Following on from his popular
2008 Royal Court debut with the dual-timeline gay drama The Pride, Alexi Kaye
Campbell’s second play Apologia was
produced at the Bush in 2009. It’s one of a number of plays of its period (Mike
Bartlett’s Love Love Love and Stephen
Beresford’s The Last of Haussmans
spring to mind) that attempted to explore the legacy of 1960s radicalism by
focusing on the generational conflict between the now-ageing radicals (often
represented by a strident maternal figure) and their offspring in the present
day. While these works differed a little bit in their attitudes, it’s notable
that most offered a judgemental and unsympathetic take on the ’60s generation,
flagging up the hypocrisies and compromises of the baby boomers in a way that
seemed designed to flatter younger audiences eager to view themselves as
victims of the older generation’s selfishness.
Somewhat tweaked, Kaye Campbell’s
play now receives its first major revival at Trafalgar Studios in a production
by Jamie Lloyd (who directed The Pride in 2013) that casts Stockard Channing as the ’60s representative. Kristin
Miller is a leading art historian who was a firebrand of the radical Left in
her youth. She’s just published a memoir, in which her two sons, Peter and
Simon, have not been mentioned. The
dramatic device used to bring her and said sons into collision is, predictably
enough, a dinner party, at which Peter, a banker, arrives with his American
girlfriend Trudi, to be joined by Simon’s girlfriend, Claire, an ambitious
actress currently starring in “a serialised drama that happens to follow the
trajectories of various people's lives". Simon himself, a depressed failed
novelist, is late to the party, but also along for the bumpy ride is Kristin’s bawdy
gay pal Hugh.
It’s the most conventional of
dramatic set-ups, then, and one that’s not entirely persuasive. We’re meant to
see how Kristin’s “neglect” of her sons
has led them to life choices that directly oppose hers, but details such as
Peter’s having met Trudi at a prayer meeting (to his mother’s horror) never completely convince. Kaye Campbell certainly tries for
fair-mindedness in his presentation of the characters but sometimes accomplishes
this by foul means, briskly scuttling two characters off-stage so that a third
can deliver a sympathetic speech that’s meant to fundamentally change our view
of the heroine.
Reining in his tendency for
pushy touches, Lloyd’s production treats the play in an unfussy manner, with
Soutra Gilmour supplying an attractive, picture frame-bordered kitchen set.
The production has an interesting rhythm, its broad comic tone giving way to a
quiet, tender (if overextended) mother/son scene at the mid-point. And the
essential mediocrity of the material is partially compensated for by a couple
of fantastic performances.
Joseph Millson doubles
efficiently though not scintillatingly as the resentful sons, while Desmond
Barrit gets laughs for fruitily playing Hugh as the ever-quipping quintessence
of camp. (Nonetheless, the character is a stereotype, with no suggestions of
interior life; it’s a jarring touch when we learn that he and Kristin are still
out there attending protest marches.)
Channing is absolutely
terrific, though, underplaying effectively to avoid making Kristin a mere
monster; with stillness and economy, she suggests the doubts and
disappointments lurking beneath the character’s implacable facade. Kristin’s
trajectory - from icy intelligence to inevitable emotional breakdown - is
highly problematic but Channing makes that arc a whole lot less gruesome than
it might be, scrupulously avoiding sentimentality.
The production’s other great performance
comes from Laura Carmichael (so memorable in Lloyd’s thrilling production
of The Maids last year) who finds the
goodness and integrity in Trudi’s comically perky politeness. Freema Agyeman is less assured, but gives some gusto to Claire’s
run-ins with Kristin. “It’s not a soap,” goes the running gag about Claire’s TV
show. Kaye Campbell’s play is, at heart, a sitcom. Its conflicts frequently feel
contrived, but the cast sometimes succeed in bringing a few sparks of truth to
the table.
Runs until 18th
November.
No comments:
Post a Comment