If you've ever wondered what might have happened to John Osborne's angry young man, Jimmy Porter, when he reached middle age, look no further than his 1964 portrait of Bill Maitland, a dyspeptic solicitor in meltdown who has no respect for anyone, least of all himself, and relies on a diet of booze, pills and insults to get him through the working day.
It's a monster gift of a part and Douglas Hodge is superb. Raddled, rude, yet still, somehow, able to pull the much younger birds who work at his office (its depressing clutter realistically captured in Soutra Gilmour’s murky design) he relentlessly picks on his junior (Al Weaver), has, with the knowledge of his wife, a devoted longterm mistress and treats the divorcing women he represents with a curt crassness which surely heralds the imminent collapse of his firm.
Osborne sometimes seems to have forgotten that he was writing a play as Maitland's rants become longer and more disconnected. But, as his mediocre life implodes in a nightmare of his own making, and colleagues, family and clients desert him, Hodge's tormented performance holds Jamie Lloyd's well acted production together with a mix of self-loathing, self-pity and vicious wit.
Donmar to 26th Nov
It's a monster gift of a part and Douglas Hodge is superb. Raddled, rude, yet still, somehow, able to pull the much younger birds who work at his office (its depressing clutter realistically captured in Soutra Gilmour’s murky design) he relentlessly picks on his junior (Al Weaver), has, with the knowledge of his wife, a devoted longterm mistress and treats the divorcing women he represents with a curt crassness which surely heralds the imminent collapse of his firm.
Osborne sometimes seems to have forgotten that he was writing a play as Maitland's rants become longer and more disconnected. But, as his mediocre life implodes in a nightmare of his own making, and colleagues, family and clients desert him, Hodge's tormented performance holds Jamie Lloyd's well acted production together with a mix of self-loathing, self-pity and vicious wit.
Donmar to 26th Nov
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