The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 25

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THURSDAY DECEMBER 11 1997 25 ARTS So Mr Bond have you heard about the global shortage of convincing movie villains? Sheila Johnston explains Pictures: JAY MAIDMENT RONALD GRANT Why hard to find a good baddie with effects have interest in characters motivation 9 his craft with Method precision dig in all the parts of your life to find the answer And sometimes it just whips around a corner while walking down the street and you see a piece of that guy in the behaviour of Henriksen has played a vampire an agent of Satan a biker gang leader and in Hard Target an entrepreneur who arranges big-game hunts for millionaires in which the quarry are homeless people For one role he had a huge tattoo of a tiger drawn on his back at his own expense: he claims it was invaluable in helping him with the character The British actor-director Gary Oldman has made a lucrative career out of portraying the bad guy on screen In Air Force One he was a Russian radical who kidnaps the US President in the hope of restoring the Communist Bloc to its former glory He has also been seen recently as a futuristic Hitler epigone in The Fifth Element and his next role in Lost in Space is Dr Zachary Smith a sinister figure who sabotages a pioneering colony in outer space do I always play bad Oldman asks would love to do a romantic comedy but I get offered those roles I guess the scripts that come through my Most actors are pragmatic about their modest satisfactions see it as explains Freeman have to do those films in order to get any power as actors At least you end up on the cutting-room with their roles Pryce replies that this merely proves the point: believe what you read in the But perhaps the true cause of the current dearth of credible villains is not so much our changing world as Hollywood itself Many actors suspect that these days studios obsessed with special effects have lost interest in what seem to them minor questions of motivation and history vital for creating convincing characters The Bond film is a good example background was raised in Hong Kong as the illegitimate son of a press baron who never acknowledged him His revenge was that he worked his way up and took over his says Pryce appears to have slipped down the crack between script and final movie a character is transparently villainous why is anyone going to go along with him in the first says Paul Freeman a former RSC actor whose film career has encompassed a host of villains including the baddie in Raiders of the Lost Ark horrifying thing about the Holocaust was that Nazis were family men for the most part but always pro-trayed as weird Some apply immense dedication to bringing their meagre roles alive Trained at the Actors Studio in New York Lance Henriksen approaches UT wails Dr Evil the megalomaniac villain in Mike spy spoof Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery to his morose Generation-X son going to take over the world when I Satisfying movie villains have recently become an endangered species Partly thanks to the diligence of the political correctness police A sexually ambiguous figure the serial killer in The Silence of tfie Lambs or Sharon lesbian axe murderess in Basic Instinct will almost certainly meet with vigorous protests from pressure groups as will Arab terrorists Hispanic gang leaders and African-American crack dealers Another reason is the increasing importance of foreign box-offiefe which now requires the Japanese and Germans for example to be treated with great caution Myers jokes that he made Dr Evil a Belgian for one good reason: never get any trouble from the Belgian Anti-Defamation And crucially the end of the Cold War has robbed Hollywood of its most convenient adversaries (although at least we still have the Russian mafia as seen in the last Bond movie Goldeneye) Small wonder that last blockbusters rolled out a dull array of natural disasters and prehistoric monsters Could the recent renaissance of science fiction be due to the fact that aliens retain attorneys or have a lobby in Congress? The new James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies which opens tomorrow presents an ingenious solution to this problem The villain staring Bond in the whites of the eyes is not the usual foreign madman but a media baron Elliot Carver After all in this post-Diana age who is going to picket a film for gross defamation of the fourth estate? villain in a Bond film has a particular place in says Jonathan Pryce the British actor who plays Carver whereas by tradition these characters have an empire inside a volcano empire is based in the real Carver sows disinformation and engineers international crises and personal tragedies (celebrity overdoses a speciality) to assure his global communications network a regular supply of scoops Pryce points out that the screenwriter Bruce Feir-stein is a journalist who should know whereof he speaks there is an element of camp in Carver he represents a real threat not just because he attempts to create World War III but because he controls so much of the media a conduit for reminding people of the dangers of Pervasive rumours emanating from the set of Tomorrow Never Dies which by some accounts had seven writers working on it at one point claimed that principal cast