Late Company - Review

Finborough Theatre, London

****

Written by Jordan Tannahill

Directed by Michael Yale

Lucy Robinson, Lisa Stevenson, David Leopold

Late Company is a modern tale of domestic devastation. A compelling Canadian drama that sees Debora and Michael Shaun-Hastings (she's an artist , he an MP) struggling to cope with the suicide of their tormented teenage son Joel, their only child, some months previously. 

Set around the dinner table of the bereaved parents, their guests for the evening are Bill and Tamara Dermot together with their son Curtis, a peer of Joel’s at school and the ringleader of the bullies who had taunted him to his death.

The one act work lasts for an intense 70 minutes that pass with excruciating speed. The bereaved grief of the Shaun-Hastings is palpable in so many different ways - Where Todd Boyce's Michael has plausibly attempted to get on with his life, to the extent of concealing aspects of Joel's difficulties from his wife, Lucy Robinson's Debora is still raw with pain. 

Much like King Lear's final moments, Robinson breathes a recognisable howl into the unimaginable pain of such a tragic bereavement - retelling in a letter that she has written to Curtis, the incomprehensible pain of discovering her son dead in a bathtub. There is not a shred of melodrama in Robinson's work, simply a performance of carefully crafted grief and emotion that has to rank amongst the finest in London.

There's stunning work too from David Leopold's Curtis, who in a character that is not afforded much dialog to work with, delivers a startling depiction of sullen teenage inarticulacy. Leopold takes Curtis on a journey that starts with awkward shame and ends in profound and sincere regret for his actions. His is perhaps the evening's most complex of characters to portray and he delivers perfectly. 

Lisa Stevenson and Alex Lowe as the Dermot parents similarly turn in assured interpretations of complex characters. Offering an understandable thread of sympathy for the Shaun-Hasting's loss yet still with their own primal defence of Curtis, there's a troubling resonance to their responses around the dinner table. Clumsy yet conventional in their view of the world, we may not all have encountered folk who bear the pain of the Shaun-Hastings, but we can all recognise the Dermots.

Michael Yale directs his company with an incisive sensitivity, with Zahra Mansouri's set proving as economic as it is effective - the tiny cockpit of the Finborough lending itself perfectly to the stifling intimacy of this particular dinner.

Late Company examines grief, shame, parenthood and marriage alongside a backdrop of the all pervading, corrosive power of the internet and social media, particularly upon the young. The play also proposes an argument suggesting that bad deeds are not necessarily committed by bad people,

Not an easy night at the theatre, but Late Company makes for compelling, essential drama. 

Runs until 20th May

Photo credit: Charlie Round-Turner

The Great Gatsby

Wilton's Music Hall , London

****

Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Adapted for the stage and directed by Peter Joucla

Eleanor Howell and Kyle Redmond-Jones

The Great Gatsby returns to Wilton’s Music Hall, marking the hall’s recently completed restoration with a revival of the 2012 production, last staged just before the venue closed for repair. Whilst the  impressive auditorium has been mended and plastered, Wilton's remains a work in progress and this underlying sense of chic dilapidation adds a curious sense of credibility to the decaying world in which F. Scott Fitzgerald set his adulterous tale of repressed love in 1920s  New York state.

The staging is simple but inspired. Minimal use of props and effective lighting denote the locations that shift from Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s mansion, to Gatsby’s palatial home across the bay, to the Wilson’s grubby garage. In an inspired move, the parties at Gatsby’s home, attended in the novel by hoardes of vacuous freeloaders, are represented at Wilton’s by the house lights coming up and the cast walking amongst the rows of seats, suggesting that the audience of several hundred are Gatsby’s nameless guests. Music and vocals, either background or period songs are, with the exception of an occasional harmonica, all un-mic’d a-cappella. The cast are vocally excellent, providing an effective occasional musical backcloth that impressively includes even a snatch of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Lead chaacters drop in and out of the ensemble as needed, donning owl-like black rimmed specs, a neat nod to the novel’s description of oculist Dr Eckleburg’s advertising hoarding spectacles, when assuming singing responsibilitites

The cast are grand throughout. As Gatsby, Kyle Redmond-Jones maintains the affected air of the mysterious millionaire perfectly. Looking like a refined Matt Damon, he surveys the crowds at his parties with appropriate aloofness whilst his “old sport” mannerisms are delivered with such clipped yet gentle precision that it easy to understand how Eleanor Howell’s fragile Daisy could be in love with the enigmatic recluse, especially when he is compared to her boorish philandering husband Tom. Howell portrays Daisy’s misery with profound perception and when she speaks of knowing, even on her wedding day, that her marriage to Tom was a loveless void, the sadness is excruciating. Christopher Brandon plays Tom skilfully, without hamming up the bad-guy role, getting the tone of his character’s contemptible racist hypocrisy, just right.

Nick Chambers and Vicki Campbell are respectively Nick, the novel’s narrator and Jordan, Daisy’s long time friend. The role of Nick is particularly challenging, effectively being the lens through which these unhappy vignettes are played out. Chambers though does a good job, adding just enough colour to the part to earn his character some modest sympathy. Campbell is a talented actress who fleshes out her supporting role with a harsh perspective on reality.

The use of the auditorium is clever with action spilling into both gallery and stalls, although a pivotal moment of the storyline, in which an imprisoned Myrtle Wilson spies Tom driving Gatsby's car, is blurred over in the dramatic action of this piece. As is often the case with seeing The Great Gatsby on stage, a familiarity with the story whilst not essential, is encouraged.

Peter Joucla’s direction impresses and the Charleston era is reinforced by Zahra Mansouri’s intelligent costume design that elegantly depict flappers and mobsters whilst avoiding overstatement. This site-specific production is well crafted with a pre-show that kicks off an hour before curtain up in Wilton’s speakeasy bar skilfully setting both time and mood. With period dress encouraged to be worn by the audience, an early arrival is recommended for a show that is yet another example of London’s off-West End excellence.


Runs to 23 March 2013