THE RUBENSTEIN KISS. To 17 December.

London

THE RUBENSTEIN KISS
by James Phillips

Hampstead Theatre To 17 December 2005
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 3pm
Audio-described 10 Dec 3pm
Runs 2hr 55min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7722 9301
www.hampsteadtheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 5 December

It started with a kiss and ended with some questions.
It’s drama’s open secret that Arthur Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible uses the 17th century Salem witch-trials as a parable for the McCarthyite anti-Communist ‘witch-hunts’ of its day. During its run Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the only Americans executed as Communist spies, died. In the heat of the Cold War, their alleged passing of atom-bomb secrets (Ethel’s brother worked on the A-Bomb and testified against the pair) to Soviet Russia was blamed for the Korean War. Politically, their trial was a no-win situation.

James Phillips uses Miller’s hero John Proctor, who refuses to sign his name to a false confession and avoid the death penalty, as a touchstone for Truth. But Truth is more elusive in Phillips’ lightly-disguised account of the Rosenberg case. Is Esther’s love of opera (Madame Butterfly infiltrates the opening then blazes out repeatedly, before providing a closing balm) merely a sign of her desire to be dramatic? Is the photo of the couple’s loving kiss as they’re carted off in a police-wagon the sign of deep devotion or an opportunistic publicity stunt? By the seventies that photo’s in an exhibition of 1950s icons and artefacts, bringing 2 young people together whose interest in the case conceals something of their own identities.

Liz Ascroft’s set glides away from this gleaming, style-aware exhibition, revealing the 1940s tenement poverty where the Rubensteins’ devotion to each other and to Communism convinces them of the truth of love, and of the Soviet future, making other deceptions acceptable. American society has ways of biting back: Rubenstein faces sackings, refusals to trade with the business he sets up and, ultimately, a ‘name names’ FBI inquisition.

Phillips isn’t just ambiguous about the Rubensteins, Esther especially; he leaves his view of them swilling around in a dish of possibilities. The play’s full of interesting material and well-handled moments but tougher direction’s needed to bring them into a balanced whole. The 70s pair remain blanks, Matthew particularly sinking into an array of stagy mannerisms. But both act-ends are beautifully sustained. And notably, in a play filled with words, both work through silences and strong stage pictures.

Matthew: Martin Hutson
Anna: Louisa Clein
Esther Rubenstein: Samantha Bond
David Girshfeld: Alan Cox
Jakob Rubenstein: Will Keen
Rachel Girshfeld: Emily Bruni
Paul Cranmer: Gary Kemp

Director: James Philips
Designer: Liz Ascroft
Lighting: Hartley T A Kemp
Sound: Neil Alexander
Voice/Dialect coach: Jeanette Nelson
Assistant director: Dan Ayling

2005-12-08 10:43:55