The Graf Spee leaps out of the water and onto the stage from today (Tickets sold out for Thursday and Friday)

Gala Opening: ‘The Drama of the River Plate’ with British actors and famous voices

(from the Uruguayan national newspaper El País, 26/03/09) By Matias Castro (Translation by Paola Fornari)

‘The Drama of the River Plate’ which opens today at the Anglo Theatre, is the first step of a more ambitious project. Written and produced by an ex-diplomat, the play is performed in English by British actors, and will only be staged for three days.

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Jonathan Lamb is an ex-diplomat who fell in love with Uruguay. He worked at the British Embassy between 1984 and 1986. Then he returned to London, and from there was posted to Romania as a representative of Her Majesty’s Government. He returned to his home country in 1993. He then worked in Brussels, and from there he returned to Uruguay.

‘I said “Enough” to European life, and came to live in a lovely climate, with lovely people,’ he says. Now he takes Anglophone tourists on city tours, and sells books on the Internet. He has also written, directed and produced ‘The Bttle of the Graf Spee’, with actors from his home country.

And this is the first step of a more ambitious project, which aims to bring British productions and artists to Montevideo in March every year. For next year, a British choir has all but confirmed that it will come.

The venue for the play could hardly be more suitable: the Millington Drake Hall in the Anglo Theatre. Drake was the British Ambassador to Uruguay when the Graf Spee reached the Uruguayan coast. However, the idea is rather surprising, since the story would lend itself more to a big screen blockbuster (Michael Powell made a memorable film on the subject in 1956) or a novel, rather than the theatre.

The production is described by Lamb as ‘a historic judgement’, directed towards Hans Langsdorff, the captain of the Graf Spee who decided to sink the ship without further ado in the Rio de la Plata. This action brought Langsdorff (played by Robert Ashton) before a judge and a lawyer who asked him what he had done, and what happened during the journey, when he must have known that there was no chance against the huge British fleet which was after him. The judge asks why he decided to attack the British at the end of thejourney when he had technical problems.

‘I think he underestimated the size of the boats: he found himself facing huge battleships,’ says Lamb. Possible answers are offered in the play, which lasts for just an hour. ‘The great thing about this play is that Langsdorff is a tragic hero who makes mistakes and has to face the consequences at a crucial moment in his life, when everything is falling apart, even his reputation, and the members of his crew are dying,’ he adds.

With the help of a number of sponsors, Lamb brought three actors to the Uruguayan stage. In addition, he obtained the voices of three others, who narrate the flashbacks. Amongst these is the voice of the prestigious British actress Imelda Staunton, well-known for her role as Dolores Umbridge in ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ and as the acclaimed ‘Vera Drake’.

In England there is little work for theatre performers, so I wanted them to be able to earn something with this play,’ says Lamb, adding that he plans to propose the piece to the BBC to be adapted to radio. That is why the play only lasts an hour: sixty minutes is the longest a radio play can last.

‘I became interested in this subject through my guided tours of Montevideo with Anglophone tourists. The tours cover local heroes, so we visit statues of Charruas, of Hernandez, Maciel and Artigas. We finish on the Rambla at the statue of Millington Drake, and it always struck me that this was what interested them most. I suppose a lot of them have seen the film,’ he says. So I started doing some research, and having spoken to the Director of the Anglo, he decided to create the play. There will only be four performances here, from today to Sunday, then on Monday it will move to the Cantegrill Hall in Punta del Este, and the following week to Buenos Aires.

For more information on Jonathan’s initiative, see http://www.actorstouruguay.com/

To learn more about the Graf Spee, see http://www.grafspee.com/