Freddie Fox is a delight alongside his father Edward in the Wildely charming An Ideal Husband

An Ideal Husband

Vaudeville Theatre, London                                 Until Jul 14       2hrs 45mins 

Rating:

Father and son Edward and Freddie Fox have never acted on stage together before. Here they play a fictional father and son in this sparkler by Oscar Wilde. 

Edward is the fogey earl, Freddie his wastrel, unmarried son, Lord Goring. They drive each other nuts. It’s a bad relationship but a totally sweet double act.

Fox senior played this irascible buffer four years ago, so he’s reheated his performance. Now 81, he’s looking a bit frail beneath his topper, and his voice is so posh that ‘bachelor’ comes out as ‘badger’. 

Father and son Edward and Freddie Fox have never acted on stage together before. Here they play a fogey earl and his wastrel, unmarried son (Freddie is a delight as Lord Goring, above)

Father and son Edward and Freddie Fox have never acted on stage together before. Here they play a fogey earl and his wastrel, unmarried son (Freddie is a delight as Lord Goring, above)

Pallid Freddie proves a delight as the witty young Lord Goring. ‘To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance,’ says this preening dandy who conceals a heart of gold.

Melodrama is fuel-injected by a scarlet woman, Mrs Cheveley. She has a compromising letter that will bring down a politician on the make (Nathaniel Parker) whose fortune is built on a dodgy Suez Canal deal. 

Frances Barber is electric in her scenes with this venal MP, whose choice is to save either his career or his ­marriage to an adoring, deluded wife (Sally Bretton).

Wilde’s theme here is really one of love and the two Foxes play a belter

Susan Hampshire bags plenty of laughs as an aristo whose mad assertions are unarguable

Wilde’s theme here is really one of love and the two Foxes (left) play a belter while Susan Hampshire (right) bags plenty of laughs as an aristo whose mad assertions are unarguable

On a gilt and plush set, Susan Hampshire bags plenty of laughs as an aristo whose mad assertions are unarguable. 

But Wilde’s theme here is really one of love. There are piercing swoops of real feeling as the action reaches a glowingly happy ending that seems unforced.

The two Foxes play a belter in an evening that’s both Wildely charming and warmly recommended. 

 

Nightfall

The Bridge Theatre, London                              Until May 26     2hrs 20mins 

Rating:

It’s always a relief to see a new play set outside the M25. 

Barney Norris’s latest finds us beside a farmhouse near Winchester. There’s a septic tank, a deceased tractor, an even deader crow and an oil pipe running across the property.

The subject here is the shifting family equilibrium following a farmer’s death. (By the sound of him, a psycho farmer who once shot a labrador for trespassing on his grass.)

Rising star Ophelia Lovibond and Sion Daniel Young (above with Ukweli Roach, right) play the children of a recently deceased farmer in Barney Norris's examination of family equilibrium

Rising star Ophelia Lovibond and Sion Daniel Young (above with Ukweli Roach, right) play the children of a recently deceased farmer in Barney Norris’s examination of family equilibrium

The son, Ryan, is keeping things going – just. His mate Pete has come out of prison and they’re siphoning oil from the pipe for ready cash.

Ryan’s kid sister, Lou, has returned to be with their grieving mum, Jenny, who listens to Fleetwood Mac and drinks.

Played by Claire Skinner, Jenny loves the homestead and the way of life it represents.

But to her feckless son (Sion Daniel Young), farming is just ‘pouring chemicals over wheat’. 

 Claire Skinner is the widow, Jenny, who loves the homestead and the way of life it represents while to her son (Young, above with Skinner), farming is just ‘pouring chemicals over wheat’.

 Claire Skinner is the widow, Jenny, who loves the homestead and the way of life it represents while to her son (Young, above with Skinner), farming is just ‘pouring chemicals over wheat’.

The air is thick with uncertainty, anger and the mother’s resentment of Pete (Ukweli Roach), who threatens to steal her daughter away.

Performed in all-purpose rural accents, Laurie Sansom’s production is much enlivened by rising star Ophelia Lovibond as Lou, whose heart is vividly torn.

With swelling music and a set with a moody, spangled sky, the play is packed with sharp, buried emotions that crop up like flint in the Hampshire chalk.

It’s impressive writing. But for my money, Norris too readily conforms to the playwriting rule that farming life must be served with a trailer-load of pessimism. 

 

An Officer And A Gentleman – The Musical

Leicester Curve                                      Touring to Sep 15            2hrs 25mins  

Rating:

This is the musical of the 1982 weepie starring Richard Gere as the bolshie navy pilot who at the end famously scoops Debra Winger’s factory girl off her feet to the strains of Up Where We Belong.

