JOE & I.

London

JOE & I
by Laurie Slade

King’s Head Theatre 115 Upper Street N1
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat Sat & Sun 3.30pm
Runs 1hr 35min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7226 1916
www.kingsheadtheatre.org/www.ticketweb.co.uk (booking fee)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 November

Quick, witty, yet also substantial play in a finely-acted production.
In 1966, Noel Coward’s A Song at Twilight appeared in the West End. Coward let it be believed the central, celebrated writer haunted by his secret homosexual past was based on Somerset Maugham (died 1965), though it’s long been evident it was a self-portrait. Two years before, young Joe Orton had hit the big-time with the openly gay Entertaining Mr Sloane. Clearly in Swinging London, your place in society influenced where you stood in relationship to the closet.

Coward, Orton’s stylistic parent, is referred to but never appears in Laurie Slade’s fascinating new play, set around 1967. The blankly elegant apartment of Simon Scullion’s set, aptly mixing realistic situation and fluid-time fantasy, is home to once-fashionable playwright Terence Rattigan in Piccadilly’s exclusive Albany chambers.

B4 The Albany was fictional home to Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of Being Earnest and Wilde’s intrusive wraith haunts Slade’s play, allowing portraits of 3 ages of the gay writer in English society. Brian Murray’s serenely beaming Oscar, quoting his own dialogue with new relevance to the scene, contrasts the living presences. And while Simon Hepworth’s Joe, soon divesting himself of the page-boy costume (a glance forward to What The Butler Saw) in which he delivers (stolen) flowers to Terry, beautifully catches Orton’s sharp-edged confidence, this is undoubtedly Terry’s play: he opens and closes the piece, which follows his consciousness and dilemmas.

Joe’s reference to his boyfriend Kenneth gives ironic resonance to aggressive Joe’s shying away from violence (Orton’s partner Kenneth Halliwell killed him in 1967). It also recalls Rattigan’s beloved Kenneth, whose suicide inspired The Deep Blue Sea, adapted to a heterosexual setting for public consumption.

Peter Bowles captures the immaculate society man, agonised by sexual secrecy and terror Hollywood will follow the West End in abandoning him as old-hat. Divested during his evening with Joe of smart tie, crisp white shirt and perfect equipoise as he relaxes into physical seduction and frank sexual talk, Bowles vividly shows Terry’s quick anger when his secret status is threatened. This fine performance in Joe Harmston’s near-effortless production makes an intriguing, skilful play even more highly desirable viewing.

Terry: Peter Bowles
Oscar: Bryan Murray
Joe: Simon Hepworth

Director: Joe Harmston
Designer: Simon Scullion
Lighting: Robert Bryan
Costume: Tom Rand

2005-11-19 13:17:51