wits about him, and has a nationalist argument to make that is even more dangerously seductive than anything Rylance's self-serving Richard had to say.

Saraf has experience of personalising epic stories, having carried half the burden of the Bush Theatre's 50-year-spanning 3-hour "An Adventure" a few years ago, and he really is magnetic and magnificent here, firmly anchoring and colouring this epic story, of India's fight for independence, of its partition, and of Gandhi's tragic assassination, with Godse's personal and nationalist obsessions. It's a career defining role for Saraf!

Indeed, the only weakness of this wonderful production, for me, is when Saraf's Godse is sidelined for more generic storytelling, familiar from the Attenborough Gandhi movie, which ironically, this play explicitly mocks lol.

Anyway, Paul Bazeley, who played Jinnah, in Hampstead Theatre's more prosaic and detailed play about India's partition, "Drawing the Line," is a terrific foil for Saraf, here, as Gandhi. Bazeley's Gandhi is excitable, inspiring, mischievous and energetic, even as he successfully embodies the weighty, worthy and wise qualities you expect from a Gandhi.

There is wonderful support for the two leads: from Sagar Arya as the cutthroat godfather of Hindu nationalism, Savarkar; from Tony Jawardena as Godse's well-meaning father; from Sid Sagar as Godse's fiery co-conspirator, Apte; from Dinita Gohil as Godse's wily and right-on childhood friend, Vimala; and most of all, from Ankur Bahl, as many ordinary people, indignantly and hilariously (and camply) trying to live ordinary lives in extraordinary times!

The bare bones set, of an empty space with some stairs at the back, with a metaphorical backdrop of a loom trying (and failing) to weave India's many threads together, is all one needs for a production that focuses on characters and events, but most satisfyingly, on the often twisted yet apparently truthful motivations lurking within those characters and events.

Aside from the moments where Saraf's Godse was sidelined, I also found slightly jarring evident departures from the details of known historical events (eg the style and circumstances of the assassination itself), yet those departures serve the production's purpose, and overall, I found this show dazzling and thought-provoking, one of the best shows of the year so far. In my opinion.

4 and a half stars from me.

[david]

Well this was definitely worth booking for. Having purchased one of those fantastic £20 front stalls seats (B17), I has a terrific night at Olivier theatre. I haven’t had much enjoyment with the stuff that the NT has programmed recently, but from tonight’s viewing this was a definite winner for me. A new piece of writing from Anupama Chandrasekhar that was both very well written and intellectually engaging in telling the story of Ghandi’s assassination and the associated political struggles within India at the time.

With a run time tonight of around 2.5hrs with a 20 min interval, the evening flew by and with the show being in final previews it’s in great shape ready for Press night. For me, the fact that with this show there wasn’t anything fancy about its staging was a positive. As Steve has noted, the whole story surrounding Ghandi and the struggle for Indian independence is an epic one and so having a basic staging allows the story to be front and centre by a superb cast. I thought the use of having Shubham Saraf as Godse act as narrator and the breaking of the 4th wall to engage with the audience during proceedings was a great directorial decision.

The entire cast are to be applauded here for their work and I would like to think that this production and its cast are recognised in next years award season. Saraf managed to tread that fine line between the more lighter moments and the heavier dramatic stuff with ease and Paul Bazely was a spitting image of Ghandi providing some wonderful energy balanced against the more thoughtful moments in Ghandi’s political struggles.

As with Steve , the assassination scene was maybe a slightly weak point in that maybe a few historical liberties may of been taken here but overall I don’t think it detracts from the quality of the production.

The programme was certainly worth purchasing to gain further insight into the historical events of the show. Rufus Norris may of programmed a fair bit of crud recently but with this production I’ll say well done for getting this on. A worthwhile commission at the Nash.

Rating - 4⭐️

[theatrebee]

I am hearing this production hasn't been an instant hit. Which makes me twice as excited to go watch it next week.

[wiggymess]

May 19, 2022 17:41:41 GMT theatrebee said:

I am hearing this production hasn't been an instant hit. Which makes me twice as excited to go watch it next week.

Based on what? I thought it was fantastic and was very well received on Saturday..

[samuelwhiskers]

Saw it tonight, and thought it was stunning.

Apparently it’s not been selling amazingly well but word of mouth has been excellent so they’re predicting it’ll do well as word continues to spread.

[showgirl]

Well, I bought what is for me an expensive ticket on the strength of steve's review (so no pressure, Steve , as they say!), so was relieved when further favourable comments followed; it has had a fair bit of publicity lately of which I'm aware: Guardian article; item on R 4 Front Row and it was press night last night though as it's still early in the day, I've been able to find only one professional review so far. However, so far as sales are concerned, the matinee performance for which I opted seemed heavily booked, though it was the only date I could do at such short notice and for a run which itself is brief cf some NT productions.

