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Bennett's wit sparkles as ever on 'English' theme
THE OLD COUNTRY
Trafalgar Studios
THERE was a buzz about the audience waiting to see Alan Bennett’s
The Old Country that you find with few other playwrights. Rarely
has a playwright been so adored, not least for his guarantee
to reduce its spectators to fits of laughter.
This one had me: “If there was an alcoholic called
Johnnie Walker,” writes Bennett, “could he start an
association called alcoholics eponymous? Find two of them with
the same name, and you could call it alcoholics synonymous.”
With the sheer quality of his prose and the brilliance of his
jokes, Alan Bennett has become a national treasure. West End
productions – most recently the Olivier-award-winning History
Boys – are now unmissable. Bennett’s “very English”
plays are the FA Cup finals of the theatrical calendar.
Somewhat ironic then that this ambiguous tag of Englishness
has rankled with the playwright and is the subject of his play.
In An Englishman Abroad, which preceded The Old Country, Guy
Burgess said: “I can say I love London. I can say I love
England. I can’t say I love my country, because I don’t
know what that means.”
In the Old Country, the irrelevant and forgotten Hilary (Timothy
West) – cast out by his country for espionage – is
this contradiction personified. He is both a Soviet spy and
a romantic Englishman. He reads The Times, listens to Elgar,
browses his first editions – summoning passages of Proust,
EM Forster, but not Dickens – and lamenting the decline
of tearooms.
Jean Marsh played the knowing, unforgiving wife, Bron.
The entire play takes place on the veranda in their Russian
hideaway. They dread the arrival of Bron’s sister Veronica
(Susan Tracy) and her successful husband, Duff (Simon Williams),
from “the old country” England. I was expecting the
tried-and-tested upper-class city twits descend on foreign paradise
scenario. With his bright red socks, lunatic laugh and smug
confidence, Duff did not disappoint. But at times the intelligence
of Bennett’s dialogue outshone the talents of this notable
and distinguished English Touring Theatre cast.
Until May 6
0870 060 6632
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