THE NEW MORALITY. To 11 July.
London
THE NEW MORALITY
by Harold Chapin
Finborough Theatre 4, 10, 11 July 8pm
Runs 2hr 15min Two intervals
TICKETS: 0870 4000 838
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 July
Existential angst and drawing-room comedy on a Thames houseboat, in a rediscovered play.This Edwardian playwright's surname contains no l'. Yet coincidentally, the American born, British reared son of an actress performed the role of Billy in William Gillette's stage-play Sherlock Holmes, a part also played, in London, by young Charles Chaplin before he tramped off to fame and fortune in America.
The cultured, prolific Chapin acted too in London productions of Barrie and Shaw, his own plays appearing from 1910. He died in battle, aged just 29, in 1915. How much war robbed theatre of a major talent is doubtful after Golden Oryx Productions and Concordance bravely revive this 3-act play for 5 nights at the Finborough.
It shows the Edwardian writer's certainty in a theatre where problems of middle-class decorum resonate loudly as fundamentals of existence. But its strivings for philosophical significance show little of the originality or provocative wit of Shaw, nor the earnest investigation of Granville Barker, twin giants of Edwardian dramaturgy.
The play's New Morality hardly seems startling. It emerges after 3 acts in which a middle-class woman on her Thames houseboat in Berkshire has taken to her couch following a quarrel with the woman on the next boat along all over a husband's trivial action. It's enunciated in response to a sceptical barrister's view that humanity hasn't progressed as far as, let alone beyond, the 10 Commandments.
And it seems old Victorian morality re-expressed: that women take matters beyond the material to a spiritual level. There's been little enough of that in Betty Jones' vapours and stubborn refusal to apologise for her insult hurled audibly over the waters. Kate Wasserberg's production finds what humour it can, which comes close to seaside-postcard views of dominant females cowing mere men it's easier to be hospitable to a defeated enemy in war than to a fellow Brit when your offended wife has her eye on you.
Still, as husbands pushed to the frontline, Alex Barclay and Chris Courtenay have a neat line respectively in attempted calm and nervous decency, while Richard Costello shows unruffled expertise on the sidelines. An interesting reminder of the period's mainstream theatre, if hardly a revelation.
Betty Jones: Maxine Scholfield
Lesceline: Rachel Payant
Alice: Margot Molinari
Colonel Ivor Jones: Alex Barclay
E Wallace Wister: Chris Courtenay
Wooton: Richard Costello
Geoffrey Belasis KC: David Kershaw
Director: Kate Wasserberg
Designer: Dinah England
Costume: Chrissy Stergios
Assistant director: Leah Fagelson
2005-06-28 10:37:13