Toyer ** TNT
Things get surprisingly hot and steamy in this nasty psychological thriller, a deeply unpleasant two-hander which tries to keep you guessing. It’s a tricky feat to pull off – with only a couple of protagonists, the twists (even if you can’t guess exactly what they’ll be) can only go one way, then the other.
Unfortunately, American Gardner McKay (who died in 2001) wasn’t a sufficiently skilful writer to let the audience make its own deductions when the tables turn, and frequently falls into the trap of adding cumbersome explanation to what is already obvious.
With a mysterious serial sadist on the loose, Maude (Alice Krige) really should know better than to let a stranger into her remote LA apartment – especially as she’s the psychiatrist dealing with the trail of crudely lobotomised female victims he’s left in his psychopathic wake. But when Al Weaver’s boyishly gangly Peter fixes her car, she not only opens the door to him but beds him too, despite his disconcertingly creepy behaviour.
It all makes for a pretty unpleasant experience which aims to shock and titillate, and one can only feel for the two performers who, night after night, are called upon to act out this implausible game of cat and mouse.
Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, WC2 (0845 017 5584) until 21st March (£ 22.50-£29.50)
No comments:
Post a Comment