daniel bye
  • Home
  • About
  • Shows
    • Imaginary Friends
  • directing
  • Digital
  • Workshops/Mentoring
  • Contact
  • Blog

PESSIMISM OF THE INTELLECT,
OPTIMISM OF THE WILL

Theatre Review - The Lion King, by Sir Elton of John and Lord Timothy Rice-Webber

24/4/2012

0 Comments

 
How refreshing to see a piece of theatre that isn't afraid to wear its values on its sleeves. At first glance The Lion King might appear to be just clumsy-mimsy right-on pro-immigration handclapping. In fact it's far cleverer than that: it's a hymn sung to the glories of patriarchy, authority and the political right. Lovely. I'm surprised Quentin Letts ever goes to see anything else.

Take the King. Mufasa brilliantly represents everything that has been lost by limp-wristed contemporary masculinity, dominating his hyena underclass with a no-nonsense iron fist, and making fun by dangling his staff's jobs in front of them. They certainly know who's boss. Even though he is a lion, Mufasa is so manly he walks on two legs with a gait that suggests balls the size of coconuts. We could do with someone like him to take the mewling Tory party by the scruff of their necks and parade them before a fawning stupefied people. They don't know they're born.

His brother Scar, by contrast, is the embodiment of evil, murdering his brother, stealing his throne, and heralding a deeply sinister "new era of lion-hyena co-operation". (How brave of Mr Disney to use an all-ethnic cast to demonstrate the dangers of inter-racial mixing!) We know Scar is evil right from the off, because even though he lives in the savannah, it is always dark when he is on stage. And his taking the throne from a rightful King - that step towards Communism! - is clearly and unambiguously shown as against nature: the very crops are blighted, wither and die. And then already awful Scar gets worse: he could have any lioness, but only lazily contemplates marriage when the question of an heir comes up. I bet Mufasa had no such namby qualms, rutting anything without a mane. That's what I call a real man. But what do you expect from arrivistes like Scar? Power corrupts, unless you're supposed to have it, like big-balls Mufasa, or emotional simpleton Simba.

The production is really about Simba, a power-crazed junior sociopath who "just can't wait to be king". Sporting Jimmy Porter-esque levels of self-absorption, our anti-hero has everything it takes to succeed in a lion-eat-lion world. And delightfully, this anti-hero has none of Porter's fashionable lefty whiny. His mantra means "no worries" and boy does he live by it. Even when confronted with the sudden, brutal death of his father, some rudimentary fart gags are enough to ensure he doesn't spend the whole show moping. I'm not quite sure why his accent changes so radically upon his accession to adulthood, but thank heaven it doesn't transform into that of the warthog and the other one who taught him his mantra Hakuna Matata. It's fine for such people to teach in schools, so long as they keep their opinions to themselves and don't shove them down the throats of innocent children.

Much has been written about The Lion King's narrative debt to Hamlet, but more interestingly, the production is proof positive that experimental theatre techniques aren't limited to service of the Left. I particularly liked the participatory elements, with the Revenue Control Officer hurtling up and down the Grand Circle's vertiginous steps flashing her torch at any audience member with the temerity to take film poor-quality footage of something available on CD and DVD for not much more than the cost of an extra ticket. There were also powerful elements of durational performance, particularly in the scenes with the parrot.

The moral of the whole thing is summed up in the excellent songs by Sir Elton of John and Lord Timothy Rice-Webber. It's all about "the circle of life". To end up other than where you started is against the natural order of things: "I am not who I was", protests Simba, resisting his natural destiny as King. "Remember who you are", replies his father, and just like that, he does. The only good change is a reactionary change.

At the end, there's an interesting moment when two of the play's value systems collide. Scar has to die, because the death penalty is just, and the only appropriate punishment for communists. But Simba cannot kill him, because then he will be a murderer and deserve death at the hands of the universe. To be honest, I think Simba should just have killed Scar. We'd all have been on his side, foaming as we were for the blood of the usurper. But the play cleverly side-steps the issue by having Scar fall off a convenient cliff. I didn't know they had any in the savannah, but they must have. How else is a monarch to survey his Kingdom?

Yes, The Lion King might look like it's just fucking atrocious, but it's actually far more serious than that.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Running with an idea

    Running commentary on:
    - theatre, culture, and the arts
    - running
    - those running theatre, culture and the arts.

    If this isn't enough, top up on my old blog.

    Archives

    January 2025
    September 2024
    June 2023
    May 2023
    November 2022
    September 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    July 2011
    June 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    October 2010
    July 2010

    Categories

    All
    Arts Funding
    Green Politics
    How To Occupy An Oil Rig
    Shakespeare's Clown
    Theatre
    Theatre Criticism
    The Price Of Everything
    Twitter

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Shows
    • Imaginary Friends
  • directing
  • Digital
  • Workshops/Mentoring
  • Contact
  • Blog