THE GRADUATE. To 7 February.
Nottingham.
THE GRADUATE
by Terry Johnson.
Theatre Royal To 7 February 2009..
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.
TICKETS: 0115 989 5555.
www.royalcentre-nottingham.co.uk
Review: Alan Geary: 4 February 2009.
Justice is done to a considerable play.
It’s not just Mrs Robinson’s famous full-frontal nudity that appeals in this play - though, of course, that does. The Graduate, here directed by Adrian Lloyd-James, has a thematic complexity that comes together in the hilarious and moving last part during which Mr Robinson takes a hatchet to the door. It’s a satire on an America that no longer exists. And it’s much else.
On a simple sixties set, designed with cinematically nifty scene changes in mind, there’s some splendid acting going on. With every major character except the hard-bitten Mrs Robinson realising less about him/her self than is obvious to the audience, there’s also an awful lot of dramatic irony.
Karen Henson, as Mrs Robinson, looks good in the buff certainly, but from the point when she appears, fag and drink in hand, pickled and smoky-voiced - fifty un-tipped a day surely - she’s entirely convincing, a figure of comical pathos.
So is John Hester as Mr Robinson. Obsessed with “Plastics” as the way ahead for any young go-getter, he’s an old-fashioned American stereotype, the dim-witted “booster” straight out of a Sinclair Lewis novel. But he collapses into a sympathetic character near the end when he’s confronting Benjamin with that hatchet.
As Benjamin, Grant Orviss is perfectly neurotic, anxious and confused. With his shortness and sticky-out hair, he’s the anti-hero, at odds with the American success ethic, but also with the rising counter-culture: he wants out. Orviss is brilliantly cast.
Elaine (Heather Saunders) is beautifully realised: she’s earnest, moral and socially aware yet paradoxically shallow and self-serving. Her walk is dead in character. And she has the most consistent and convincing American accent of the evening.
The less than major characters - smooth hotel clerk, non-judgemental psychiatrist, broken-down motel manager in his underpants, prissy clergyman, and so on - are brilliantly done by Mark Huckett.
What with the contrived quilt covering, Benjamin’s fornication scenes with Mrs Robinson are messy-looking and, of course, unrealistic, but this doesn’t seem to matter. And those Simon and Garfunkel background tracks have to be some of the greatest pop music ever written.
Chesterfield-based Tabs Productions have done justice to a considerable play.
Benjamin: Grant Orviss.
Mrs Robinson: Karen Henson.
Mr Robinson: John Hester.
Elaine: Heather Saunders.
Mr Braddock (Dad): Michael Sherwin.
Mrs Braddock (Mum): Susan Earnshaw.
Stripper/Receptionist: Sarah Wynne Kordas.
Hotel Clerk/Psychiatrist/Barman/Priest/Hotel Manager: Mark Huckett.
Director: Adrian Lloyd-James.
Designer: Sarah Wynne Kordas.
Lighting: Keith Tuttle.
Sound: David Gilbrook.
2009-02-07 02:42:43