THE LAST CIGARETTE To 11 April.

Chichester.

THE LAST CIGARETTE
by Simon Gray and Hugh Whitemore.

Minerva Theatre To 11 April 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat & 19, 25 March, 2, 8 April 2.15pm.
Audio-described 27 March, 28 March 2.15pm, 3 April, 4 April 2.15pm.
Runs 2hr 5min One interval.

TICKETS: 01243 781312.
www.cft.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 ~March.

Accomplished performances of excerpts from books, but wouldn’t a revival of a Gray play be better?
A year’s just been a long time in theatre. Last March the author of the books-of-the play (Simon Gray wrote four volumes of ‘Smoking Diaries’, this piece takes its title from the third) was alive, as was playwright Harold Pinter (who features a couple of times here). Both had cancer though Gray, ironic to the last, was killed suddenly by an aneurism.

There’s irony, ironically, not only in the content but in the existence of this piece, which Gray worked on with fellow-playwright Hugh Whitemore. A programme-note aptly refers to Gray’s later-life series of autobiographical volumes liberating him “from the tyranny of dramatic structure and stage dialogue.” And now, they’re adapted for the stage.

There’s an attempt to get round this by recreating prose conditions on stage. Three performers are called “Simon” in the cast-list. This occasionally works well, dividing between the three the books’ characteristic, often comic, technique of writhing around adjusting expression to catch-up with a lithe mental intelligence that reshapes thoughts even as they’re being verbalised. Generally, though, they’re narrators, with no discernible allocation of “aspects of Gray” between them. Each has moments as other characters, where overt humour mostly lies.

Overall, the piece is sombre rather than comic. The first half looks at Gray’s early life and family, the second deals with the medical processes of cancer treatment. Heightened moments of nicotine ecstasy contrast stretches of humiliation and anxiety. There’s self-analysis, but never self-pity. Merciless piercing of slack or artificial expression contrasts Gray’s deep loyalties, and love for his wife Victoria, both emerging alongside ironic impatience.

It hardly needs a set. The piles of manuscripts and typewriter-bearing tables are rarely used (though the final image of writers-at-work reminds why we are all there). The projections help little, apart from the gentle sea of the Cretan holiday where Gray lyrically imagines sinking into oblivion, until love for his wife recalls him to life.

Omitting the books’ wry accounts of theatrical productions, this is a long threnody, impeccably presented but proving that Gray was right when he chose what to put on stage, what place on the page.

Simon 1: Jasper Britton.
Simon 2: Nicholas Le Prevost.
Simon 3: Felicity Kendal.

Director: Richard Eyre.
Designer: Rob Howell.
Lighting/Projection: Jon Driscoll.
Sound: Jonathan Suffolk.
Music: George Fenton.
Fights: Terry King.
Assistant director: Anna Ledwich.

2009-03-19 12:35:27