Underneath the Lintel - TNT
26th February 2007
The West Wing's Richard Schiff forsakes the corridors of power to play an isolated misfit, a Dutch librarian who embarks on a worldwide quest when a Baedeker's travel guide is returned 113 years overdue. It's an unusual idea and, initially, as he pins his exhibits — a tattered pair of trousers, a laundry ticket — on the board behind him, it promises an intriguing evening of surreal sleuthing. But American playwright Glen Berger doesn't really know where to take his itinerant obsessive and, like the fate of the mythical Wandering Jew whom he believes he's traced, the 90-minute monologue eventually fizzles out in an unfocused 'meaning of life' meander.
LOUISE KINGSLEY
Tuesday 27 February 2007
The Man of Mode - TNT
26th February 2007
George Etherege's 1676 Restoration comedy comes bang up to date in Nicholas Hytner's slick, stylishly conceived restaging. It's a heartless tale of the dangers of falling for a self-confessed lothario who sends love letters by email and always has his camera phone at the ready. About to be dumped, Mrs Loveit becomes the proprietor of an upmarket lingerie boutique, and Lady Townley lends her name to a swanky London bar in a superficial society where sex and money are everything. Designer Vicki Mortimer does it proud. Not all the performances are quite up to scratch in the demanding Olivier space, but Bertie Carvel impresses as ice-cold Dorimant's gay confidant and Rory Kinnear's gullible, overdressed Sir Fopling Flutter steals the show, adding a soupçon of vulnerability to his blissfully comic preening.
26th February 2007
George Etherege's 1676 Restoration comedy comes bang up to date in Nicholas Hytner's slick, stylishly conceived restaging. It's a heartless tale of the dangers of falling for a self-confessed lothario who sends love letters by email and always has his camera phone at the ready. About to be dumped, Mrs Loveit becomes the proprietor of an upmarket lingerie boutique, and Lady Townley lends her name to a swanky London bar in a superficial society where sex and money are everything. Designer Vicki Mortimer does it proud. Not all the performances are quite up to scratch in the demanding Olivier space, but Bertie Carvel impresses as ice-cold Dorimant's gay confidant and Rory Kinnear's gullible, overdressed Sir Fopling Flutter steals the show, adding a soupçon of vulnerability to his blissfully comic preening.
Tuesday 20 February 2007
The Dumb Waiter / Pinter's People - TNT
19th February 2007
Two different approaches to Pinter yield very different results. Fourteen sketches of varying length are over-emphatically delivered by Bill Bailey and a trio of mugging actors. With a couple of tantalising exceptions, the effect is crude and relentlessly unfunny and Pinter's People proves a tedious chore. Far better to opt for the 55 minute long Dumb Waiter in which Jason Isaacs (Malfoy senior in the Harry Potter films) exudes just the right degree of edginess, barely kept under control, as a hitman awaiting his unknown victim. And Lee Evans is comically inventive — and equally impressive — as his shambolic sidekick in a squalidly atmospheric production which oozes disquieting menace.
Trafalgar Studios (1), Whitehall, SW1 (0870-060 6632). Until March 24
Theatre Royal Haymarket, Haymarket, SW1 (0870-380 2003). Until February 23
LOUISE KINGSLEY
Two different approaches to Pinter yield very different results. Fourteen sketches of varying length are over-emphatically delivered by Bill Bailey and a trio of mugging actors. With a couple of tantalising exceptions, the effect is crude and relentlessly unfunny and Pinter's People proves a tedious chore. Far better to opt for the 55 minute long Dumb Waiter in which Jason Isaacs (Malfoy senior in the Harry Potter films) exudes just the right degree of edginess, barely kept under control, as a hitman awaiting his unknown victim. And Lee Evans is comically inventive — and equally impressive — as his shambolic sidekick in a squalidly atmospheric production which oozes disquieting menace.
Trafalgar Studios (1), Whitehall, SW1 (0870-060 6632). Until March 24
Theatre Royal Haymarket, Haymarket, SW1 (0870-380 2003). Until February 23
LOUISE KINGSLEY
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