After a year since the 1^st lockdown started the green shoots of a full reopening of the UK Theatres are beginning to emerge. After the challenges found in reopening in the autumn 2020 only to be closed again before Christmas it is no wonder some producers are reluctant to make the big commitment to open new shows.

Government steps

Officially if the Government timetable is maintained the steps are:

17^th May- Indoor venues with half capacity up to maximum of 1000.

19th July- Indoor venues fully reopen (delayed from 21st June)

When you look through the list of announced shows for the West End only a handful of smaller low-cost production announced openings in the period 17^th May to 21^st June with some of the West End returning musicals, presumably sitting on large rolled over ticket advances have announcing openings this summer. Those shows opening for the first time like Back to the Future and Frozen have announced a cautious approach (end of August), presumably to allow a safe time to manage any delays in the timetable and allow plenty of rehearsal time before opening. Moulin Rouge is less specific at the Piccadilly saying Autumn 21.

The Mousetrap at St Martins after their failed attempt to reopen last year breaking its 67-year run opened on 17^th May with an all-star cast. But Dear Even Hansen at the Noel Coward delayed restart until 26th October (despite announcing in July 2020 that it would be as early as practical) and the show that surely carries the biggest advance Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace (and perhaps the biggest weekly running costs) now opens on 14th October with tickets on sale from that date with many of the Year 4 cast staying on for another year.

Covid Testing

The big challenge is Covid testing for cast, crew, and audiences. It seems essential to do weekly or possibly daily testing on cast and crew and practical to do using the front of house spaces with an earlier call to check everyone with a well administered lateral flow test giving results within 30 minutes. This is a must to ensure the safe working backstage in confined spaces where social distancing & face masks are impossible and to prevent the loss of the cast as happened in Bath late last year but at a what additional cost? We have already seen Deathdrop and Hairspray miss performances due to self isolation impact , a heavy cost for Producers to bear.

The audience testing for all, but the smallest venues feel impossible. Where do people wait safely for the results even if the cost can be met? Passports or vaccinations/antibody certificates might help as used at the Wembley Euro events but will preclude many under 20’s for the foreseeable future and children can still carry the virus so how do you manage these? So realistically while reassurance measures (like face masks, one-way systems, and temperature checks) will be in operation for 2021 at least there can be no guarantees. This exposes Front of house staff as well as customers to risk. It will be interesting to see whether this risk puts off audiences desperate to return to theatre to any noticeable extent. In any case the greater risk is the train or tube journey to the venue not the theatre experience itself.

However, the real risk is another wave of infection and reimposing by Government restrictions on indoor venues with no chance of economically buying insurance for this risk. This is what will give producers (and their backers) and the casts sleepless nights until we all start to feel the virus is permanently under control. It is why Government is right to delay full reopening's until more are double vaccinated.

 

Audience Demand

While there is plenty of anecdotal and survey evidence of audiences’ willingness to return to live theatre and perhaps a sector of them willing to pay more for a safe experience, will this rush of enthusiasm be sustained and reach the smaller scale productions?  What impact will lack of overseas tourists have on the overall sales and even will the closure of West End offices for more home working have an impact of sales of tickets. Walk up will surely be reduced and it will, for a while, be a booked planned trip to watch a must-see show. I am ready to go and have booked Back to the Future (the perfect feelgood fun show) and for Ian McKellen’s Hamlet out of town in Windsor (opening 21^st June).

In the meantime, the ever-improving streaming services partially fills the void in our lives.

The West End Reopening plans

Here are the current opening plans for West End at time of writing (with original opening year in bracket)

