THE MOB. To 4 October.

London

THE MOB
by John Galsworthy

Orange Tree Theatre To 4 October 2003
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 4pm
Runs 1hr 55min One interval

TICKETS: 020 8940 3633
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 September

Timely revival in a winning production.There's a necessary limitation to this small, in-the-round production of Galsworthy's 1914 social drama; it turns out the production's masterstroke. At the end, pilloried, dead politician Stephen More has a statue erected to him. Having been killed by the Mob for his anti-war stance, his heroism is recognised as birds perch and sweetly tweet.

This stage-picture wouldn't work on the Orange Tree's creative postage-stamp acting space (nor its production budget). So the scene's described through its stage directions. It's a beautifully imaginative conclusion, gently spoken, at suitably deliberate pace, after the preceding rough-and-tumble. Nor is it stylistically intrusive, the reciting of the opening stage direction having established the format, besides introducing us to the characters. Thereafter, the device is tucked away until it's needed. Between, all is nearly realistic.

Nearly, because director Sam Walters and designer Lorna Marshall mix Galsworthy's period with modern times. Mob sentiment belongs to both.

This is no anticipation of World War (where Britain defended brave little Belgium against the might of the Hun). What ends More's career, marriage and life is his public denunciation of a big country attacking one far smaller.

Galsworthy mainly confines himself to More's social world and his wife's family of knight, dean and officer. Lower orders are briefly glimpsed in the family Nurse and her soldier son. We don't meet More's anti-war associates, only angry street-gangs (incredibly polite and literate by today's standards).

Yet it reflects, without informing, modern events. Sam Walters' cast catch the genial opening dinner-party mood (as their nation sets off to sort out a little local difficulty). Then the shock, not at combat, but at More's determination to express his known views publicly. And to do so even once 'our boys' have been sent into action.

There's no disguising Galsworthy's partiality. He doesn't mock characters with different viewpoints; he just doesn't make them interesting. No-one has any existence away from the issue. Even the protagonist, would be a dull sort without his point of principle.

Yet this revival's intriguing, and a sighting of a too rarely seen dramatist, even if not at full pelt.

Stephen More MP: Kevin Doyle
Katherine More: Susie Trayling
Sir John Julian/William Banning: Bernard Holley
The Dean of Stour/James Home: Richard Simpson
Captain Herbert Julian: Philip Benjamin
Helen Julian: Claudia Elmhirst
Edward Mendip/Charles Shelder: Robert Benfield
Alan Steele: Oliver Senton
Nurse Wreford: Vilma Holingbery
Wreford: Danny Brown
Nance: Sam Dowson
Henry: Stuart Burgess
Olive: Georgia Batty/Sarah Gordon/Lizzy Pedley

Director: Sam Walters
Designer: Lorna Marshall
Lighting: John Harris

2003-09-25 00:14:07