![]() ![]() But this laborious revival reminds us that it only truly works when anchored in a world of visible reality. I'm loath to think that Restoration Comedy is dying. And although David Bamber scoops us the odd laugh, as the voyeuristic pandar, he doesn't convey the man's wheezing repulsiveness, as Hugh Paddick did in the play's last major outing. Anne-Marie Duff flounces prettily as Lady Dunce, without making you feel for her plight. Ray Fearon and Alec Newman, as the returning soldiers, convey little of the bitterness of the discarded military after the war. Lizzie Clachan's set is a cumbersome affair, dominated by an upstage, gilt-framed proscenium arch that simply leads to a set of anonymous rostra: I never felt for a moment that I was in the Restoration London constantly invoked in the text.Īnd many of the performances have a slightly directionless quality. At the same time he brings out the comic venom of a character who, when asked £200 for bumping off his amatory rival, claims: "Why, I'll have a physician shall kill a whole family for half the money."įord Davies aside, the evening has little sense of social or emotional reality. Most popular community and official content for the past week. ![]() When Ford Davies cries, at one point, "I'll crack the frame of nature", you recall that this is an actor who has played King Lear. He captures the mania, as well as the credulity, of a rasping old fool who has made an absurd December-May marriage. The chief pleasure, in a strenuous evening, lies in the performance of Oliver Ford Davies as the deceived Sir Davy. But, although Otway's language is feisty, his plotting is distinctly feeble. ![]()
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