Title	Venue	Reopening Date	Type	Capacity
Austentious/Woman in Black (1989)	Fortune	17 May 2021	Returning	432
Mousetrap (1952)	St Martins	17 May 2021	Returning with all-star cast	550
ReEmerge Season	Harold Pinter	22 May 2021	Season of 3 plays	796
Love Letters	Haymarket	19 May 2021	Transfer from Windsor	889
DeathDrop (2020)	Garrick	19 May 2021	Returning with new cast for short run	732
Season opens	Globe	19 May 2021	3 Shakespeare plays	400
Amelie	Criterion	20 May 2021	Transfer from Other Palace	588
Everybody’s talking about Jamie (2017)	Apollo	20 May 2021	Returning	775
Les Mis- Concert (1985)	Sondheim	20 May 2021	Returning for short run	1074
Magic Mike (2018)	Hippodrome	21 May 2021	Returning	325
Six (2019)	Lyric	21 May 2021	Returning for short run	967
Dr Who Time Fracture	UNIT HQ	26 May 2021	New Immersive theatre	600
After Life	NT Dorfman	2 June 2021	New play	120
Under Milk Wood	NT Olivier	16 June 2021	Revival in the round	500
The play that goes wrong (2014)	Duchess	18 June 2021	Returning	479
Full opening allowed over 1000 seats		Now delayed until 19 July 2021
Hairspray	Coliseum	22 June 2021	Delayed revival for limited run	2359
Tina Turner (2018)	Aldwych	24 June 2021	Returning	1200
Cinderella	Gillian Lynne	25 June 2021	New Premiere	1024
Prince of Egypt (2020)	Dominion	1 July 2021	Returning	2069
Joseph (2020)	Palladium	1 July 2021	Returning/Revival until 5th September	2286
Pretty Woman (2020)	Savoy	8 July 2021	Returning transfer from Piccadilly	1158
Come From away (2019)	Phoenix	22 July 2021	Returning	1012
Phantom of Opera (1986)	Her Majesties	21 July 2021	Returning	1216
Jersey Boys	Trafalgar	28 July 2021	Revival	630
The Lion King (1999)	Lyceum	29 July 2021	Returning	2100
Leopoldstadt (2020)	Wyndhams	7 August 2021	Returning for short run	759
Mary Poppins (2019)	Prince Edward	7th August 2021	Returning	1716
Hamilton (2017)	Victoria Palace	19 August 2021	Returning	1550
Back To Future	Adelphi	20 August	Transfer from Manchester	1500
Six	Arts	24 August	Transfer from lyric	350
Frozen	Drury Lane	27 August	UK Premiere	2196
Mamma Mia (1999)	Novello	25 August 2021	Returning	1105
Matilda (2011)	Cambridge	16 September 2021	Returning	1231
Wicked (2006)	Apollo Victoria	15 September 2021	Returning	2328
& Juliet (2019)	Shaftesbury	24 September	Returning	1400
Les Mis (1985)	Sondheim	25 September	Restaged	1074
Harry Potter & Cursed Child (2016)	Palace	14 October 21	Returning	1400
Only Fools and Horses (2019)	Haymarket	1 October 2021	Returning	893
Get up Stand Up	Lyric	1 October 2021	New Bob Marley Musical	967
Magic Goes wrong (2019)	Vaudeville	21 October	Returning	690
Ocean at the end of the lane (2019)	Duke of York	26 October	Transfer from NT	640
Moulin Rouge	Piccadilly	Autumn 21	UK Premiere	1232
Drifters Girl	Garrick	4 November	New Drifters musical	732
Life of Pi	Wyndhams	14th November 2021	Transfer from Sheffield	759
Dear Evan Hansen (2019)	Noel Coward	26 October	Returning	872
The Book of Mormons (2013)	Prince of Wales	5th November 2021	Returning with some rewrites	1160
To Kill a Mockingbird	Gielgud	10 March 2022	New production	986

 

Streamed Theatre

Streamed Theatre

With live theatres shut for over a year, theatre goers have had to satisfy their desire to see live performances through the new streaming services that so many professional producers have developed and promoted. Having reviewed over sixty streamed shows over the last year it has been fascinating to see how different companies have adapted to the new media.   

Some have used Zoom windows to create dialogues between their actors like the excellent “Staged” with Michael Sheen and David Tennant or the fascinating “Love in the Lockdown” about two creatives adapting the Decameron for the modern day with Rachel Sterling. The first is available on BBC I Player, the second on You tube. Also via zoom was the immersive version of “Sherlock Holmes” from Enfant Terrible where we the audience try to solve the mystery and in “Cinderella” from Pantolive, zoom enabled them to give some viewers a “front row” seat where cast interacted with them.

