The Hard Problem – The National Theatre, London

I liked this play.  I felt that at times it was slightly like a soap opera, but in a good way: lots of action, interesting characters and a bit of conflict.  There were a few critics who didn’t seem to enjoy it, or at least didn’t think it was Tom Stoppard’s best work, but to be honest you can’t write Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead every time, and this was a perfectly enjoyable night out.

The premise is a complicated one, the eponymous Hard Problem.  It centres on Cartesian duality of mind and body: do we have a soul separate from our body?  If we do, where does it come from?  If not, should we worry about what this means, or just get on with things?  The concepts are represented by characters for and against, namely the sweet and hopeful Hilary, a scientist who says bedtime prayers, and Spike, who is a bit of an arse and does not.  I won’t give too much away about the plot as this was the play’s debut run, but suffice it to say there are plot developments, a shouty American boss, some soul searching, and a good finish.  Some of the dialogue was genuinely very funny, even if at times it felt like the characters were talking at each other rather than with each other, like those two guys on Masterchef.

The staging contributed to my enjoyment of the piece.  During the interludes and scene changes the area above the stage took over, with a tangle of tubes with lights whizzing and flashing, and a piano accompaniment.  It contributed to my consideration of the themes of the play, with the lights representing neurons and the workings of the brain, and also a little wondering I had at one point about whether the idea was that classical music is often quite mathematically regimented, but there is something within us, whether soul or otherwise, which interprets it as something of beauty.

The standard of the acting was generally pretty high.  Olivia Vinall as Hilary got a lot out of a character who might be grating in the wrong hands, Damien Molony made a good unsympathetic Spike, and the other supporting characters contributed much to the play overall.  Perhaps aside from the American boss, who might have slightly been overdoing it.  I think the good acting, as well as the enjoyable production overall, was probably down at least in part to the fact that this was Nicholas Hytner’s outgoing play, and one in fact which continued its run after his departure.  It may not be Stoppard’s best, or Hytner’s best for all I know, but I found it very entertaining and well worth the visit to the National.