Tartuffe
Theatre Royal Haymarket, London Until Jul 28 2hrs 20mins
This version of Molière’s classic comedy is said to be the ‘first ever dual-language production’ in the West End, the cast alternating between English and French, with surtitles in both languages. Europhiles will love the idea… until they see it.
Molière’s glorious 1664 satire about blind faith and rank hypocrisy features a zealous family man, Orgon, who is so besotted with a religious fake, Tartuffe, that he invites him to move in. The slimy Tartuffe duly fleeces him of his house, money and (almost) his wife.
Not only do we have two languages going on, the action has been time-warped to Los Angeles.
Paul Anderson (above with Audrey Fleurot) looks hopelessly awkward as fake god-botherer Tartuffe and Sebastian Roché gives an equally boring performance as Orgon
Orgon is a French tycoon with bilingual kids, and Tartuffe is a radical evangelist with a Deep South accent, in yet another play about Trump’s America.
It might just have got away with it had the cast been any good. But Paul Anderson (from Peaky Blinders), as Tartuffe, looks hopelessly awkward as the fake god-botherer, and Sebastian Roché gives an equally boring performance as Orgon.
Neither ever basks in this play’s mocking relish of human gullibility.
Orgon’s wife, Elmire, is played by Fleurot (above, again, with Anderson), star of TV’s Spiral. Her English is a lot better than my French but she spews her lines horribly
Orgon’s wife, Elmire, is played by Audrey Fleurot, star of TV’s Spiral. Her English is a lot better than my French but she spews her lines horribly.
George Blagden, as Orgon’s infuriated son, is best known as Louis XIV in the TV series Versailles – the same king in whose reign the play found success.
Intimate scenes in Gérald Garutti’s production make use of a David Blaine-style perspex box in which everyone sounds as if they are underwater. I rather wish they had been.
Those prone to neck pain, beware. My head was going up and down like a dashboard toy dog trying to watch the French actors and read the English surtitles simultaneously.
Christopher Hampton’s translation struck me as wordy, the cast unhappy and, as for making me laugh… absolument pas.
The Grönholm Method
Menier Chocolate Factory, London Until Jul 7 1hr 30mins
Rating: 
Written by Jordi Galceran, this Spanish play has been a hugely popular hit in 60 countries.
From this London premiere, you can see why. It’s a slick entertainment about corporate recruitment – with a whodunnit feel and a touch of The Apprentice.
Four high-powered applicants arrive at a Manhattan office for a final interview for a senior management role.
This is a slick entertainment about corporate recruitment – with a whodunnit feel and a touch of The Apprentice. Above: Laura Pitt-Pulford and Jonathan Cake
An anonymous message reveals that one of them is an HR employee placed there to observe the others. But who’s the rat?
A good cast helps enormously. Of the contestants, Jonathan Cake is a joy as the smirking cynic.
John Gordon Sinclair is the affable one, offering Tic Tacs. Greg McHugh is the dark horse, while Laura Pitt-Pulford flexes a spine of steel.
Profound? Hardly. It’s not even got that much to say about the white-fang corporate ethos it satirises.
But it takes you on a bracing ride of nasty surprises, and there’s no way you’d want to leave this without knowing the outcome.
The Rink
Southwark Playhouse, London Until Jun 23 2hrs 20mins
Rating: 
How many musicals feature rollerskating? More than you’d think: Starlight Express, of course.
Also the campy Xanadu, revived by this same venue a few years ago, and this too makes nostalgic use of an old glitterball.
This show from 1984 (when it starred Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli and got lacklustre reviews) is from the fabled pens of Kander and Ebb, best known for the earlier monster hits Cabaret and Chicago.
As Anna, Caroline O’Connor (above with Gemma Sutton) takes the part by the scruff of the neck and never lets go from the very beginning
While this has some of the same belt-it-out showbiz oomph, it has a less bombastic, more personal storyline (book by Terrence McNally).
Kander and Ebb shows have strong female leads. Here Anna is a wisecracking, tough Italian American woman who has run the failing skating venue in tough times and raised a rebellious daughter alone.
When long-estranged Angel returns, flashbacks and reflective numbers tease out their strained mother-daughter relationship.
As Anna, Caroline O’Connor takes the part by the scruff of the neck and never lets go from the very beginning.
Gemma Sutton’s Angel matches her for strength of lung-busting delivery, and Adam Lenson’s tight production in general has great verve.
So what about the rollerskating? There’s not a lot of space here so credit to choreographer Fabian Aloise for staging the title number with a lively chorus of six men dancing and rolling on skates with some athletic moves. It raises the roof.
This may not have much complexity of plot or the great show tunes of Chicago and Cabaret, but the cast still gives us a bit of the old razzle-dazzle.
Mark Cook