The tiny Barn theatre in Cirencester has led the way in creativity by turning its venue into a TV studio and producing a succession of very well-made shows. “The Picture of Dorian Grey” is a wonderful reimagining of the classic Oscar Wilde story into the world of Vloggers and the “Elephant in the Garden”, a one woman show, based on Michael Morpurgo's about refugees from Nazi Germany. 

Original Theatre have produced a series of excellent traditionally staged shows which have translated well to the media. “Good Grief” is a beautifully written exploration of the stages of grief, “Barnes People” is four separate monologues written by Peter Barnes and a “Splinter of ice” is a wonderful conversation between the author Graham Greene and the defected spy Kim Philby. The latter will be available to see live in theatres later this year.

Other notable successes were the imaginatively staged “Sunset Boulevard” filmed all around the Curve Leicester and three excellent short films on the impact of Covid on mental and physical health and isolation called “Distance Remaining”. 

What can we learn from these successes? As always, the success is about the quality of the story telling and the creativity in capturing that for streaming. It is not always about the size of the budgets although the technical skills to capture the audio, edit from a choice of camera angles and adjusting the light for TV do make a huge difference to the streamed experience. Best not to attempt to do it live as well!

Nick Wayne 

Event Cinema

One of the ways to get out safely in a post Lockdown world is to attend one of the drive in or open air cinemas that are popping up around the country this summer often in interesting and iconic locations. We booked and went to Blenheim Palace to see the Luna Drive In Cinema presentation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (which I had not watched since 1976!). 

We booked a General Admittance large car (£35) for 4 people and pre-ordered a food hamper at a total cost of £83.50. The top price is £80 for a VIP Experience or £45 for the Golden Circle for a 2-person car.

There are 8 Luna venues offering the Drive-In experience this summer running from mid-July through to October with mainly archive films and a few more recent releases. They are also offering NT Live’s Fleabag, the Royal Ballet Swan Lake, and a version of La Boheme 

.https://www.lunadriveincinema.com/

Arrival

The official site opening time was 8 pm with access to the cinema location, in a field at the rear of the Palace from 8.30 pm for a 9.30 start. However, we entered the Palace grounds shortly before 8 pm and were parked by 8.15 in first row of the large cars (Row P). There were already at least 5 rows of smaller cars already parked when we arrived. A position reference (P5) was attached to the driver’s wing mirror on arrival.

The wireless speaker unit and pre-ordered cold food was given to us as we drove up to the site entrance without delay using number plate recognition. The stewards were masked, and some wore face shields, but we did not need to speak to any of them.

By the film start time we estimated there were around 16 rows of 25 cars parked (400 vehicles) mostly with 2 occupants. Given the nature of the film only a handful were obviously in the Rocky Horror cult costumes!

Facilities

The single portable toilets were on the left side of the site, well-spaced with two hand sanitisers for each 4 cubicles and a simple queuing system, although there were never queues of more than 1 or 2 during the evening. A portable sanitizer unit was also used to clean the inside of the toilets during the evening. The toilets were clean with a blue flush and a better quality than many such temporary facilities.

The hot food offer was ordered from their website by mobile phone using the car position reference and was delivered to the car bonnet within 15 minutes of ordering by one of a large team of staff on foot or electronic scooters. It was simple offer of Burgers, Nachos, Crepes, and drinks, all reasonably priced. The Cappuccino’s were catering pack instant type so do not expect Costa or Starbucks!

The cold food hamper was satisfactory with a good three cheese platter with charcoal crackers and a dips selection with Tortilla chips.

Film technical

The film was front projected on a blow-up screen which was easily visible from the front seats but less good for the two persons in the backseats with a clear good sound quality on the wireless receiver placed on the dashboard. It had volume control and mute button. Before the film there was music from Magic radio and then Pearl and Dean adverts including the main event sponsor Mitsubishi. The radio broadcast was played again after the film until we handed the receiver back!

Exit arrangements

We were reminded before and after film to remain stationary with lights off until told to move by stewards at end of the film and we saw no one try to leave before instructed to move. There were plenty of stewards present to manage the exit using red illuminated battens and the collection of speakers was quick and efficient as we left the site. Cars were released in rows from the front of the site (so Golden circle people could arrive late and leave first).

