Star
rating - 8/10
A chess match does not perhaps make the most obvious
subject matter for a play - but then The
Machine by writer Matt Charman, is really about a power struggle; a battle
of wills; two brilliant people pitted against each other. And it's also about
the role technology and machines increasingly play in our lives, and in that
respect it is very though provoking.
Chess Grand Master Gary Kasparov and his battle against a
computer in 1997 New York is the setting, although it feels more like an
American football game with all its surrounding razzamatazz that gets the
audience involved from the off. The cleverly designed set is both a giant television
set for the contest, and also the setting for the flashbacks through the lives
of both Kasparov, and the team who built the machine, Deep Blue. Everyone, including
Kasparov himself thought he would beat the machine hands down, but the moment
he realised that there were actually brilliant minds who had created Deep Blue,
he was in for a battle royal.
Hadley Fraser is Kasparov, and Kenneth Lee plays
Feng-Hsiung Hsu, the brains behind the giant computer. Their chess moves are at
times more of a ballet, at times a gladiatorial contest, which is ingeniously
staged by Director Josie Rourke from the Donmar Warehouse. Francesca Annis
shows what a quality actor she is with her performance as Clara, Gary's mother,
the driving force behind his success. There is a large cast with incredibly
technical lines, not to mention chess moves, to memorise, but they pull it off
with panache.
The setting, the wonderful Campfield Market Hall, is a
real hidden gem, and although on another sultry summer evening it's lack of air
conditioning and temporary seating do not make for the most comfortable of environments, the drama
more than makes up for any passing inconvenience. The play goes on to New
York after the Manchester International Festival, and I hope they find it just
as engrossing and thrilling as the Manchester audiences clearly have.
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