members were unhappy 6 Obsessed special studios lost Main picture: Jonathan Pryce in Tomorrow Never Dies Above from top: Gary Oldman in The Fifth Element- Lance Henriksen in Hard Target- and Mike Myers in Austin Powers REVIEWS A bad night for adolescents in Stratford A glorious swan-song in Greenwich Theatre whose final stand for truth and justice has the audience cheering with delight Peter Hugo-Daly is a foe-man worthy of his steel as Uriah Heep his body an S-bend of cringing subservience his revolting intimacy sending shivers of disgust down the spine You can almost smell his bad breath and by the end he looks like a wounded flapping crow Joseph Millson is a charismatic sexually ambiguous Steerforth Susan Porrett a bossily engaging Aunt Trotwood Brian Poyser is a delight as that lovely loony Mr Dick and David Allister's dogged decency and devotion as Mr Peggotty made me cry The whole show is a marvellous winter warmer for the festive season Until Jan 24 Tickets: 0181 858 7755 CHARLES THE RSC seems strangely obsessed with the American playwright Richard Nelson The new-writing policy is patchy at the best of times but of one thing you can be sure: if Nelson pens a play the RSC will put it on Sometimes one understands why Some Americans Abroad was a hilarious study of Yanks on the British heritage trail New England a fine almost Chekhovian portrait of a troubled family But at other times Nelson seems a minor semi-detatched playwright with no distinctive voice Goodnight Children Everywhere is ninth RSC play and turns out to be a creepy and not always persuasive piece about incest Like Andrea David Copperfield Greenwich Theatre David and Damien Matthews as his older self It's a neat and often touching device which allows access into innermost thoughts as the two Davids discuss events even as they are being played out It is however the rich supporting cast that registers most strongly Des McAleer one of my favourite actors offers outstanding value both as that whispering psychopath of a headmaster Mr Creakle and as a preposterous lovable Mr Micawber Theatre Goodnight Children Everywhere The Other Place Stratford-upon-Avon apparently respectable girls be so uninhibited in front of their long-lost teenage brother stripping off to their underwear on the flimsiest pretext? Nor is command of Forties English spot-on think the a joke a says Vi of a suitor but the line is surely pure American The fatal flaw is that I never believed that the prickly pregnant Ann would so promptly seduce her teenage brother The scene in which she peers at him in his tin bath spots his IT MAY one day be said of Matthew Francis that nothing became his artistic directorship of the Greenwich Theatre like the leaving of it The theatre board gave him his marching orders earlier this year Then came the news that the London Arts Board is to cut this valuable £210000 grant Meanwhile down the road £758 million is being lavished on Peter hubris-tic dome In a couple of years Greenwich will be visited by millions the biggest tourist destination in the country but if people want to visit the theatre as well as the Millennium find the theatre either closed or filled with second-rate touring Greenwich present plight is a pathetic ill-organised farce that seems typical of the crazy state of arts funding in Britain at a time when Lottery money ought to be ensuring boom not bust The Gate in Notting Hill west London and that most engaging of pub theatres the Head in Islington north London are in similar jeopardy Francis however has come up with a corker of a valedictory production as if snubbing his nose at the bumbling bureaucrats The semi-auto-biographical David Copper-field is perhaps the most consistently enjoyable and sympathetic of all CHARLES SPENCER novels (it was his own favour- and brings him to a which all takes under cover of a horse brought me a flush of embarrassment and must been mortifying for the boy I could see with his parents Cathryn Bradshaw as Ann Simon Scardifield as give excellent performances but sexual spark that would their passion credible to ignite They babble their love for each but somehow you are made to feel it no doubt that is excellent at scenes embarrassment caught in Ian with its Forties domestic by Tim Hatley I was touched by the grief of the for their dead and their response song Goodnight Everywhere which them of their loss though Nelson is of wit subtlety and feeling he sometimes embarrassingly and his depiction finally seems like a measure to ginger underpowered play 01 789 295623 erection climax place clothes out in have teenage sitting and Peter 'individual the render fails on about other never Nelson of social well production evocative setting also submerged siblings parents to the Children reminds But capable real turns mawkish of incest desperate up an Tickets: SPARKLI MOBILE OFFERS Your direct line to Christmas savi A Bouquet of Barbed Wire it keeps you hooked with voyeuristic fascination but it is hard to escape the feeling that Nelson has little of interest to say The action is set in 1945 at the end of the war and a shattered family is beginning to pick up the pieces Seventeen-year-old Peter returns to the family flat in Clapham after being evacuated for more than five years in Canada His older sisters Betty a nurse Ann who is married and pregnant and Vi a flirty actress on the make are there