It took us around 15 minutes from the end of the film to be called forward to leave.

It was extremely orderly and even the exit from the Palace Grounds of 400 cars seemed to go smoothly without delays.

Conclusion

This was an interesting experience after lockdown and was done as well as or even better than we might have expected. I am not sure what it would be like in rain as that would require car ignitions to be on to keep windscreen clear! 

We enjoyed seeing the film again and the setting was good but for us an hour’s drive each way to get there and a relatively expensive ticket price for old content means we will not rush to repeat the experience, although we have been sent a 10% discount code for a repeat visit.

But if you live locally (within 30 minutes drive)  and want a safe night out, it is worth giving it a go and the staff work very hard to make it a safe and efficient experience.

https://www.lunadriveincinema.com/

West End Reopenings

 A

Richmond Theatre - Prism ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐️

Terry Johnson has established himself as an excellent writer and director and having seen his wonderful play about theatre director Ken Campbell at the Bunker, I was excited to see the new tour of Prism his play about the extraordinary Cinematographer Jack Cardiff.  Cardiff was the cinematographer on Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948) and African Queen (1951) and we are reminded before the play starts of these three films in neat fore stage screens with black and white stills and clips from these films. He also worked with Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Munroe on The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). Johnson uses these memories to explore the later life of Jack Cardiff when he was suffering from dementia and cleverly both educates us on his achievements and explores the impact of dementia on his close family in a dramatic and poignant play.

The play is set in the garage of his home which his son has furnished to help stir memories to assist in writing his biography and the opening sequence brilliantly explains the evolution of the aspect ratios of films by using the electric garage door to show the shape while off stage he comments on the developments . The paintings on the wall and black and white images of the female film stars not only set the scene but also are used to explain the art of lighting and highlight his marital infidelity. Tim Shortfall the designer and Ian Galloway the video designer has created an extremely interesting and effective setting for the show and the shifts from reality to imagined scenes are cleverly executed.



The transformation from the garage into the film set of the African Queen is very clever and atmospheric.

At the centre of the play is Robert Lindsay as Jack who brilliantly brings to life the man and his struggle with memory loss, confusion and failing sight while making us aware of how clever he was on film sets in capturing and creating the Producers and Director vision on film. As Jack says, "Life is temporary, film is for ever". His struggle with the biography is summed up when he says, " reliving my life is doing my head in " and defends his past behaviour by "my job was to flatter women ". It is a phenomenal performance of great variation and touching moments that make us laugh and cry.

Tara Fitzgerald plays his wife Nicola, twenty years his junior, who in his confusion he mistakes for Katherine Hepburn and who says he "slept with film stars as a hobby". She is very convincing when she appears as Hepburn in his recollection of that African set with her clipped American drawl but regrets that "when I am not her, I am faceless". Her reaction towards the end of the play when she realises, he is losing his sight is extraordinary and heartfelt.


 Oliver Hembrough plays his son Mason anxiously trying to coax memories from his father to create the biography and desperately seeking recognition from his father and to emulate his father's success. He too doubles up effectively as Humphrey Bogart and Arthur Miller in the recollections.




He hires Lucy, played by Victoria Blunt as a carer to keep Jack company and to type up his memoirs who Jack describes as the " mistress of understatement". She is desperate to keep her job being nine months sober and trying to regain custody of her daughter. She loves the job as she " never knows who I am going to be " as Jack sees her as his past film stars.



The prism of the title is the devise used to split the colours in the early Technicolor cameras but also a clear metaphor for the distortion of memories by time and illness and when Jack holds it in his hand we can feel both his joy of the technology and his loss of faculties .



Director Terry Johnson brings all these elements together to present his play on stage in a compelling and moving two hours that deserves wider exposure and larger audiences to appreciate and Robert Lindsay once again compellingly demonstrates his skill as a stage performer.



There are still six venues in this tour until 30 November to catch this play. Don't miss it.


