Gripping, intense... believable?
Just back from Ravens: Spassky vs. Fischer at the Hampstead.
I remember this as the Cold War being played out in Iceland, with Spassky the boring Russian chess automaton, heir to 25 years of Russian chess dominance, a leading part of their chess machine, and Fischer the plucky (and flaky) US Challenger.
It was only later that quite how flaky really came out (even though the arguments about chairs, and location, and noise was all part of the chess coverage, even then).
The Cold War element is brought out as Kissinger offers creepy encouragement by phone, and Spassky’s seconds bring back word from Moscow.
In the play, Fischer is played both as the high functioning Asperger’s and the paranoid schizophrenic different observers diagnosed him as – and Spassky as a basically decent man sent over the edge by Fischer’s unreasonableness.
This is a play about Fischer, really; indeed being all about him met his own solipsistic Weltanschauung – excellently and scarily acted by Robert Emms (the whole cast didn’t put a foot wrong).
The set is simple – set changes at times strangely like chess pieces being moved around a board – but effective. The games (which could have been stultifyingly dull if played out) are actually exciting – and the use of small and contemporary TV screens to map out moves and scores works effectively.
This is a play which makes you think (but hardly about the actual chess games save for one, where Fischer’s ability to play in an entirely novel fashion suggests why in the end (spoiler alert for youngsters) he won).
Well worth seeing.