Alexi Kaye Campbell remains best known for The
Pride, his 2008 play (which debuted at the Royal Court and was later
presented Off-Broadway) which juxtaposed two versions of gay experience: one
set in the repressed '50s, the other in
the libertine 00s. Just opened in the National Theatre’s Dorfman auditorium,
Campbell’s new play, Sunset at the Villa Thalia, is also
structured with a significant, albeit much less radical, time leap. Its second
Act moves ahead nine years to assess the fall-out of various decisions made by
its quartet of protagonists.
The drama opens on the Greek island of Skiathos in 1967, on
the cusp of the coup that placed the military in power for seven years. An
English couple, Theo and Charlotte, are staying on the island, as Theo, a
writer, works on his new play. Theo and Charlotte have made the acquaintance of
an older American couple, Harvey and June. Harvey, it emerges, works for the US
government, and may be implicated in the political unrest engulfing the
country. Under his highly persuasive influence, Theo and Charlotte end up
purchasing the villa in which they’re spending their trip, buying it off of
Stamatis and his daughter Maria, who are emigrating to Australia.
Fast-forward nine years and Theo and Charlotte appear to
have settled into life on the island,
and are raising a family there. But the reappearance of June and Harvey, jaded
from their recent experience in
Chile, brings both personal and
political tensions to the fore.
Talky, intimate and low-key, Campbell’s play is
old-fashioned in its virtues, taking a potent political situation and
dramatising it through the highly relatable personal interactions of its
protagonists. At times the piece might put you in mind of Clare Peploe’s 1988 film
High Season, which explored the relations between
ex-pats and Greek islanders in a more comedic vein, or even of Luca
Guadagnino’s recent, much more highly strung A Bigger Splash.
At first it looks like the play will simply be pitting an
arty British couple against a pair of brash American imperialists, but Campbell
complicates this set-up in subtle and intriguing ways, giving the actors many
more nuances to play with. The cast is superb, with terrific, detailed work
from Ben Miles as the charismatic Harvey, Pippa Nixon as the increasingly
self-righteous Charlotte, and Sam Crane as the dreamer Theo. Elizabeth
McGovern very touchingly conveys the loneliness and quiet despair underpinning
June’s breezy persona, and there’s vivid support from Christos Callow and
Glykeria Dimou as the islanders.
Playing out on Hildegard Bechtler’s superbly realistic villa
terrace set, and with evocative lighting by Natasha Chivers and a fine sound
design by Tom Gibbons, Simon Godwin’s production finds the writing’s strengths
and conjures place and period wonderfully well.
I’m not too sure that Campbell’s suggestion that the purchase of a
property abroad can wreak damage comparable to American interventionism stands
up to much scrutiny, and in its final stages the play comes perilously close to
taking an anti-migration stance, implying that the Greeks' decision to move out
of the country (and the decision of the English to move in) has violated some
kind of natural, spiritual or historical order. Still, this is an absorbing new play that,
in its quiet way, gives much to debate, making for a rewarding, worthwhile
evening.
Reviewed for PopMatters.
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