Nick Wayne

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐️

A Day in the Life of Joe Egg " Its relevant, funny, heart-warming and heart breaking all at the same time" ****

Peter Nichols’ extraordinary play “A day in the death of Joe Egg” was shocking and controversial when it first appeared in 1967. Indeed, as the programme notes show The Lord Chamberlains office required cuts to some of the more salacious lines although today it is the language around Joe’s impairments that jars the most showing how attitudes to physical disabilities have changed over the years. Even the Cerebral Palsy charity which challenges remaining negative attitudes changed its name from the language used in this play. However, this revival feels so relevant and worthwhile because it both highlights these changes and shines a sharp spotlight on the impact on all members of the family adjusting to living with disability.

The play remains set in the sixties although it is only the disability language and the use of the 1967 song “Dear Mr Fantasy” by the band Traffic playing on a vinyl record player which starts and finishes the show that root it in that period. The highly theatrical staging by designer Peter McKintosh reflects the unusual structure of the play. We are constantly reminded we are watching a show and the first scene is played on the forestage with set markings on the floor highly visible and the back of the box set flats in full view. When the set spins to reveal the family sitting room it could be in any middle-class home. Throughout, with a loud click and change of lighting, actors break the fourth wall to address and challenge the audience often in long wordy monologues.  The quality of the writing means we are amused, engaged and ultimately moved by these revelatory expressions of feelings.

It is the wonderful Toby Stephens, as the father Bri, who drives the story and who we first meet addressing an unruly class at his school in the opening scene. He conveys perfectly the sense of frustration he feels about his job, his marriage and his daughter, Jo and we see often his coping mechanism of using humour to deflect and hide behind. His relationship with his wife, Shelia, a delightfully understated Claire Skinner, is revealed when he returns home and we learn of her promiscuous past with a sense of guilt that it has given her and her obvious love and care from her daughter.


Storme Toolis plays the daughter Jo and movingly captures the physical impairments of the characters and touchingly gets to also speak out of character at the end of Act 1 again reminding us that this is a theatrical event but adding to its meaning and impact.

 


The play shows how others react to their situation in the second half when well-meaning Freddie (Clarence Smith) and his heartless wife Pam (Lucy Eaton) visit for an awkward but ill-judged intervention. As Freddie says, “I tend to raise my voice when I am helping people” and chilling talks of a “properly working child”.



When Bri’s mother arrives, the magnificent Patricia Hodge, bearing knitting and a strong west country accent the trouble really begins as it reveals the overbearing pressure, he has been bought up with that adds tension to his marriage.



This is a play that must be seen, and looks very strange on the page, but this production directed wonderfully by Simon Evans with a first-rate cast, makes it shine. Its relevant, funny, heart-warming and heart breaking all at the same time. It is a wonderful tribute to the late Peter Nichols and to all those families that have had to adapt and cope with similar situations.



Nick Wayne

The Son at Duke of York *****

Writer Florian Zeller, and his regular translator Christopher Hampton, have become a modern-day powerhouse amongst playwrights. Following the extraordinary “Height of the Storm” about grief and loss and the spell binding “The Father” about dementia they have taken another modern theme, mental health amongst teenagers and produced an utterly brilliant new play “The Son”. Transferring from the Kiln theatre into the West End with much of the same cast it is a totally absorbing and engaging one hundred and five minutes of exquisite drama.

This is more than a play about mental health issues. It is about the father and teenage son relationship that plays out every day across the country in so many homes and young Nicholas’s depression and suicidal thoughts heighten the tension and conflict that so many families experience in the those hormonally charged years in secondary school.  Zeller’s theatrical devise of scattering the stage with the debris of life which the characters by and large ignore is a telling metaphor for the signs that are present but sometimes missed in these situations by the bluster, anger and love that bubbles around these households.


The tone is set from the beginning with an empty stage surrounded by clear white panelled walls somewhere between a mental institution and a rather elegant household designed by Lizzie Clachan. Hanging over it is a large black bag waiting for its contents to be spilled across the stage and a stag’s head lays in the corner, a reminder that there is more than one father: son relationship at the heart of this play.  When Nicholas enters a few minutes before the start and begins writing on the wall the message is clear, here is a young man crying out for help but will those around him see the signs? He writes “Life is weighing me down…. All mixed up in my head”.

