Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Georgia Tennant, Anna Lundberg, Lucy Eaton, Simon Evans, Nina Sosanya, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Lester, Jim Broadbent, Peter de Jersey, Olivia Coleman.
When you have seen the joke before, the punchline becomes inevitable…
And yet it must be said, if the joke is crafted well, you cannot but help smile and laugh, even though you know the setup, even though you know what’s coming, it still raises the corners of the mouth and gives way to that the emotion of being amused, of enjoying the company which told you the series of events which culminate in that often repeated punchline.
The minds and creatives behind the first series of Staged hit upon a recipe of guaranteed success that was never in doubt from the moment the viewers were shown that those they hold in esteem were just as much in the dark about how life should continue in a world that was locked away from itself. The experience gave viewers a chance to relate to two of Britian’s finest and consummate actors as they found ways to amuse themselves in one-to-one conversations, as their families, their partners, were shown on screen alongside them.
The zeitgeist was well and truly framed, the age was captured, and it was searingly beautiful.
The beauty of a joke is that it finds a way to be repeated until it wears itself out, constantly evolving, tweaked here and there to make it continually relevant; for if that fails then the punchline is worthless, the wit just becomes an expense disaster in waiting.
The third series of Staged doesn’t pretend, there is reason behind the playful façade of anecdotal stories and damnation for the repeated yarn, one that still retains the core and essence of its makers, but to which the added evolving reveal of Georgia Tennant as a true behind the scenes inspiration and in front of camera shrewd operator is to be acknowledged and praised. Long perhaps thought of being in her husband’s shadow by some less than enlightened minds, the actor shows her own industrious edge by immersing herself completely into the narrative device, of being the illusionist drawing in the crowds with subtle and dramatic pleasure.
All good plays must end somewhere, the best of them leave you wondering at what happens next; for the truth of life is there is no conclusion, there is no final scene, it just morphs into the next character, into the next scene.
Staged hit the screens at the perfect moment, a world hiding away from the trials and tribulations it faced. It is only right therefore that as we enter another chapter of life that the finale of that dark time should be left with a send-off that encapsulates the bittersweet irony that farce, dramatic invention, spontaneous reality and subterfuge of the highest order should see the talented Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Simon Evans, and the wealth of stars, including the superb Nina Sosanya, Anna Lundberg, and in a clinching sense of finality in her cameo appearance of theatrical reason, Olivia Coleman, all leave the stage with the light on stage dimmed, but never truly extinguished.
A wealth of brilliance on show, Staged will not be forgotten.
Ian D. Hall