The Two Popes (Rose Theatre, Kingston and on tour)
Conclusion: Alpha Dads
Valuation: 
The Snail Shell (Hampstead Theatre, London)
Conclusion: please more pain!
Valuation: 
At a time of succession in the royal family, this beautiful revival of Anthony McCarten’s play about Popes Benedict and Francis is apt.
The central question of how we move from one era to the next and how an incumbent deals with his or her office is a difficult one for us today.
The play, which was filmed with Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, is a speculation about what happened behind the scenes in 2013 when Benedict rocked the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics by becoming the first pope to resign in 700 years.
The retiring Pope is played here by Anton Lesser – with Nicholas Woodeson as Francis – and both find great warmth in the troubled souls of the men.
The big debate is whether the Catholic Church should renew or transform its 2,000-year-old traditions. But both McCarten and the actors focus on the two men as human beings overwhelmed by a tremendous responsibility.
The resigning Pope is played here by Anton Lesser (right) – with Nicholas Woodeson as Francis (left) – and both find great warmth in the troubled souls of the men
Lesser initially revels in Benedict’s delight in secretly watching Inspector Rex, the Austrian crime thriller about a criminal dog. He innocently remembers how in his youth a girl allowed him to pick salt from her pretzel.
Woodeson’s Argentine Cardinal Bergoglio (who later became Pope Francis) loves to dance the tango and watch football; and once he told a girl that he would become a priest if she didn’t marry him (the sigh that follows is worth the price of admission alone). But Bergoglio reminds Benedict that a priest is a “flawed vessel” and asks who they are to make changes to a church that itself is in such great need of forgiveness.
Former Joseph Ratzinger (later Benedikt) is wracked with guilt over his failure to thwart a pedophile priest in Germany. Bergoglio is ashamed that he didn’t do more for the victims of the fascist junta in Argentina in the 1970s. And yet one of them, despite their imperfections and scruples, must bear the burden of papacy.
Both are spurred on by supportive and provocative nuns (Lynsey Beauchamp and Leaphia Darko); and James Dacre’s production is delicate yet intense. There are sometimes cheesy explosions of ‘Gloria! glory!’ Echoing amidst billowing incense and church lights, but this is a thoughtful and moving joy that shines anew.
Catholics are known for their belief in the dignity of suffering, and as a Catholic, I would have liked to have been made to suffer a little more by Richard Eyre’s debut play, The Snail House.
Clearly influenced by the great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, it tells the story of a consultant pediatrician and imperial knight who is caught up in the past as he celebrates his 55th birthday with friends and family.
Our doctor, played by Vincent Franklin, is an overbearing northerner, firm in his belief in science. During the evening he is confronted with the catering manager whom he testified against in court (it turns out) a few years ago.
The doctor’s wife (Eva Pope) endures ailments familiar to alpha male spouses, while his gay son (Patrick Walshe McBride) is a scathing political adviser and their daughter (Grace Hogg-Robinson) is a teenage eco-warrior.
One of the great directors of modern times, Eyre (a late author at 79) skillfully unfolds the plot. But I longed for more of everything: sweat, tears, intrigue, and most importantly, pain.
Not to mention cleverness. How, for example, did the catering manager (Amanda Bright) end up running the posh party in an oak-panelled schoolroom? Was it just a coincidence?
Our best medic could have used a more moral dilemma: one that might have revealed greater depths in his character. Instead, the charges against him are not really his fault and will be resolved at little cost.
See Web for more reviews.
Funny couple, quirky game…should be a perfect match
The Clothes They Got Up In (Nottingham Playhouse)
Verdict: Secondhand Bennett
Valuation:
This should have been a wedding in theater heaven: two of our favorite, thoroughly quirky and funny actors, Adrian Scarborough and Sophie Thompson, in the staging of an Alan Bennett novella about a bizarre sort of burglary that first takes a couple’s lives theirs worldly possessions (including used toilet brushes) and second, the “marital deceptions” that kept this couple going.
It’s a parable of sorts about the loss of “stuff” – and the discovery that possessions count for less than living, loving relationships, which neither knew much about before the robbers emptied the contents of their London flat.
There’s a brief explanation of the robbery, but that’s certainly not the point of this little literary gem.
Unfortunately, it’s now the focus of Scarborough’s adaptation, which hasn’t been convincingly drawn to post-Brexit Britain. A portrait of a marriage becomes an overstretched, over-the-top crime thriller that loses Bennett’s deliciously amused ironic tone in the process.
This should have been a wedding in theater heaven: two of our favorite, thoroughly quirky and funny actors, Adrian Scarborough (left) and Sophie Thompson (right), in the staging of an Alan Bennett novella about a bizarre type of burglary that a Couple stripped first of their worldly possessions (including used toilet brushes) and second of the “marital deceptions” that kept this couple going
But even second-hand Bennett has its joys. For the meek, downtrodden Rosemary, bent and stooped before her time, the robbery proves liberating and revealing, feelings that were a little hammered in by Thompson suddenly all joyous, breathtaking, amazing.
As she ventures into her local shop to stock up on essentials (as she has always adhered to Marks & Spencer safety), she is greeted by the kind Mr. Anwar, the widowed shopkeeper (an echo of Bed Among The Lentils, a by Bennett’s brilliant Talking Heads), delighted.
Crime Victim Counselor Dusty sweeps into the tidy apartment, and lounging comfortably on Rosemary’s new bean bags, the women discuss grief and the need to “groom your womb.” Excited about Lorraine Kelly appearing on daytime TV, Rosemary considers “improving her marital skills.” “I’ve grown,” she beams.
In contrast, Scarborough strives to revive the Mozart-mad Maurice, a deadly boring, quietly oppressive lawyer with a dirty secret who won’t shake off his rigid routine.
Some elaborate entertainment.
GEORGINA BROWN
The inspector still has the power to arrest us
An Inspector Calls (New Wimbledon Theatre)
Conclusion: still relevant at 30
Valuation:
Stephen Daldry’s radical reinterpretation of JB Priestley’s thriller (written in 1945 and set before World War I) was a smash hit at the National Theater in 1992 and won 19 major awards, including three Oliviers and four Tonys on Broadway. Now there has been a welcome 30th anniversary revival tour under Associate Director Charlotte Peters.
The play (on the stunning set by Ian MacNeil) begins with loud music and lots of smoke, with the Birling family dollhouse, a house stranded amidst a devastated cityscape, underscoring the fabulous quality of the work, a moral tale for our time.
The mysterious Inspector Goole (Liam Brennan, beautifully sardonic) makes an unexpected visit to the wealthy Birlings as they gather to celebrate daughter Sheila’s engagement to local businessman Gerald (Simon Cotton).
The mysterious Inspector Goole (Liam Brennan, beautifully sardonic, pictured) makes an unexpected visit to the wealthy Birlings as they gather to celebrate daughter Sheila’s engagement to local businessman Gerald (Simon Cotton).
Goole investigates the death of a young woman who it turns out everyone knew in some way – none of them positively.
Sheila, given emotional weight by Evlyne Oyedokun, is the moral center of the play, a squishy social butterfly who develops a conscience before our eyes while the hypocrisy of her fiancé and parents (Jeffrey Harmer and Christine Kavanagh) is exposed.
I had the added, um, pleasure of seeing this production at a school play. There’s no better barometer of clunky performance and over-the-top acting than a large group of teenagers, and I’m happy to report that their tickers were few.
Daldry’s staging remains a relevant social document – and the play still comes across as a stirring call to personal responsibility.
Until September 17th, then on tour (aninspectorcalls.com)
VERONICA LEE