So if bookings aren't already going well for other dates/times, I'd expect them to buck up if the opinions so far are indicative of likely press reviews.

[theatrebee]

May 19, 2022 21:17:41 GMT wiggymess said:

Based on what? I thought it was fantastic and was very well received on Saturday..

Just word of mouth - I've been hearing there were vacant seats but sales are supposedly picking up now with the reviews starting to come out. I am glad you liked it. I have high expectations for it myself, can't wait to go watch it next week.

[zahidf]

This was excellent I thought. Very interesting and surprisingly funny.

[showgirl]

I saw Saturday's matinee and left it a few days before commenting to see if my view changed, but I still feel rather less impressed by this than others. Yes, it was a perfectly decent production and I certainly enjoyed being in the lovely Olivier for once - in a comfortable and spacious aisle seat rather than being crammed into the horrible Lyttelton - and in the atmosphere created by a pretty full house. But the play itself? Necessarily shallow and broad given its epic scope but for me there was too much style and too little content. I'd have preferred greater depth and discussion of fewer issues. This seemed more of an opportunity for the NT to show what it can do on a big stage with an ensemble production and it certainly ticked that box, but for treatment of the one of the subjects, I preferred the Hampstead version.

[orchidman]

The kind of tedious play we have come to expect from the National. Godse is not an interesting enough character to be the protagonist of a play and the portrayal of Indian politics is perfunctory and without insight. The quality of the dialogue was amateurish. There are plenty of potentially compelling stories covered in the scope of this work but not the one they actually tried to tell.

[Mark]

Another thumbs up from me for the NT - they’re definitely back on track, this was very enjoyable (though I wouldn’t rate it as highly as I did The Corn is Green). Shubham Saraf in particular was great. Worth a watch!

[Dave B]

I saw this yesterday afternoon and found myself next to londonpostie !

Maybe 2/3 full, a lot of space upstairs and seats dotted around downstairs. Turns out we both had £10 Rush tickets in row D and they were great seats, especially at that price.

Some vaguely spoilery thoughts.

Certainly didn't enjoy it as much as others have. Liked the set, liked most of the performances. I thought Shubham Saraf was particularly good when addressing the audience, lots of charisma and attitude but a bit less of that in his performance, almost like he was playing two characters - the narrator and then Godse.

Paul Bazely as Gandhi and Sagar Arya as Savarkar were both quite flat, I suspect a directing choice to contrast with the 'assassin' as surely men of such charisma that inspired such would have overshadowed everything else?

Definitely interesting things about Nathuram's early childhood, chosen of the good until he rejects being a girl, some repression with notably the girl from his childhood taking space and coming back in his head and then in the fight with his co-conspirator, this appears to be during into romance for at least a moment.

Could have done without the explicit Brexit shoutout, yes we are not stupid thank you NT. And of course parallels close to home with lines being drawn on a map to partition a country and the still ongoing effects of that, a lot of colonialism/empire themes around these days.

It feels like there is almost required reading beforehand, I think it overly relies on having a little bit of knowledge and a few more explanations would have been welcome.

Still, as I said to postie afterwards, £10 Rush - more than happy with that and there are offers floating around too. I did spend a bit of time late last night reading up on Godse, so it did pique my interest too.

[Forrest]

I am on the side of those who quite liked this: I found it thoroughly entertaining, interesting, well acted and overall a quite lovely evening at the theatre. Time sort of flew by. 

I do agree with Dave B about the character of Gandhi being a little flat, but I ascribed that to the difficulty of portraying him as a man rather than a caricature. Too much "historical weight" in that sense.

I do wonder what this would have looked like to me if I knew more about the history - I always wonder this when plays are (even loosely) based on real events. What does this look like to someone who is personally affected by the situation? (Perhaps because I come from a part of Europe that is a frequent theme in cultural creation, and I very often don't really like the way the situation is portrayed, as it tends to get romanticised...) 

But overall, I would recommend this. 

[NeilVHughes]

Thought it lost its way, a fairly relaxed, comic and almost frivolous first half which didn’t really set up the atrocities of the second half, partition Empires greatest atrocity.

Came away confused by the closing statement and the breaking of the fourth wall became irritating and it wasn’t helped by a rustler sitting directly behind me.

It was nice to be back in the ‘traditional’ Olivier.

[Mark]

May 27, 2022 9:09:37 GMT Dave B said:

I saw this yesterday afternoon and found myself next to londonpostie !

Maybe 2/3 full, a lot of space upstairs and seats dotted around downstairs. Turns out we both had £10 Rush tickets in row D and they were great seats, especially at that price.]

I was also in the row D rush seats yesterday afternoon!

