THE ENTERTAINER till 19 May.
London.
THE ENTERTAINER
by John Osborne
The Old Vic.
Runs: 2hrs 50mins (two intervals); 23rd Feb – 19th May.
Mon – Sat 7.30pm, Mat Sat and Wed 2.30pm.
TICKETS: 0870 060 6628.
Review: Emily Corrigan 9 March.
Could have been written yesterday - or even today.
In 1956, the midst of the Suez war debacle, the British Empire was crumbling on all sides. The government was in uproar, protests flooded the streets and morale was at an all-time low. Never have Osborne’s themes felt more pertinent. Archie Rice, a wretchedly immoral music hall entertainer, beautifully embodies this sense of despair. Night after night he performs to dwindling, dispassionate audiences and returns home to his drunken wife. His abhorrent onstage persona gradually seeps into his home life, as he bullies and belittles his dysfunctional family.
Osborne’s writing is as powerful as ever. As unrelenting as it is scathing, it worms its way right to the heart of British consciousness. Archie’s war-torn family feels utterly contemporary as family members battle in the onslaught of betrayal and divorce. The attitudes of Billy Rice - Archie’s xenophobic father – also fit neatly with the current climate.
Laurence Olivier played Archie in 1957, now Robert Lindsey takes the role. From Lindsey’s first stumbling entrance as the drunken, dead-eyed performer, it is clear he is a force to be reckoned with. Archie’s routines are a desperate, cringing affair and Lindsey boldly pitches directly to the audience, who duly recoil in horror. Pam Ferris plays Archie’s long-suffering wife and turns in a genuine, heart-wrenching performance. John Normington thrives as Billy Rice, but Emma Cunniffe (Jean Rice) is sadly less convincing.
Director Sean Holmes gradually adds layers of depth (and mounting resentment) to Osborne’s doomed characters as he shifts the plays’ focus from quasi-naturalist in the first act to downright surreal in the third. The final scene – in which Archie gives his last, painful speech – is inspired. The curtains rise and he turns to see nothing but a bare concrete wall, stripped of set; a potent, damning metaphor of times to come.
This revival marks the fifty-year anniversary of the play, but it feels like yesterday. Osborne is clearly as cutting-edge as ever, and Holmes’s gloriously bitter production more than does him justice.
Billy Rice: John Normington.
Jean Rice: Emma Cunniffe.
Archie Rice: Robert Lindsey.
Phoebe Rice: Pam Ferris.
Frank Rice: David Dawson.
Britannia: Lindsey Lennon.
Graham: Jim Creighton.
Brother Bill: Andrew McDonald.
Director: Sean Holmes.
Designer: Anthony Lamble.
Lighting: Peter Mumford.
Music: John Addison.
The Laurence Olivier performance is available on CD - see Books and CDs.
2007-03-10 08:10:52