LATIN.

London

LATIN
or TOBACCO AND BOYS
by Stephen Fry

New End Theatre To 14 December 2002
Tue-Sat 7.30pm + 11 December 9.30pm
Runs 1hr 35min One interval

TICKETS 020 7794 0022
Review Timothy Ramsden 8 December

A private school sexual fantasy that has a moral point behind it, though with more laughs than subtlety.Sitting in New End's steep yet intimate auditorium, I suffered a paper missile projected at me by actor Mark Farrelly, then the accusation of 'stupendous mediocrity'. Normally, at least they wait till they've read the review.

This was all aimed at one Spragg, of Chartham Park Preparatory School for Boys' 6th year Latin class, who seem to occupy the auditorium. Mr Clarke's preparing them for Common Entrance. This exam is 'common' because it's accepted by all public schools, rather than because it's designed to select gifted oiks to be educated alongside fee-paying pupils.

Though, in Fry's academy, common entrance could have a different meaning like much else. Dominic has a flirtatious way with language verbal and physical - yet it's his intense attentions to one Cartwright which make him ripe for blackmail by the older, tweedier but equally libidinous Brookshaw. His taste runs to peanut butter, though not for its flavour, and sharply-applied coathangers on the posterior.

Character-assassinating Elizabethan dramatist and possible spy Christopher Marlowe, it was alleged he'd declared, 'they who love not tobacco and boys are fools'. Given Brookshaw's vile-odoured tobacco, Marlowe's out on the first. But it's the boys that are relevant here. Fry's jokey way of serving up (though not showing and hardly celebrating) pederasty created the moral stink of this year's Edinburgh Fringe (no such fury during the production's run in the southern fleshpots, of course).

Written at 23 by a performance polymath whose only play it remains, and who's most famous theatrewise for playing hookey from the West End, the piece is inclined to offer stand-out sketches; its slight plot bumps awkwardly along, adding little to the characters on its way. Still, it's OK stuff for a post-public school, probably well-oiled, most likely well-heeled and still young audience. No doubt it went down well on its Cambridge openings.

But. There is a sympathy with the 26 year old Clarke's wish never to have grown up, and his aesthetic appreciation of Latin's linguistic beauty. And a daring touch in the final solution, involving the attractions of Islamic conversion in Morocco. And, a fair set of laughs along the way.

Herbert Brookshaw: David Benson
Dominic Clarke: Mark Farrelly

Director: Adam Barnard
Designer/Costume: John Daniel
Lighting: Ben Pacey
Sound/Composer: Peter Michaels
Chorister: Sasha Kasas

2002-12-16 13:06:26