THE WINSLOW BOY. Tour to 2 November.

Tour

THE WINSLOW BOY
by Terence Rattigan

Touring to 2 November 2002
Runs 2hr 55min One interval
Review Timothy Ramsden 11 September at Milton Keynes Theatre

A deeply understanding, stirring production, elegantly designed, with some crowning performances.Though its current cast doesn't always match last year's Chichester original, Christopher Morahan's production remains scrupulous, its opening moments creating just enough fuss over young Catherine Winslow's marriage to contrast the real trouble about to erupt with young Ronnie, expelled from naval college for allegedly stealing a postal order.

Morahan shows the play's every irony. Ronnie finds a new school and is happy there. The case to prove his innocence bores him. He sleeps through the parliamentary debate, and misses the trial verdict by going to the cinema. Daniel Sharman catches Ronnie's initial fear of his father and the way he's youthfully put behind him a moment's dismissive reference to it the case which is headlining national newspapers.

Edward Fox may have more assured grandeur than retired Edwardian banker Winslow; Rattigan repeatedly shows the case's impact on family finances. Older brother Dickie has to leave Oxford no great loss to the university, or to James Schlesinger's smilingly unconcerned Dickie (the one moment he settles to study his pencil wavers pointlessly over the page).

Catherine loses her dowry, and fiancee; a loss hard to feel given Rupert Wickham's uninterestingly conventional suitor and Lucy Akhurst's technically competent but lifeless performance.

But Fox brings real authority in his deliberate closing-in on Ronnie to ask for the second time if the boy committed the theft. Aptly balancing stern-faced determination and wry humour, he strengthens the character's sympathy without reducing his awesomeness. This is the play's heart: stubborn individual assertion of rights or, Right against institutions' power to create injustice.

Simon Ward doesn't always catch his barrister's fearsomeness there's sometimes an inconsistent wish to be liked, but he plays an ace in interrogating Ronnie, moving up two gears when the polite questions give way to the real substance, coaxing and bullying.

Polly Adams Grace is a cornerstone of the production, as of the Winslow household. Moments such as her quiet adding of ' and me' as she turns away, teacup in hand, having just scolded her husband for the way his campaign is harming him, declares her mixed support, suffering and silence with acute subtlety.

Ronnie Winslow: Daniel Sharman
Violet: Ann Penfold
Grace Winslow: Polly Adams
Arthur Winslow: Edward Fox
Catherine Winslow: Lucy Akhurst
Dickie Winslow: James Schlesinger
John Watherstone: Rupert Wickham
Desmond Curry: Osmund Bullock
Miss Barnes: Rachel Izen
Fred: Philip Simon
Sir Robert Morton: Simon Ward
Ensemble: Richard Bardsely, Nadine McKenzie, John Parsons, Cathy Rakoff

Director: Christopher Morahan
Designer: Simon Higlett
Lighting: Robert Bryan
Sound: John A. Leonard for Aura
Costumes: Binnie Bowerman
Music: Ilona Sekacz
Choreography: Gerry Tebbutt

2002-09-12 13:36:10