Theatre: John | The National Theatre

I read a review of John from the Daily Mail which called it a "National DISGRACE". Which mostly served to make me want to see it more.

Hannes Langolf performing as John

It's brought to us by the physical theatre group DV8, whose name alone is probably enough to put off the average daily mail reader. It's a piece of verbatim theatre which means that the words are taken directly from real situations - in this case interviews with a number of people. The play begins by focussing on the title's John with the tragic, painful story of his upbringing. The script, taken directly from the words of real people is made into a visual display by the graceful yet powerful movement of the dancers (should that be actors?). 

One thing that works very well and feels incredibly fresh is how the dancers are not silent during their pieces. We are so used to dancers becoming mute the moment they enter the stage, that it is exciting (and pretty impressive) to hear them speak at the same time. Both the verbatim script and the movement are embellished by their combination to great effect. The dancers move effortlessly through the mind boggling set which rotates, and appears to mould around them, changing from violent family home, to crack house, prison or urban street. All this is backed up with a soundtrack which includes tracks ranging from Led Zeppelin to a remix of James Blake's powerful 'Retrograde'.

The story of sexual and physical abuse, death, addiction, homelessness is portrayed incredibly powerfully by Hannes Langolf as John but we are suddenly, somewhat confusingly swept into the world of the gay sauna after thirty-five minutes of the play's eighty minute running time. It only slowly becomes apparent that the main link between every element in the play is that the words have been collected from interviews with men found in the sauna (50 interviews from one sauna apparently). Though there are some light, relatively funny moments within the stories that intermingle with John's, they don't actually bring anything to the narrative except for a number of uncomfortable moments. It's not that the stories aren't well performed, its just that they don't sit right with the devastatingly powerful story of John. 

Perhaps this is deliberate- we are challenged by how John can finally find some solace and feel comfortable in such an amoral place- where sex is purely an act of dominance or submission between people who don't communicate and haven't an ounce of care for those they interact with. 

How is it that John can find peace here? Why is it just so painful to sit through? Can resolution really come from a world so devoid of love, or is John just continuing the cycle of abuse that he was plunged into at such an early age? The play confronts us with these questions and many more, and is somehow gracefully 'in-your-face'.

Hannes Langolf along with his fellow performers put on a mind bending, visually stimulating show using their bodies to enhance the words they speak in a way that exemplifies how important movement can be to telling a story in the theatre.

John is well worth taking the time to experience for the masterful use of movement and to hear John's harrowing story, even with the painful moments we are taken through. We are led to think with empathy of those on the margins of society and remember that we all have a story to tell.

John is showing at the National's Lyttelton Theatre until January 13th (tickets here) then on tour across the UK and Europe

a short trailer can be seen here