| Multi-layered but never confusing |
The Habit of Art |
| National Theatre on tour , Venue Cymru, Llandudno. , October 19, 2010 |
Having already seen the play in London and then, with the same cast, on screen in Prestatyn as part of the NT Live opening season, I was fascinated to see how it would come over on tour with a whole new cast.Well it's still one of the most intelligent, moving, funny and richly layered dramas I've seen for a long time. I don't intend to compare and contrast because, while there are inevitably shifts of nuance in the performances, most people are seeing it for the first time and the present cast are those who should be judged. What most people know who come to see it is that it is about a meeting between W H Auden and Benjamin Britten in later life, a meeting that never actually happened, just as the meetings between Humphrey Carpenter, biographer to both men, and his subjects never happened either. It's quite a surprise then when the first thing on view is a higgledy-piggledy rehearsal room, a reproduction of one of those at the National Theatre. The reason for this is that we are eavesdropping on a rehearsal for a play about that momentous yet fictional meeting. So we have actors playing actors rehearsing a play which is the one we came to see but not the one we are watching for a lot of the time. We also have the backstage team, played of course by actors, led by Kay, the hard done by stage manager who is standing in for the director (he's visiting Leeds, Alan Bennett's home town – one of many wicked little in-jokes sprinkled throughout the play). Also present is the author (not the real one, the one of the play within the play) whose masterpiece is in danger of being cut to within an inch of its life by the absent director. Right, we now have a play that's about music, about the process of theatre, about old age, about fame, about sex, about rent boys, about coming to terms with your true nature and about the invisible people in life. Desmond Barritt was so properly insecure as Fitz, the actor, that a couple behind me thought he really had forgotten his lines when he asked for a prompt – he hadn't. As Auden he affected a pedantic speech style which slightly irritated me until I realised that it was part and parcel of the poet's armoury to keep the world at bay. Malcolm Sinclair's Henry was the epitome of the professional actor, reliable, turn his hand to anything, never going to set the town alight. He was also far more comfortable with his sexuality than his subject. His Britten was fastidious, precise yet unsure of his long-term fame in the musical world. Late in the play the two once great artistic figures have a long conversation when the ever down to earth Auden tries to get uptight Britten to admit to his true nature. This is the core of one strand of the play and the actors rose to it sublimely. For many people that will be the most memorable scene but the one that stays with me comes right at the end as the light's go out. Sarah Cadell's Kay had kept a firm but kindly hand on proceedings throughout and she played this quiet closing coda with a subtle acceptance of her place in the scheme of things that was truly moving. Matthew Cottle was delightfully dithery as Donald, the hapless actor playing Carpenter. Luke Norris was expertly chipper as Stuart, the rent boy hired by Auden. Simon Bubb's author didn't actually tear his hair out but came very close to it. This multi-layered but never confusing play is one of the best things Alan Bennett has written. Very funny and full of humanity, it's a gloriously entertaining and thought-provoking piece of theatre. |
Reviewed by: Victor Hallett |
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