THE PRESIDENT'S HOLIDAY. To 8 March.
London/Southampton.
THE PRESIDENT’S HOLIDAY
by Penny Gold.
Hampstead Theatre To 16 February
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3pm.
Audio-described 9 Feb 3pm.
Captioned 12 Feb.
Post-show discussion 121 Feb.
Runs 2hr 5min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7722 9301.
www.hampsteadtheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 January.
then Nuffield Theatre Southampton
20 February- 8 March 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 8 March 3pm.
TICKETS: 023 8067 1771.
www.nuffieldtheatre.co.uk
Pleasantly presented, implausible drama.
With two well-known actors at the helm (Isla Blair impressively tactful as the endangered Soviet President’s wife), some other hard-working performances, Patrick Sandford’s characteristically precise direction of character relationships and a set by Robin Don suggesting elegance and fragility, Penny Gold’s new play has all the appearance of a satisfying play.
But appearance is all it has. Gold tries to imagine what happened during the two days in August 1991 when a counter-revolution imprisoned the reformist Gorbachev and his family in the Crimea. He may well have gone through the emotions painted here, but Gold’s fails to give his various states any coherence. And with wife and daughter repeatedly telling him what a great man he is, Julian Glover’s Gorbachev ends up seeming insufferable. All opposition is cardboard, while eventual victory lacks context, with the major opponents remaining unseen.
Any section alone might make a good impression. Gorbachev commanding, raging, comforting, in control, his wife supportive, understanding, furious, nervous, their daughter increasingly fragile (her collapse a factitious act one curtain-event), her husband doubting until finding ultimate belief in the hero. But the pieces don’t add up; the whole is contrived and unconvincing.
It might pass muster as the story of a Surrey stockbroker ousted from his firm by rivals. For though the Soviet externals are in place, the manner and tone are home-counties to the core. And characters spell out the obvious or switch tack unconvincingly. A leader who’s lived his adult life amid Kremlin politics finds it strange people betray reach other. When not undergoing such enlightenment, Gorbachev spends time dispensing chocolates to his grandchildren. In this, they come off better than audiences listening to stilted dialogue from the Nuffield’s one-time script advisor.
Too late, the politics push themselves to the fore. The final scene adopts a different style to cram in what the play might have been doing all along. The final image is sharp but a bolt-on rather than an integral conclusion. And parallels with the Bolsheviks’ execution of the Tsar’s family are pure theatrical emotion-raising, with nothing to add to this elegantly presented yet inert piece.
Director: Patrick Sandford.
Designer: Robin Don.
Lighting: David W Kidd.
Sound: Marcus Christensen.
Full cast and credits not available.
2008-01-29 02:09:42