8/17/2013 – It's called The Machine and it played in July in Manchester. If you live in America you can catch it at the Park Avenue Armory in September. And maybe you are going to have to, since it appears to be a well-made, dramatically compelling stage production that captures the atmosphere of the monumental battle between man and machine. Allan Beardsworth caught it in Manchester – here's his review.
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The Machine – a play based on Kasparov vs Deep Blue
Review by Allan Beardsworth
This review is about The Machine, a new play by Matt Charman about
the 1997 rematch between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, which Kasparov lost
narrowly and harrowingly. The match was a tipping point, the crossover:
since then, engine supremacy in chess has become undoubted.
Playwright Matt Charman, who wrote The Machine
Producer and director Josie Rourke (photo Hugo
Glendinning)
The play was premiered at the recent Manchester International Festival,
a biennial fortnight of theatre and the Arts performed throughout the city.
It now moving to New York. It was produced by Josie Rourke, with Hadley
Fraser playing Garry, and Kenneth Lee playing Feng-Hsiung Hsu.
My chess-widow wife Jane gamely agreed to come along, though some of our
friends declined to watch a play about chess. Jane's strategy was well calculated:
if the play was awful, she would have an anecdote to use against me for
the rest of our lives; and if the play was good, she would have had a nice
evening out. As it was, the play was great. Yes it was all about chess,
but it was also about the human struggle and the development of machines.
Firstly, the venue was a great success. The Manchester International Festival
staged it in the Campfield Market Hall (picture above), an empty building,
kitted out wonderfully for this event. Part of the success of MIF is that
most of the events take place in unusual venues: I pass the market hall
more or less every working day, but never gave it any notice. As an interior
space, it was excellent for a theatrical production.
The set looks like a TV studio, and right from the start, in fact before
the start, the audience is given that impression. As the audience gathers
in the half an hour or so before the play formally starts, there are occasional
and increasing tannoy announcements about when filming is due to start,
cameramen test their equipment, officials come out and check the board and
pieces etc: the drama begins to build up prior to the play starting: somehow,
you knew it was going to be good.
Hadley Fraser as Garry Kasparov in The Machine
(all stage photos by Helen Maybanks)
Kenneth Lee as Feng-Hsiung Hsu in The Machine
Secondly, no knowledge of chess nor the match is needed. It was framed
as a fight between two people, Garry and the chief programmer Hsu; about
how programming took over Hsu's life; about how both people are used by
big business: IBM refused Garry a third match, because their commercial
aims had been fully met by their victory, so they has all to lose, and nothing
to gain, from playing one further time.
The set is excellent. Lighting is strong, using a 'railway track' on the
floor for very good dramatic effect, bringing on at different stages a number
of chess sets (to flick back to simultaneous displays – flash backs
to Garry's childhood and to other times is key to how the play is structured)
and the chess scenes are well done: a mixture of some real moves, and then
theatrical gestures and movement. The combined effect is very strong.
Nigel Short? Really?? Cornelius Booth and Phil Nicol
in The Machine
I couldn't fault the actors. They were well cast, and whilst Nigel Short
and in particular Joel Benjamin won't like how they are portrayed, their
characters makes for good theatre. Nigel is show as a bald, tweed jacketed
English country gentleman; he raised a laugh, but far from the true Nigel.
Joel, played by Brian Sills (above) is an emotional, vain character: he
is also portrayed as being a weak GM, in awe of Garry, amazed when Garry
offered him a draw in their 1994 Credit Suisse Masters game, wanting Garry
to sign the scoresheet so he could have Garry's autograph – generally
Joel is given a harsh portrayal, but it has dramatic purpose.
There is a question left open as to whether Deep Blue got assistance in
the second game, the inference my wife drawing being that it did, from Joel.
Other non chess playing friends who have been to see it also thought that
this was the inference the audience is meant to be given, or that the assistance
was by Karpov, who appears on stage at a key moment.
Hadley Fraser as Garry Kasparov and Francesca
Annis as Clara Kasparova
John Ramm as Owen Williams in The Machine at
MIF
I tried to resist watching the play as a chess player, and instead sought
to follow it purely as a theatre-goer. That was of course well nigh impossible:
I was really pleased that the production got the chess more or less right,
and any departures were minimal and inconsequential. In particular, Hadley
Fraser moved the pieces around 'like a proper chess player', and both he
and Kenneth Lee had clearly memorised the starting moves of several of the
games (first five or six moves, sometimes more), and all the moves of the
fateful sixth game. Most impressive, I thought; and I also loved the dramatic
way the players portrayed the other moves of the other games – very
physical, but totally fitting with the mood and pace of the play.
The play is now moving to New York, being shown at the Park
Avenue Armory from 4th to 18th September. If you can get to see it,
do so. There are previews on September 4–5 at 7:30 p.m. and then regular
staging from September 6–17 on Tuesday & Thursday at 7:30 p.m.,
Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m., Friday 8:00 p.m., Saturday 2:00
p.m. & 8:00 p.m., Sunday 2:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m., and Sunday, Wednesday,
September 18 2:00 p.m. Tickets start at $45, preview tickets at $25.
Interview with director Josie Rourke at the
MIF13 programme
About
the author
Allan Beardsworth, 50, was a strong junior chess player,
learning the game because of Fischer-Spassky in 1972. His first clubmate
was Nigel Short, three years his junior, who followed Allan to his senior
school, and a lifetime of friendship has been the result, including playing
for England Juniors together. In 2004 and 2006 he captained the England’s
mens’ teams in the Olympiads.
Allan is now a tax partner at Deloittes, Manchester, and with the demands
of work and family is now only a keen internet blitz player and follower
of chess: His 2012 rapidplay rating was 2466, although it is based on only
the one tournament he plays each year. Allan suspects his true current rating
is a couple of hundred points lower. For many years he has sponsored chess
in the UK. His biggest fear in chess now is not knowing how strong (or rather,
weak) he will be when he retires and finally has time to resume playing
over the board.
Allan is a great friend of the ChessBase news page – hardly a day
goes by when we do not receive a message from him, correcting typos or even
the tiniest of errors that have crept into our stories.
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