It’s a bold move for a director offered a showcase production to select a monologue. The last thing a solo performer needs is to draw attention to his art and artifice, which in turn severely limits the possibility for directorial flourishes. Still, this daring selection of Novecento (1994) pays off handsomely for Róisín McBrinn, the second former resident assistant director at the Donmar Warehouse to be given a West End outing. This is largely thanks to a bravura performance from Mark Bonnar.
Bonnar neatly avoids the "jazz hands" style of acting that far too often becomes the default setting of the monologist, all the while narrating a compelling story of jazz. He is Tim Tooney, a trumpeter who spent six years just before the Second World War playing in a band on board transatlantic ocean liner the Virginian.
There he befriended legendary pianist Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon Novecento, a man abandoned on the ship as a baby and someone destined never to set foot on dry land.
The years after the Virginian haven’t been kind to the visibly down-at-heel Tooney but this isn’t what interests writer Alessandro Baricco. It’s the men’s time at sea that he wants to tell us about, and he does so in a fine droll manner lightly dusted with magic realism. Translator Ann Goldstein maintains the appealing stylistic quirks of the original Italian, and Bonnar conveys them with glee.
Metal cables and railings from designer Paul Wills succinctly suggest a ship’s deck but it’s lighting designer Paul Keogan who makes the greatest impact, with subtle shifts of colour cleverly conjuring up a host of locations onboard. Bonnar has us riveted with an account of Novecento’s musical duel with Jelly Roll Morton but after 90 minutes in this hot studio space the finale feels over-extended.
Until Nov 20. Information: 0844 871 7632, donmarwarehouse.com
Novecento
Trafalgar Studios
Whitehall, SW1A 2DY