to greet him hut not his parents both of whom were killed in the war This family convince Would these THE GREAT NEW WAY TO A MOBILE PHONE ite) and this rich generous production beautifully captures all its humour tand sadness Inevitably the show evokes memories of the legendary Nicholas Nickleby and Lez dark atmospheric multi-level set seems a deliberate act of homage to John mould-breaking adventure playground of a design for that earlier production Francis obviously have the resources of the RSC but this is in some ways an advantage His admirable 13-strong company have to double up major roles as well as playing the supporting cast and the result is a display of versatility that adds greatly to the pleasure It also illuminates the narrative It is surely absolutely right for instance that the same actress Gemma Page should play childish mother and his equally childlike first wife Dora You suddenly realise that the orphaned Copper-field was bound to marry someone just like his sweet inadequate ma In his brisk intelligent adaptation Francis has two Copperfields the 18-year-old Paul Bailey to play young the Danes tides and orbits if not the hip-swinging Latiny beat of Wayne 42nd Street Rondo soon came along to create a party mood The show closed with what must be the loudest music ever heard in the Wigmore: Fireplay by Fuzzy (born 1939 and described by an insider as Danish Scored for tape and percussion it volleyed and thundered before the lights were turned out for a middle movement in which gongs were submerged in candle-lit goldfish bowls The final section chattered like Halloween night in the jungle Great fun BRIAN HUNT I lie Allegri Siring (iiiii'lol PLAYS HAYDN SHOSTAKOVICH SCHUBERT "A now FOR THE NEW RANGE OF CDs CALI 0 1 7 2 2 3 3 2 2 66 naim Happy clapping with Music Safri Duo Wigmore Hall REMEMBER those wall in the school music showing of Woodwind pay as you go No contract to sign No bills or monthly charges Easy to use digital handset 0 Ready to use Includes: 90 days access PLUS £10 WORTH OF CALLS (PHONE FEATURED IS REPRESENTATIVE ONLY) TELEGRAPH READER This ingenious remote control unit features the latest electronic circuitry and is designed to replace lost broken or damaged remote controls It will also let you cut down on the quantity of remote controls you have to use too The 3-in-l unit is programmed for use with your television video and with your satellite receiver and has operating signals for almost all major brands It requires no complicated setting up and will even tackle difficult appliances with its special scanning feature It is suitable for use on such brands as Sony Panasonic Toshiba Hitachi Mitsubishi Sanyo Sharp NEC Philips Thompson Samsung and more The unit also features all major television and video functions including volume mute Teletext following and previous channel an LED operating light and standby FF rewind record 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Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun buy Year of Birth 1 9 If you would prefer not to receive information and offers from organisations carefully selected by The Telegraph please tick here Cl V1949 OFFER Replace lost or broken remote controls only £1995 Qty Price Total U1995 made payable to charts room the brass strings and oh yes percussion This last seemed by far the least significant you knew if you were interested in classical music that a standard symphony required no more percussion than a pair of timpani However reflecting the influence of other cultures 20th-century Western composers have added more and more thumps tings cracks and clangs to the orchestra In the past decade thanks to a few charismatic performers the percussion recital and the percussion concerto have become established genres The Safri Duo two energetic young Danish men have their own style and repertoire much of it arranged by themselves Steve Pieces of Wood is usually performed by five claves players: the Safris use their feet as well as their hands and somehow fit in every click It was a shame that one watch their feet at work the lads themselves could hardly be seen so hemmed in were they by the extravagant range of equip- ment packed on to the platform A friend suggested that an overhead mirror of the type usually used at cookery demonstrations would have been helpful It would not have seemed out of place either because the Safris bring a nice touch of showbiz flair to their performance It detract from their musicality: played note-perfectly on two marimbas the prelude from second English Suite bubbled and glimmered Even at low volume music played with mallets can be felt as much as heard tickling the tummy and vibrating the jowls Andy CaDance4 2 pitted ostinatos of 49 and 50 beats against each other so the two players shared a downbeat only once in a blue moon To demonstrate the principle the Duo divided the audience in two and led us in competitive rhythmic clapping If you were of a philosophical bent this led to thoughts of the mathematics of creation of cycles of seasons Includes: Motorola Graphite Phone 12 months line rental and connection PLUS FREE LOCAL WEEKEND CALLS oneRone TAKE A BREAK ON US Connect to ONE-2-ONE before Christmas and enjoy a FREE Luxury 2 Day Break Just pay for breakfast (SEE LEAFLET IN STORE FOR DETAILS) FOR THE ADDRESS OF YOUR NEAREST STORE OR TO FREEPHONE 0321 1 4 I 1.