GOODBYE GILBERT HARDING. Tour to 2 November.
Tour
GOODBYE GILBERT HARDING
by Leonard Preston
Theatre Royal Plymouth in association with New Vic Workshop On Tour to 2 November 2002
Runs 2hr 40min One interval
Review Timothy Ramsden 1 October at Oxford Playhouse
You'll need to be interested in its subject to find this rough-hewn bio-play involving.In a polite age he was, courtesy of TV blazing its way into (initially) middle-class living-rooms, the rudest man in Britain – a label to balance against the contemporary 'angry young man' and about as journalistically opportunist. Leonard Preston's lumpy play about Harding and his private secretary (an admirably reserved Jonathan Cullen, catching all the right notes of surprise and fear) at least makes some points about a celebrity forced to keep his sexuality secret in a repressed, if luxurious life.
Contempt and drink catch up with Harding – more so than the (once-) famous Face to Face interview with John Freeman where TV's Mr Tough Guy shed tears remembering his mother's death to the delighted astonishment of the tabloid press. The trouble here is that such key moments are played out on video, a tinny echo of their possible stage attack.
Edward Woodward gives an immaculate Harding impersonation. He has not just the look, but the manner, bearing, stance and movement. And in the best scene – where Christopher Saul's police inspector can hardly restrain his gloating delight at the chance to erupt his homophobia over such a celebrity – Woodward gives Harding an articulate moral strength that only faces defeat at the detective's use of the more vulnerable people around him.
Elsewhere, though several scenes hold the attention (concentration's at risk in several clumsily-handled scene-shifts) there's little organic sense, or development of character. Good performers go through their paces, but have little chance to do more than contribute to the crisis of the moment. Neither Frances Cuka's domestic nor Helen Bourne as fellow broadcasting-personality Nancy Spain have much – well, personality. They're purely functional – as is the handsome waiter Fabrizio; Thomas Nelstrop has nothing to do but leave one room and fail to get into another.
Both celebrity and the private life behind it are fascinating subjects, but this play provides little more than a dutiful plod through events in the life of its protagonist. This gives it some point as staged biography, but precious little as drama.
Gilbert Harding: Edward Woodward
Robert Midgely: Jonathan Cullen
Eric: Joshua Henderson
Mrs Clarke: Frances Cuka
Nancy Spain: Helen Bourne
D.I. Strang: Christopher Saul
P.C. Dabbs/Alex: Patrick Nielsen
Nurse: Polly March
Fabrizio: Thomas Nelstrop
Director: David Giles
Designer: Kenneth Mellor
Lighting: Adrian Barnes
Sound: Matt Dando
Tour:
7-12 October Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford 01483 440000
14-19 October Cambridge Arts Theatre 01223 503333
21-26 October Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne 01323 412000
28 October-2 November Theatre Royal Brighton 01273 328488
2002-10-08 17:19:06