LEGAL FICTIONS.
London.
LEGAL FICTIONS
The Dock Brief and Edwin
by John Mortimer.
Savoy Theatre.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 30min One interval.
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Review: Timothy Ramsden 3 March.
Major production of minor plays.
While a double-bill of early Pinter tele-plays occupies the Comedy Theatre, this twinning of lawyer-playwright John Mortimer’s work for radio (The Dock Brief, 1957) and TV (Edwin, 1984) fills, or seeks to fill, the Savoy. Designer Mark Bailey does his best to accommodate The Dock Brief’s pre-trial meeting between a wife-murderer and the failed lawyer assigned him in court, to a West End stage by designing huge, inward-tilting prison walls.
But this isn’t an oppressive prison drama, simply an amiable anecdote. Nicholas Woodeson’s Fowle, provoked to murder by his wife’s relentless cheerfulness, helpfully assists Fox’s plum-sounding, ineffectual barrister in improvising brilliantly tendentious defences, then becomes apologetic when admitting the verdict’s been overthrown owing to the barrister’s ineptitude. Nicholas Woodeson shuffles resignedly as the little man who comes to life while events proceed towards his impending death-sentence.
It’s a neat theatrical anecdote, rather drawn-out by Edward Fox’s manner. Aficionados of elasticated English vowel-sounds should hurry to hear Fox providing a masterclass. Without any loss of sonic richness, he elongates selected vowels till infinity seems on the horizon.
Playing Dock Brief’s Morgenhall in this grand-style means his retired judge, a legal grandee, in Edwin seems rather a repeat performance. And the play’s a one-tactic, single-joke piece that needs more incident to go with its ironic conversation. At least it does on stage, without TV’s ability to suggest narrative progress through editing and location-switching.
Sir Fennimore’s neighbour Tom stands for everything the ex-judge doesn’t value (the man’s artistic. A potter. He wears a bow-tie). Though the setting’s a country house and garden, allowing Bailey to bloom scenically, this is Hampstead transposed, its assured affluence underlying the smart surface wit.
A contest over the parentage of Edwin Truscott changes tack when the son’s been for lunch and turns out the real enemy of life, with a health-kick aversion to red wine and clotted cream, plus plans to disrupt his parents’ quietly autumnal lives. Polly James adds a strong performance as a smilingly assertive wife with an enigmatic side in Christopher Morahan’s scrupulous production. But the evening is hors d’oeuvres twice-over, served at some length.
The Dock Brief
Morgenhall: Edward Fox.
Fowle: Nicolas Woodeson.
Edwin
Sor Fennimore Truscott: Edward Fox.
Tom: Nicholas Woodeson.
Margaret: Polly Adams.
Director: Christopher Morahan.
Designer: Mark Bailey.
Lighting: Ben Ormerod./Mark Howland.
Sound: Mike Beer for Stage Sound Services.
Composer/Musical Arranger: Ilona Sekacz.
2008-03-05 11:08:35