Apologia *** TNT
There’s some nifty writing in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s new play – and some pretty good acting, too - but there are also some jarringly manoeuvred exits and entrances which disturb the flow of respected art historian Kristin’s birthday get-together. Not that things are going particularly smoothly anyway – she’s a sharp, intellectually shrewd Left Winger, still campaigning in her sixties, who won’t say something kind if she can deliver an insult instead.
She hasn’t been much of a mother, either, and her recently published memoirs don’t even mention her two sons. So, not surprisingly, things are rather tense when her older son Peter (a banker) arrives to introduce his new fiancée Trudi, an over-enthusiastic American with a strong Christian belief.
Then there’s TV soap actress Claire (Nina Sosanya) in her designer dress, unaccompanied by her partner, failed novelist Simon.He arrives later, and the midnight confrontation between him and his mother forms the still, central section of the piece – a moving account of a pivotal childhood memory epitomising her habitual absence whilst she was busy pursuing her career and political protests.
Sarah Goldberg’s kind, wholesome Trudi is the polar opposite of Paola Dionisotti’s brittle Kristin, and John Light crumbles affectingly as the damaged Simon. But it’s Philip Voss’s camp Hugh, (Kristin’s loyal, protective old friend and fellow marcher), whose expertly timed one-liners get the biggest laughs as he tries, with limited success, to forge some understanding between the differing ideals of different generations.
Bush Theatre, Shepherds Bush Green, W12 8QD, (020 8743 5050) till 18th July (£15)
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