Park Theatre – until 25th November 2023
Reviewed by Ben Jolly
2**
Jonathan Maitland’s latest work prompts some intriguing questions in his play The Interview, which opened last night at the Park theatre. Exploring the once celebrated but now highly controversial 1995 Panorama television interview between Martin Bashir and Diana, Princess of Wales, Maitland delves into the ethical minefield that has in recent years become attributed to the piece. Despite questions surrounding Bashir’s motives to secure the scoop being raised at the time, a full investigation didn’t take place until a few years ago where it was deemed to be stripped from public domain.
With this in mind, Maitland poses the question, can you appreciate the art and separate your feelings for the artist? Michael Jackson, Pablo Picasso and Eric Gill, the general public’s ability to enjoy the art while ignoring the flaws or criminalities of the person behind the curtain is a topical subject worthy of debate. Maitland also asks the question of whether the interview should be banned from all platforms. Diana was always intending to give a “tell all” interview and timing was at the essence for fear of receiving a gag order. Bashir used unethical and downright immoral motives to win over the already vulnerable Diana to secure himself as the confidant and therefore only worthy candidate to hold the interview… but should Diana’s words be silenced? Maitland’s initial intrigue was sparked by Diana’s speeches on mental health, her bouts of bulimia and postnatal depression that have now been locked away, never to be heard again.
The premise is simply bursting with drama; it is timely, controversial, with subject matters ranging from ethics in journalism to a thousand-year-old monarch in jeopardy; it is high stakes, lies, deceit and ultimately… death. It’s a rags to riches to rags story for Bashir and for Diana, a painful culmination of years of mistreatment and severe unhappiness, it’s her escape from the clutches of one of the most powerful institutions in the world. This play should have had it all. So, what went wrong?
The first act is a game of cat and mouse between Diana and Bashir as the journalist seeks out to win Diana’s trust and ultimately, the interview. Instead of escalating the drama, we end up with a first act devoted in its entirety to exposition. Short scenes, and uninspired language bleed the play from any action or dramatical peaks. It flat lines with two-dimensional speech, characterisations drier than the Sahara Desert and embarrassing one-liners in a sad attempt to inject life into the piece. Any subtext or depth is washed over, and the 45-minute act comes across as a live reconstruction from Crimewatch. With regards to the performances, Yolanda Kettle’s robotic and dreary line readings alongside Tibu Fortes’s nervous and underwhelming performance as Bashir do little to elevate the lacking text. The clonky and unsettling direction are just the finishing touches to this flagging act. Next up, we are in the editing room with Bashir, scouring through soundbite filled footage. Kettle, who is now sat amongst the audience in a rather odd decision, delivers Diana infamous lines.
It is only as the play draws to a close that we are given the opportunity to gain perspective of the drama as a whole and explore the bigger questions. Stylistically and visually the piece immediately elevates, the language is much more direct and poignant, and we get a glimpse of what this play could have been. With so much potential, Maitland was on the right track with his choice of topic for his latest play; on paper, he is arguably the most suited playwright to tackle the subject given his previous work and history in journalism which included a working relationship with Bashir himself. There’s still potential here, with rewrites and a new vision there’s a chance for a dynamic piece of theatre to grow from. It’s just a shame that this wasn’t the production to be able to achieve this, a royal shame indeed!