10 – 20 January
This kind of post WWI play involving the Edwardian monied and leisured classes is just the kind of thing that the post WWII playwrights were waiting to throw the kitchen sink at. Maugham himself was no fan of the John Osborne led school of drama branding them, ungraciously, as ‘scum’. Nonetheless any playwright who can have four plays running simultaneously in the West End deserves our attention, if for no other reason than historical curiosity.
The now unfashionable notions of honour, duty, decency and one’s position in society which are aired during the play veil a more critical look at the position of women in society, of marriage, motherhood and the transient nature of love, which, unsurprisingly, still chimes with a modern sensibility.
The setting is the country house of Arnold Champion-Cheney (Pete Ashmore) to which his young wife Elizabeth (Olivia Vinall ) has invited his estranged mother, Lady Catherine Champion-Cheney and her long standing partner, Lord Porteous. Unaware that Lady Catherine’s estranged husband, Clive Champion-Cheney, whom she left some thirty years previously to live abroad with Lord Porteous, was also going to be in a cottage on the estate, (having himself returned from Paris some weeks before expected), Elizabeth, who is herself in love with Edward Luton, wants to draw on the experience and advice of the older woman. Thus the Circle of the title refers to the social scandal that engulfed Clive and his young son decades previously being repeated by the impending marital breakdown, which the dictates of love are again unable to resist.
Indeed to a modern audience the comedy is apparently a vehicle for an argument about the institution of marriage and its value to society, which concludes with (no surprises here) the old adage, Amor vincit omnia.
Jane Asher breathes life into her thinly written character, her Kitty being the perfect echo of a sparking socialite with enough intelligence not to take herself too seriously. Opposite her, Hughie (Nicholas Le Prevost) is a hollow shell of the once exciting politician who gave up all for love. Pete Ashmore is the somewhat grey and priggish politician who pointedly gives more attention to his new chair than his wife. Ms Vinall comes off best with Elizabeth, who shows more gumption, will power and passion than the rest, save perhaps her paramour Teddie Luton (Daniel Burke). He is an imperial adventurer and businessman whose final plea to her emotions turns the tide in his favour.
Standing in for an indisposed Clive Francis, Robert Maskell gives a breezy account of the rather louche Clive Champion-Cheney.
The play does sparkle from time to time but never quite takes off with the social analysis though interesting in itself, tending to clip the wings of an otherwise interesting piece of social history.
★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles, 12 January 2024
Photo credit: Nobby Clark
