Anita Dobson, beloved by many for her appearances as Angie Watts in EastEnders and in Strictly Come Dancing stole the night with her hilarious entrance as the bedraggled, soaked and much-duped mother of the very naughty Tony. Michael Pennington seethed nicely throughout as Mr Hardcastle, and a very chirpy Catherine Steadman as Kate connived effectively to win her somewhat dubious (you’d have to say) man.
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“The universally praised production of Christopher Hampton’s translation of Florian Zeller’s French hit returns, triumphantly, to the Theatre Royal, this time in the main house. I reviewed this, my favourite play of 2014, on its English premiere at the Ustinov and I’m pleased to say nothing has happened in the interim to alter my initial judgement. . . [Kenneth Cranham’s] performance has found new facets. Experiencing it is like watching a mirror shatter in slow motion as the shards separate, briefly reflecting some piece of past reality. . . ”
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The Bath audience greeted Suchet’s entrance with warm applause. By the end they clapped long enough for repeated sweeps to the front of the stage with the entire cast and a final triumphant solo pose and flourish. A long run starting in London later this month at the Vaudeville Theatre looks likely.
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Florian Zeller is a clever writer. Instinctively it appears, he has learned one of the peculiar strengths of the theatre; the relationship between spectator and actor, in tandem with one of the most precious of dramatic skills, how to manipulate the audience. We saw it in The Father and here in The Mother (the first of the duo) we have that rug-pulling ability that makes us question what we see and what the actors are seeing.
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It is difficult to decide who might be most disappointed by Monty Python’s Spamalot. Certainly fans of Eric Idle or the Holy Grail who will go expecting to see something raucous and silly and madcap – something that harks back to golden years of the Flying Circus – or at the very least pays a fitting homage to the film it scrapes from and scratches at. Fans of musical theatre too will be disappointed by its lack of pizazz and its underwhelming score.
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