Nothing can separate David Tennant and Michael Sheen. Not even a global pandemic. In full confinement, the two actors have found a way to shoot a series together. Absolutely hilarious.
What is it about ?
Confined due to the health crisis as they prepared to go on stage, two famous English actors are forced to stay at home. Their director convinces them to resume their rehearsal… in video; not an easy task for these two artists, used to burning the boards and not always techno-compatible.
Who is it with?
We no longer present Michael Sheen and David Tennant. The first was revealed to the general public by interpreting Prime Minister Tony Blair in The Queen by Stephen Frears and has since played in a number of hits such as Twilight, Frost / Nixon or Masters of Sex.
The second was one of the most successful incarnations of Doctor Who, an unsympathetic but nevertheless tenacious cop in Broadchurch, a manipulative pervert in Jessica Jones… And together they played the angel Aziraphale and the demon Rampa in Good Omens, delightful mini-series by Neil Gaiman.
What is it worth?
Might as well announce it right away: Staged is a UFO! Consisting of two relatively short seasons – six and eight 22-minute episodes – this comedy is unlike anything comparable. It is often under duress that art seeks crossroads to express itself.
And this is precisely the case with Staged. Written and directed by Simon Evans, this sitcom shot in full during the first confinement makes the best possible use of an almost total impediment.
Each at home, Michael Sheen and David Tennant exchange and are bored by interposed screens. Simon Evans – who plays a theater director – then offers them to rehearse Pirandello’s play in video, Six characters in search of an author, that they had to play together and whose programming was suspended, confinement obliges. They accept by putting their best bad will into it.
All the success of Staged lies in the simple fact of seeing two huge actors playing brats. They allow themselves what we forbid: whining, bad faith and dirty tricks. A real return to childhood takes place before our eyes on the part of two mature and eminently respected men. Enjoyable.
Truer than nature
Of all the productions, more or less successful, shot during confinement, Staged is the most realistic. Simon Evans takes advantage of the economy of means and plays on the multi-screen that has now interfered in our daily lives.
The camera sounds more real than life. The family home becomes a workplace. And private life always bursts at the worst moment in professional life. The exercise is all the more successful as the respective wives of Tennant and Sheen participate in the series and play their own roles.
A few cutaways come to relieve a staging that would be too heavy if it only passed through the prism of the webcam. The camera then films the abandoned squares of London, deserts haunted by a few pigeons.
And for the pleasure of the televiewer, some stars come to pass a head on the screen. We are thus entitled to selected numbers by Samuel L. Jackson, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett.
The other charming asset of Staged lies in the accents. The Welshman Michael Sheen and the Scottish David Tennant happily deconfine their intonations and have fun with the restive sounds of their respective native languages.
Capillary in the abandonment, Michael Sheen looks like a satyr with the paces of dominant while David Tennant gives rather in the a little cowardly Droopy. Everything is false. Everything rings true. The absurd prevails over reason. It’s a big rubbish completely futile but which quickly turns out to be essential.