ARTICLE FROM THE STAGE

Natalie Klamar and Oscar Adams in This Much I Know. Photo: The Other Richard

Jonathan Spector’s dramatically stilted but thematically rich play thoughtfully explores big ideas around guilt, free will and extremism

 

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Intriguing, ambitious, and unapologetically cerebral, this philosophical mystery from American author Jonathan Spector poses profound questions about how much control we really have over our lives.

The deliberately elusive story can feel frustratingly incoherent. Spector’s pensive text sprawls in all sorts of unexpected directions, cutting abruptly between distantly connected plot strands. In one, university professor Lukesh delivers an engaging lecture on cognitive psychology, discussing the many biases, mistaken beliefs and mental shortcuts that influence our thinking. Lukesh’s narration becomes increasingly unreliable when his wife Natalya suddenly leaves him to trek around Russia to investigate her family history. At the same time, Lukesh implausibly finds himself overseeing troubled student Harold’s controversial English literature dissertation. And a tangential plotline sees Svetlana Alliluyeva – daughter of Joseph Stalin – giving a revealing press conference after defecting to America.

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Director Chelsea Walker gives the overstuffed, slow-moving story a refreshingly brisk staging, creating some much-needed momentum with fluid, lightning-fast transitions between scenes. The three actors each play multiple roles, confidently cutting between personalities. Natalie Klamar is strong both as supremely self-possessed Svetlana and fragile, searching Natalya, traumatised after becoming involved in a fatal car accident. Esh Alladi is convincingly complicated as Lukesh. Smug and overbearing yet insightful, he deploys a deep understanding of psychology to subtly manipulate those around him. But he becomes irritated when they refuse to behave – from his perspective at least – rationally. Alladi shares compellingly terse conversations with Oscar Adams’ Harold, an awkward, intelligent, badly misguided kid raised in a family of white supremacists. Adams convincingly portrays Harold’s inner conflicts, uncritically parroting his father’s moronic ideology one moment, eagerly unpicking those same assumptions the next. When he finally realises how wrong he has been all his life, his newfound cognisance comes in a breathless rush of shame and liberating sincerity. Adams also plays several underwritten Russian characters with whom Natalya interacts during her search, trying perhaps too hard to make each distinct with overwrought mannerisms. Their accents range from passable to distractingly exaggerated.

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Blythe Brett’s design has a striking, stark aesthetic. Much of the action takes place in an austere lecture theatre, all stiff grey carpet and white walls, but Bethany Gupwell’s clear lighting design lends additional dimension: deep shadows close in during moments of introspection; flares of dazzling white light suggest the flashes of paparazzi cameras. Duncan McLean’s video projections visualise the enigmatic text messages that Natalya sends while in transit, interspersed with old photos of Russian families and airbrushed portraits of Stalin. Though all these unrelated elements never quite cohere, the play is a stimulating, thought-provoking puzzle.

 

Production Details

Production nameThis Much I Know

VenueHampstead Theatre

LocationLondon

Starts13/12/2023

Ends27/12/2023

Press night20/12/2023

Running time2hrs 20mins

AuthorJonathan Spector

DirectorChelsea Walker

Movement directorMichela Meazza

Set designerBlythe Brett

Costume designerBlythe Brett

Lighting designerBethany Gupwell

Sound designerHolly Khan

Vocal/dialect coachGurkiran Kaur

Cast includesEsh Alladi, Natalie Klamar, Oscar Adams

Production managerSkip Francis

Stage managerCaoimhe Regan

ProducerCelia Atkin, Hampstead Downstairs