Night of Iguana is billed as Tennessee Williams last
great play and arrives in the West End with a great looking cast for a short season.
Written in 1961 and produced as a film with Richard Burton as the lush
defrocked Anglican priest at the centre of the story it is not as compelling or
bristling with sexual tension as his best known plays, Cat on a hot tin roof
(1955) and Streetcar named desire (1947) which also were made memorable by
films starring Richard Burton and Marlon Brando respectively . This one too
follows a similar theme of a drunken unpleasant male abusing the female
characters in a hot steamy location. Its writing feels dated, and the revival
can't be justified on the basis of a modern classic but does provide a
challenging vehicle for the actors especially those largely film actors
treading the West End boards for a rare outing.
Indeed Anna Gunn as Maxine, the recently widowed
vivacious proprietor of a rundown Mexican bed and breakfast hotel perched on a
cliff side above the sea rises to this challenge in a very fine performance as
she conveys her rampant sexuality, loneliness and hard-nosed reality with
convincing style. Less successful is Clive Owen as the Reverend T Lawrence
Shannon who seeks refuge from a coach load of women he is guiding around Mexico
and a young girl he has slept with. Despite his best efforts he failed to
convince of either his simmering sexuality or being on the edge of a breakdown
by his over the top physical performance. In sharp contrast was the quiet
authority of the wonderful Lia Williams as the penniless artist Hannah
escorting her 97 year "oldest practicing poet on earth”, her grandfather
Nonno (Julian Glover) although they looked more like father and daughter. 
The supporting cast was led by Finty Williams as Judith ,
the aggressively protective passenger threatening Shannon over the statutory
rape of young Charlotte, Emma Canning but also includes a bizarre four German
visitors celebrating the bombing of London which seemed only to provide weak
jokes and locate the play in 1940. Their stereotypical appearances added little
except to prolong the show towards three hours.
The magnificent set design by Rae Smith was immensely
detailed and set the location with the huge cliff face upstage, the dilapidated
rooms and bar in which the action takes place and the steps down to the sea and
parked coach. When the storm breaks and Neil Austin's lighting design creates
the lightening across the cliff face and rain it provides a powerful conclusion
to the first Act. However, at other times when the pace lags the set also
provides a distraction as your eyes wonder to some detail carefully set on
stage.
This is a show that puts high production values on to the
stage, but the isolated lonely broken people gathered together in this setting
are neither attractive or sympathetic and it is only Hannah and Noono who we
care about. It is hard to find anything interesting or relevant in its story
today and leaves you wondering why revive this dated piece at this time and
longing for the stage presence of a Burton or Brando.
Nick Wayne
Three stars
No comments:
Post a Comment