BLUNT SPEAKING. To 10 August.

Chichester

BLUNT SPEAKING
by Corin Redgrave

Minerva Theatre To 10 August 2002
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.45pm
Runs 1hr No interval

TICKETS 01243 781312
Review Timothy Ramsden 31 July

A finely-acted hour, whose subject remains elusive.Anthony Blunt would nowadays be unknown except among art historians had he not been revealed in 1979 (when the 'action' of this play is set) as a former soviet spy. His unmasking was the end of a torrid newstrail, preceded by Andrew Boyle's book The Climate of Treason and an exposee in The Times based on hints about the identity of the '4th man' from 1930s Cambridge, spying alongside Burgess, MacLean and Philby.

Given the clue: 5 letter name, begins with B, The Times had 'unmasked' an entirely innocent academic, Donald Beves. A queue of former students wrote to the editor telling him the newspaper had the wrong man, not the 4th one.

Blunt's speciality was Poussin, about as far from radical politics as art history could get (there's little about Blunt as art-historian in Redgrave's script, despite the gilded, broken picture-frame tilting round him). He was Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, stirring irony into this story of treachery. A reserved, haughty-seeming homosexual, Blunt was set up as an unsympathetic public enemy.

Yet the security establishment had known of his activities since 1964, offering immunity in exchange for information. And Redgrave suggests that, working in post-war Germany, Blunt discovered documents relating to the abdicated Edward VII's plan to rule a pro-Nazi England (hard to realise nowadays how important Edward and Mrs Simpson once were for many people).

Overall, the extensive programme notes say more about Blunt than does the play – a number of the script's events are imaginary. And while time watching Corin Redgrave act is always well-spent, a single hour is a thin night's playgoing. Mark Clements' production might lose its dated opening production idea, a speedy photo-montage that relies on instant identification of historical moments and even then adds nothing to Redgrave's performance.

It's difficult to relate Blunt's haughty demeanour and elusiveness to Redgrave's sympathetic manner – especially to the unlikely cajoling of the audience into a near singalong of The Internationale. It would be good to see Redgrave expand his piece, taking us, with no deliberate falsification, further into the personality of someone who remains, mostly, still masked.

Anthony Blunt: Corin Redgrave

Director: Mark Clements
Lighting: Chris Ellis
Sound: Kay Basson

2002-08-01 15:30:05