What's so great about the truth? Try lying for a change

The latest in an occasional series of play reviews...

Closer : The Lyric Theatre

The last play I wrote about premiered in 1896, which even I don't quite remember - but I do remember this one premiering in London, although I was surprised it was as long ago as 1997.  I never saw it then and I've not seen the film either, so I was coming to this relatively blind.  I did know that it was a highly regarded four-hander though, which is why I made the last minute decision to book to see it (I didn't even know it was on until Tommo posted some pictures from his posh box seats on Facebook, so you'd have to say their advertising could have been better).

The play follows four people as they interact romantically (and not so romantically) over a period of a few years - I think it believes itself to be a hard-hitting look at the sex, truth and power dynamic, with a side helping of comedy to lighten the load.  Dan loves Alice, or does he love Anna, who's married to Larry, who rebounds to Alice, and so on.  And on, and on.  To be honest, a lot of it feels pretty unbelievable - there is some great dialogue scattered in there but I also felt that a lot of it was irrelevant or even fatuous, and I suspect that some of the younger members of the audience were left massively perplexed by much of what they saw - "Dad, did people actually used to be like this?"

Part of the problem is that Dan and Larry are - how do I describe them using suitable critical phrasing?  Well, they're just utter dicks really, with so little going for them that you struggle to imagine them attracting the attention of any women, let alone the two they happen to share a stage with.  The play is also OBSESSED with orgasms - characters were always asking each other how many times they came, which did get somewhat tiresome (particularly because one woman in the audience found it HILARIOUS every time).  

A lot of the dialogue feels like it's intended to shock in a "telling it like it is" way - but well, it just ain't.  It often just feels a bit forced and/or dated - particularly in the internet sex chat scene which is played well for laughs (and the whole play was funnier than I was expecting), but feels like it really could have been brought more up-to-date.  Having said all that, I really liked the last ten minutes of the play - it went somewhere I wasn't expecting and left me with some regret that the rest of the thing wasn't more like that.

The actors generally did their best with what they were given - I'd call out Sam Troughton as Larry (I thought I recognised him and he was in Chernobyl, which is fantastic if you've not seen it) and Nina Toussaint-White as Anna (she was in Eastenders, apparently) as the pick of the bunch - but I also think they were the best roles.  Jack Farthing as Dan (who appears in the film I'm currently watching for my Guardian exercise) was fine, but felt like he struggled at times to be quite enough of a dick for the character and Ella Hunt as Alice does the best she can (including walking about in some very high heels) in what is a bit of a one-dimensional sexual fantasy role, quite obviously written by a man - she's not quite an MPDG, but she's pretty damn close.

I also have to mention the chorus who don't have any lines but instead "act" (by which I generally mean sit) in the background to provide additional scenery - they're like extras for the play.  It initially feels a bit odd, but you soon just accept they're there - and they double up as stagehands when required, so it all works quite well. 

The direction was well done - there are several scenes which are multiple discussions running in parallel with the same physical space representing either different locations or times which work particularly well.  The use of relatively modern music (I recognised Portishead and Bjork) in places was also effective - Wikipedia tells me that classical music is most commonly used for this play, but the more up-to-date stuff being sung by Alice worked well.  And the setting and lighting was also impressive with minimal props being used effectively to represent different locations (although I'm not sure why all the musical instruments were on the stage).

I've not been to the Lyric in Hammersmith before and I'd have to say I really quite liked it - outside, it's a nice, modern spacious feel (with a very fine roof bar) and inside, it's a plush, traditional theatre with reasonable amounts of legroom and I didn't notice any restricted view seats.  It doesn't have air conditioning though (apparently they have "air handling", whatever that is) so it was pretty warm last night (and I was glad I picked Monday's show rather than Wednesday's).  It also doesn't attract the punters to their seats early - I rocked up 20 minutes before the show started and was the second person in there (but it meant I got some good pics).  

The other thing they have to be commended on is the seat prices - top whack for this show was £45.  Yes, you're not in the West End but top priced tickets for both The Seagull and The Glass Menagerie were £150 which, last time I looked, was quite a bit of cash (I mean, it'll fill your car up, so it's beyond the reach of most of us these days).

Overall, I'd say I enjoyed the experience of this play without particularly enjoying the play.  It felt like this version did the best it could with the original source material but some judicious updating of some sections would have elevated it for me in terms of relevance and relatability (is that a word?) for today's audience.  I'm quite tempted to watch the film to compare - I suspect this will feel super-dated, but it was eighteen years ago now.  I really liked the theatre though and will look to head back (but only once the temperature drops a bit).

The Seagull - some very odd decisions made here
Mad House - much more enjoyable than I was expecting