By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: **

WHEN?: Saturday 27 April 2024 and runs through 11 May 2024 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (without interval)

The tech breaks down after 40 minutes, the spell is broken, the show is paused and we leave never to return.

• Read on for reasons including why this is the emperor’s new clothes of theatre

We are in the front row and the Theatre Royal Haymarket’s website does contain a warning that the stage is so high that the view from here is partially obstructed and, on that basis, we would not recommend these seats.

Confessions: we’ve never actually seen Snook play Shiv Roy in HBO’s Succession, a role for which she won 2 Golden Globes and an Emmy, and we’re here instead because this Sydney Theatre Company production won Olivier Awards for Best Actress and Best Costume Design.

The action begins and we can see Snook on a giant screen at the front of the stage but can only glimpse her briefly at the back, surrounded by stagehands wielding cameras and props they hand to her, as she switches between characters at lightning speed.

The experience reminds us of glimpsing Madonna in London’s Hyde Park in July 2012 when we were so far from the actual stage that we could not actually confirm that our heroine was there or not and so we ended up dancing around a screen showing her instead.

Gigs should never be like that and theatre should never be so reliant on its smoke and mirrors that when they cease to work, the show, simply, cannot go on.

The mood is extended French and Saunders sketch and goes nowhere. The screen jump cuts from 1 different character to the next as Snook turns to face it which is technically impressive but she is nowhere near as captivating a performer as Eddie Izzard was when they performed a 1-person Great Expectations at the Garrick without such technical wizardry last year.

Frankly we’re baffled as to how anyone who had actually seen this would think it better than those shortlisted performances it beat – Sheridan Smith particularly in Shirley Valentine, a one-woman show without gimmicks where she held the audience in the palm of her hand, Sophie Okonedo literally locking eyes with you in the intimate @SohoPlace during Medea, the comedy brilliance of Sarah Jessica Parker in Plaza Suite and Laura Donnelly’s dramatic change of character in The Hills Of California.

But at their worst the Oliviers have become an exercise in giving momentum to shows which are Broadway-bound rather than any real indicator of quality – see Sunset Boulevard for example.

Snook last performed in London at the Old Vic in 2016 opposite Ralph Fiennes in The Master Builder and we didn’t even think her worthy of mention in our review.

The show’s marketing says Snook ‘takes on all 26 roles in this gripping, witty and vibrantly contemporary production that breathes new life into Oscar Wilde’s classic tale’. Although, actually, many of them in the 40 minutes we saw have already been pre-recorded and the tech is such that Snook is actually performing live within those recorded performances on screen. If that makes written sense. It’s perhaps little wonder the tech breaks down.

It’s less of a feat than Izzard’s and also Andrew Scott’s in Vanya at the Duke Of York’s last year who attempted something that was even more of an acting challenge than Snook is aiming for here.

Friends have asked us whether they should pay the expensive prices this production is charging. Our advice would be – don’t. It’s the emperor’s new clothes of theatre. At its worst, the overuse of cameras in theatre will be its death.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Theatre Royal Haymarket Tickets
• Have you seen a Sarah Snook show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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