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Rufus Norris, the new artistic director of the National Theatre, has clearly got balls. To open his very first season with a debate-laden play about the English civil war is more than a bit brave. Caryl Churchill’s 1976 play ‘Light Shining in Buckinghamshire’ is a brilliant, sharply political bit of writing that illuminates a fascinating moment in our history. It’s also pretty dense and not really all that fun.
But in a smart move, Norris has got the very excellent Lyndsey Turner – responsible for 2013’s mega hit ‘Chimerica’ – to direct it. The play doesn’t focus on one character or narrative, instead soaring over the English countryside in the 1640s, portraying a myriad of often recurring voices – villagers, soldiers, vagrants – as they argue about God and democracy, before and after Charles I is deposed.
‘Light Shining in Buckinghamshire’ begins in an England on the brink of civil war, but there’s barely a mention of the fusty old Roundheads and the Cavaliers. Instead, over many short scenes, Churchill introduces us to the likes of the Diggers – who fought for self-sufficient agricultural communities – the Levellers – who believed everyone should be equal before the law – and the Ranters – some far-out revolutionaries who believed – no kidding – in free love. She creates a vision of a grassroots revolution, where poor people glimpse empowerment in the promise of being able to choose their own rulers.
Slap-bang in the middle of the play is the Putney debates, lifted from actual transcripts from the 1647 meetings where Oliver Cromwell argued with many sides over a new constitution. It’s presented as an extraordinary missed opportunity, where rights that we take for granted today – the right to property, for example – were argued for but ultimately dismissed for fear that it would lead England into ‘confusion’. This section could be dry as a desert, but in Churchill’s hands it’s electrifying.
Turner keeps a short rein on the production, so the lengthy debates are taut and fresh, although the second half, repeating the first half’s form, does begin to sag a little. In her designs, Es Devlin has created what must be the biggest table ever seen on a London stage. As gowned nobles sit and eat a rich feast, the real people trample on top of it. Bruno Poet’s use of bright, warm lighting and Helen Chadwick’s songs sung by a community company along with the cast seduce us into seeing an England alive with possibility. It all looks and sounds gorgeous.
‘Light Shining in Buckinghamshire’ is no easy ride. But Turner’s production brings out the best in Churchill’s text, making the 300-year-old events relevant, so they subtly nag at us to reconsider our political system. It’s a great production of a demanding, tricky but enlightening play.