Laurie Kynaston is the seventeen-year-old Nicholas struggling to cope with the breakup of his parent’s marriage and torn between them as to where best to live. It is wonderfully nuanced performance as his parents cajole him to explain himself and dismiss his attitude as “Ever seen a teenager radiate happiness?” But as he sinks further, he subtly portrays the cries for help turning to lies of cover up and we all feel the need to help him, hug him and support him. Opposite him is John Light magnificent as Pierre the work obsessed father who has deserted his son for another woman. His love and concern spills into anger but there are lighter moments too as in the hilarious dad dancing sequence which feels like a turning point in their relationship.

The play seems to put most of the responsibility for his condition on the parents without explaining what the real trigger for it was and it is a weakness in the play that Nicholas’s schools seem to offer no duty of care to their pupil in the months covered by the play and that the medical staff seem rather laid back over the right course of action. I would hope that in real life these two professional authorities might offer more guidance and support but here they dramatically contribute to the shocking, if perhaps inevitable, final scenes.

The female characters of the mother, Anne (Amanda Abbington) and the second wife, Sofia (Amaka Okafor) play secondary roles in the drama as passive bystanders to the torment the father and son are suffering. Hisstep mother does contribute to the turmoil when she foolishly says to him “Good advice; if you want to go on having a life – don’t have a child!” The Doctor is played by Martin Turner with a cool detachment. This keeps the focus on Pierre and his son Nicholas and Director Michael Longhurst gets the very best from these two fine actors.



I suspect that the underlying story is sadly very common but thankfully only occasionally develops into the scale of crisis portrayed but Zeller by shining a light on the issue in such a brilliant way may help us all spot the signs and seek the help needed to prevent these escalations. This is a play that fully deserves all the accolades that it will surely collect.

When I first saw Peter Shaffer's Equus in the West End at the Albery Theatre in 1976 it felt a powerful and ground-breaking production. It’s shocking and graphic tale of a psychiatrist’s exorcism of Alan, a young seventeen old, whose violent act of blinding six horses he groomed provides a relevant examination of mental health issues and how society deals with them. Yet this revival feels rather dry and laboured at times by comparison with the original. 

Some of the scenes remain theatrical tour de forces as Martin explores the motivation and causes of his patient's actions. When we first meet Alan, he is with his favourite horse Nugget, played by Ira Mandela Siobhan who without the aid of costume brilliantly creates the animal on stage through movement, breathing and muscle flexing. It is extraordinary when we see Alan's first encounter with a horse on the beach or riding the horse on a midnight escapade how these transformations into the creatures are achieved. War Horse used puppetry and the original Equus wire framed heads but here it just magnificent performances.

The production is simply set by Georgia Lowe within a three-sided silk curtains arena that shimmer in the lights and bellow in the breeze. It leaves the lighting designed by Jessica Hung Han Yun to create the dramatic changing environment and the effect is wonderful with blue and red washes and flashes of projection. At other times the simplicity is taken too far, a Hoover denotes Alan's parents’ home, a trampoline his cell, and a row of lights the cinema screen; while these may be memories or flashbacks it leaves too much to the imagination. 

Ethan Kai is excellent as Alan, a young boy seemly on the edge of madness chanting advertisement theme tunes and gradually building trust or being tricked into sharing his secrets with Martin (a solid performance from Zubin Varia who remains on stage through most of the show). Natalie Radmall-Quirke provides good support as Hesther, the magistrate who refers Alan to Martin and Norah Lopez Holden as the young temptress, Jill, who tips Alan over the edge. His parents, Doreene Blackstock and Robert Finch explain the concern any parent would feel as people suggest they are to blame but there is a clear implication that religious fervour and strained martial relationships are a contributory factor.

This is a powerful play despite often being quite wordy, but the shocking revelations, dramatic interactions with the horses and revealing insight into the boy's thoughts through the scenes with his psychiatrist is engaging and thought provoking and remains a modern classic.

Nick Wayne

Four stars

Night of the Iguana - "puts high production values on to the stage"

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