[thistimetomorrow]

I came into this play with very very little knowledge of Gandhi and Indian politics and the Partition etc. I found that with the way Godse was narrating, jumping back and forth between time periods and not always indicating what the exact year was, the story could be a little hard to follow at times. Obviously it's events leading up to and following Gandhi's assassination, but I struggled a bit to follow at which point in time we were at and how that related back to Godse's ideologies at that point. I thought it was really interesting how Godse was addressing the audience directly with references to today's time period (e.g. the Mountbatten Brexit comment) and it even felt like pantomimey at times? Just in the sense that he sometimes asked the audience questions and sounded like he was actually expecting answers not just rhetorically. Also, Godse wasn't the most likeable character. I feel like usually the audience is naturally on the side of the narrator because they're the one shaping the story and obviously like you know he kills Gandhi, but I thought by the end of the play I'd be more sympathetic to him regardless of that fact (think Humbert Humbert style). I just found him a bit annoying and not the sharpest tool in the shed tbh. It's interesting because this is my 2nd National Theatre play in 3 days and The Corn is Green was a good 30 minutes longer than this play, but I found myself a bit more bored in this play compared to Corn. In the 1st act I kept expecting the interval to come, but it just kept going. So I'm not sure if this was just like a case of maybe them needing to tighten the storyline a bit to keep attention spans? The set was fairly simple, but I do love a good turntable. Overall I do appreciate that the writer/director/actors are all Indians and I did enjoy it, but I think this would be a low 4 stars. 3 stars for the play itself, but I found the subject matter so interesting that's bumped it up lol.

[alnoor]

I do not want to start a long discussion but am very disappointed at the words used by the prev member ( this time tomorrow) about the director, actors all being Indian.
I don’t know Indu but Wiki says she was born in Sheffield to Tamil parents. Does she therefore qualify as Indian?
I was born in Uganda to parents who had been born in India
I have been in UK 50 yrs
If I had been an actor on stage, would I also have been referred to as an Indian?

[thistimetomorrow]

I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to cause any offence - I hadn't researched the cast and creatives before making the post, but had meant more along the lines of it not being a white washed story told by white creatives with a white cast. Unfortunately I can't go back and edit my post and I can't figure out how to delete it so no one else will get offended.

[alnoor]

Thankyou
I appreciate your reply
A

[theatrebee]

Jun 10, 2022 23:39:49 GMT thistimetomorrow said:

I found that with the way Godse was narrating, jumping back and forth between time periods and not always indicating what the exact year was, the story could be a little hard to follow at times. Obviously it's events leading up to and following Gandhi's assassination, but I struggled a bit to follow at which point in time we were at and how that related back to Godse's ideologies at that point.

I felt the same way. I too felt that the play assumed a bit of prior knowledge on the audience's part, but fortunately I grew up in India so I had a bit of contextual knowledge and knew the key dates. I wasn't satisfied with the exploration of what it was, exactly, that planted the Hindutva ideal so deeply in Godse's mind. The assassination plot also came up rather abruptly - after years, even decades, of meek, ineffectual activism, how did this man suddenly gravitate to the other extreme?

I also thought the story was incomplete - there were other important events that were left out (I wrote a detailed rant on my website if anyone's interested - spoiler warning - www.theatrebee.com/post/review-the-father-and-the-assassin-eerily-topical-but-lacks-ambition

[mkb]

The Father and the Assassin, as with many an epic tale, suffers from having too broad a brush, the effect being that characters and event details are rendered quite superficially.

Despite a fine, wall-breaking performance from Shubham Saraf as the titular bad guy, I am not sure I really learnt from Anupama Chandrasekhar's script what motivated his character, Nathuram Godse. I think the takeaway was that he was just a screwed-up kid, which seemed too simplistic.

The gratuitous hint at one moment by the director that the killer was homosexually attracted to his partner in politics/crime was unnecessary. If that was really part of Godse's psyche, then let's explore it; don't just randomly suggest it.

Paul Bazely makes a good fist of Gandhi, although, rightly or wrongly, I had always pictured the Indian leader as being a lot less tall.

The events move at pace, backwards and forwards in time, and the piece is not uninteresting.

Three stars.

Act 1: 19:35-20:40
Act 2: 21:03-21:59
(Shorter than the advertised 2:35, so I wonder if there have been some significant cuts?)

[teamyali]

It’s back at the NT this year! In between Dear England and The Witches’ runs at the Olivier theatre.


deadline.com/2023/04/roald-dahl-the-witches-katherine-kingsley-london-west-end-1235330216/

Also means that Hiran will be in Life of Pi more or less until June or July, basically after the Tony Awards season. (I hope he gets nominated for his performance in Life of Pi)