Thom Southerland’s stage adaptation of Władysław Szpilman’s renowned memoir is a powerful account of survival, endurance and, of course, the magic of music
A single grand piano dominates the Park Theatre stage at the start of The Pianist, and over the course of the play it is continually reinvented. One moment it is a family’s battered upright, the next a radio studio’s instrument, then the centrepiece of a concert hall. It proves an apt emblem, for as the evening unfolds, the piano seems to acquire a life of its own.
Music is the beating heart of this imaginative, lyrical production directed by Thom Southerland, which draws on the wartime survival story of Władysław Szpilman – already familiar from his memoir and Roman Polanski’s acclaimed 2002 film. Here Szpilman’s own compositions are woven into songs, exquisitely arranged and orchestrated by Simon Lee, a longtime collaborator of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The lyrics come from several hands, among them Szpilman’s son Andreas, and have a bittersweet, nostalgic feel at times reminiscent of Cole Porter.
The talented ensemble sing, act and play instruments throughout, summoning the creative hum of pre-war Warsaw. Rosalind Ford plays Szpilman’s mother with touching warmth, while Nitai Levi gives the brother an uncompromising steeliness.
Towering over them all as the protagonist is Daniel Krikler. Brooding and intense, with nervy mannerisms and a detached air, he captures an artist absorbed in his own world and swept along by events he cannot quite grasp. Malcolm Forbes-Peckham, as his pianistic alter ego, takes the keyboard whenever Szpilman plays, and his performances are seamless and full of emotion.
That fluidity is matched by Robbie Butler’s evocative lighting and Andrzej Goulding’s impressive set, which conveys with sliding doors the mounting claustrophobia as the family’s world narrows. The effect is of a city glimpsed through memory, glowing at first, then terribly fragile as the deportations east begin to decimate the community.
If there is a weakness, it is that all this beauty and smoothness can leave the evening short of grit, although the final scenes, in which Szpilman hides in an emptying Warsaw as the Nazi grip loosens, add a dramatic edge. Still, it’s hard to resist this tender production, which envelops you in the power of music to express what words sometimes cannot, and to help people endure.
By Rebecca Taylor
Photos courtesy of Park Theatre
The Pianist runs until Saturday 28 November. 7.30pm, 3pm (Thu & Sat only). From £15. Park Theatre, London, N4 3JP. parktheatre.co.uk