Sandy Pritchard-Gordon

Sandy Pritchard-Gordon
Theatre Blog

Thursday 7 August 2014

My Night With Reg at The Donmar

My Night with Reg



As with Beckett’s Godot, Reg doesn’t actually set foot on the stage in this 1994 play by Kevin Elyot.  That it should be revised right now gives this tragi-comedy an air of sadness because its author died in June following a long illness.  I didn’t see the original version staged at The Royal Court before transferring to the West End, but I’m sure Kevin Elyot would have been more than pleased with this version, directed by Robert Hastie.

The idea for this play came to Elyot at the funeral in the mid 80’s of an old flat-mate who had died of Aids and had been intimate with several of the mourners.  Reg is likewise of the promiscuous persuasion and it is his fondness for the carnal that causes panic amongst his closest friends.  The spectre of Aids is at the heart of the play, written as it was when the illness was beginning to take a hold, but there is more to it than that.  For unrequited love, friendship, ageing and, ultimately death, are all here and dealt with so well. 

The structure of My Night With Reg is very clever.  Just one setting, that of the bachelor flat belonging to the very house-proud, Guy, but a time span of four years, brilliantly and subtlety constructed.  In fact so much of this play is a master class in subtlety.  Not all, mind you, for there isn’t much nuance with the language and humour, making the piece so very real and honest and so many of the lines are an absolute joy.  

Poor Guy is the one suffering from the lack of love in his life.  That is to say, he does all the loving, but from afar.  To everyone, including the object of his infections, John, he is Mr Nice Guy.  No one sees him as anything more than a friend.  He was at University with Daniel and John and they’re drifting towards middle-age.  Daniel has moved on from his promiscuous phase and is living with Reg, who, unbeknownst to him, hasn’t.  The handsome, rich but rather disaffected, John, also loves Reg but is keeping it a secret from Daniel. The only one who hasn’t “known” Reg is Guy, for the other couple in the cast, Benny and Bernie have also sampled his charms, albeit briefly.  The final member of this fine ensemble is the youngster, Eric, who meets everyone having been hired to decorate Guy’s flat and he, too, is linked to the ever present but absent Reg.

The whole cast is exemplary.  Jonathan Broadbent plays the nurturing and hurting Guy with just the right amount of pathos, an excellent contrast to Julian Ovenden’s confidently handsome John and Geoffrey Streatfeild’s boisterous Daniel.  The latter is a joy to watch.  Over the top, this camp life and soul of the party shows his hidden depths towards the end of the play.  Richard Cant as Bernie is the intense and rather boring female side of the Benny and Bernie partnership, in sharp contrast to his forthright lorry-driving partner portrayed by Matt Bardock.  Last but by no means least, Lewis Reeves, brings just the right amount of youthful optimism to the role of Eric and nicely highlights the chasm that age brings.

The direction by Robert Hastie is tight and controlled, whilst the Sound Designer, Gregory Clarke and Designer, Peter McKintosh both do a wonderful job.  The meticulous flat, constant patter of rain on the conservatory roof and period music all add to the atmosphere of this iconic gay play, which, with its mix of laughter and tears appeals to all persuasions.  

Sunday 3 August 2014

Great Britain at The Lyttleton


The rehearsals for Richard Bean’s new play, Great Britain, were shrouded in secrecy and the first that members of The National Theatre heard about it was in an email a few days before its opening.  The reason for this was the Levenson Enquiry and the brouhaha surrounding phone hacking and the like.  Because Mr. Bean’s (no not that Mr. Bean) satirical comedy is set in the offices of the daily tabloid newspaper, The Free Press, where all kinds of shenanigans take place (‘we go out and destroy other people’s lives’).  Not that he just has a pop at the press, for the police, politicians and recent scandals are all fair game during his lengthy 2 hours, 24 minutes play.

It boasts a great cast.   Billie Piper is Paige Britain its amoral and highly ambitious news editor, Robert Glenister plays the potty mouthed editor, Wilson Tikkel and Dermot Crowley assumes the role of the Irish proprietor, Paschal O’Leary.  They all have a high old time firing shots at various British institutions, some more obvious than others.  For the Guardener (‘we think so you don’t have to’) read the Guardian, the Dependent, the Independent, Rebekah Brooks, Virginia White, Paschal O’Leary, Rupert Murdoch (as I say some names are more subtle).

Billie Piper’s character, who has no qualms about how she gets to the top as long as she gets there, is at the centre of the whole play.  Her bed fellows include her boss, O’Leary, the Assistant Police Commissioner, Donald Doyle Davidson, played by the excellent Oliver Chris and the Conservative Leader, Jonathan Whey.  She also doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty.  When Virginia White beats her to the post of editor when Wilson Tikkel moves onto television, it’s Paige who does all the dirty work, whilst her new boss escapes to her eerie to run the campaigns close to her heart and suck up to O’Leary.

During the course of the evening we come into contact with ‘Jimmy the Bins’ and Marcus, two of Paige’s ‘informers’.  One sifts through various celebrities’ rubbish (no awards for guessing which one does the sifting) whilst the other dons a multitude of disguises in order to sting the aforementioned celebs.  In this murky world of the tabloids, anything goes and does.  I wonder how Mr. Bean got his ideas?  Amongst many comedic characters, one in particular stands out, namely Commissioner Sully Kassam, a sublimely funny Aaron Neil.  No-one in high office could ever be so hilariously inept and bungling, could they?

Tim Hatley’s design brilliantly evokes a bustling newspaper office, but the clever use of a glass wall separating the editor from his minions is a bit too clever.  When the actors deliver their lines behind the glass a lot of their dialogue is lost which is a great shame as Great Britain is built on superb one-liners and to miss even one is a travesty.  Not that I can admit to ‘getting’ every single joke – too clever for me, mate!!

Whilst Great Britain isn’t as gloriously funny as Richard Bean’s previous scorcher, One Man, Two Guvnors, it’s a very clever expose of much that is wrong with our tiny island.  Stereotypes abound, but as the acting is of the highest quality Mr. Bean’s point is perfectly made.