Taylor Hackford’s film is not as corny as is often made out, though. In fact it’s surprisingly gritty and erotic. 

The story of the two youngsters from the wrong side of the tracks falling in love over 13 weeks without either quite admitting to it is oddly compelling.

This is the musical of the 1982 weepie and although Emma Williams and Jonny Fines (above) impress in the lead roles, this stage adaptation lacks any real depth of emotion

This is the musical of the 1982 weepie and although Emma Williams and Jonny Fines (above) impress in the lead roles, this stage adaptation lacks any real depth of emotion

Paula is a factory worker looking for a better life, Zack just wants to fly jets. 

But the film’s blend of romance and Reagan-era, blue-collar tawdriness – it includes a suicide – is swamped here by its choreography and a succession of more than 20 orchestrated Eighties hits, including Material Girl, Kids In America, Girls Just Want To Have Fun and The Final Countdown.

None of the music does the play, co-adapted by original screenwriter Douglas Day Stewart, any good. 

Director Nikolai Foster does, however, extract two decent lead performances from Jonny Fines as Zack and Emma Williams as Paula.

There’s also an expanded role for the only female recruit, here feistily played by Keisha Atwell.

Ray Shell is certainly mean enough as the hard-ass navy training instructor Foley but he’s too old for the part and the set-piece fight between him and Zack is embarrassing.

A toe-tapper for those who want to be smilingly reminded of the movie, its crisp, white navy uniforms and its era. But if you are looking for any real depth of emotion, then this doesn’t get airborne.  

officerandagentlemanmusical.com

 

Not Talking

Arcola Theatre, London                                            Until Jun 2          1hr 15mins

Rating:

When a writer has made it big, going back to their earliest works doesn’t always reap rewards. 

Prolific and successful, Mike Bartlett has given us award-winners King Charles III on stage and Doctor Foster on TV. 

But his first play, for radio, is a lucid four-hander spanning decades and generations that won a major prize and has been adapted by the author for the stage.

Mike Bartlett's first play, for radio, is a lucid four-hander spanning decades and generations. The story hinges not on what is said but what is kept hidden. Above: Lawrence Walker

Mike Bartlett’s first play, for radio, is a lucid four-hander spanning decades and generations. The story hinges not on what is said but what is kept hidden. Above: Lawrence Walker

Four chairs, a piano and pools of light are all that illuminate this cautionary tale hingeing not on what is said but what is kept hidden. 

The relationship between Lucy and James starts to founder when she has a miscarriage (we only hear of it through David Horovitch’s gentle, considerate James), and his stance as a conscientious objector in World War Two embarrasses Lucy (a stoic Kika Markham), though he is oblivious. These evasions have long-reaching consequences.

Mark and Amanda are both squaddies at an Army camp. Gung-ho lad Mark (Lawrence Walker) finds that the macho culture forces him to remain quiet about an incident involving Gemma Lawrence’s strong Amanda that also changes her life.

Deftly directed by James Hillier, the piece builds and ebbs and flows – like the piece of Chopin music that eventually links this quartet – and absorbingly reveals the fallout of staying silent.

Mark Cook

 

Building The Wall

Park Theatre, London                                         Until Jun 2              1hr 20mins 

Robert Schenkkan’s two-hander was a response to the election of Donald Trump, in which he takes his edicts on immigration to an appalling conclusion.

In a Texas prison cell in 2019 we find Rick, an orange-jumpsuited, redneck inmate questioned by Gloria, an African American historian. 

Through a perspex box, the action is transmitted by microphone, lending it an institutionalised, distanced air. The sound of clanging doors and buzzers establish a sense of foreboding.

Robert Schenkkan’s new play is a response to the election of Donald Trump and sees a African-historian (Angela Griffin, above) verbally tussle with an orange-jumpsuited, redneck inmate

Robert Schenkkan’s new play is a response to the election of Donald Trump and sees a African-historian (Angela Griffin, above) verbally tussle with an orange-jumpsuited, redneck inmate

Following a terrorist incident in Times Square, martial law has been declared and immigrants rounded up. Former soldier and Trump supporter Rick is charged with brutal acts at a facility where they are held.

Trevor White is an edgy Rick but the lack of back story for Gloria makes it tough for Angela Griffin to establish a rounded character in this verbal tussle, and Jez Bond’s production is a little too arid and airless to grip as tightly as it might.

Mark Cook  



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