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Single Spies - A Englishman
Abroad and
A Question of Attribution- Touring Double Bill of two
Alan Bennett Plays
Playwright - Alan Bennett
Director - David Grindley
Designer - Tim Shortall
Lighting Designer - Jason Taylor
Musical Director/Sound Designer - Simon Slater
Company - Theatre Royal Bath Productions by arrangement with Richard
Jordan Productions - Cast see end of review
Venue - King's Theatre Edinburgh 0131 529 6000
New Secure 72 hr email booking + info available at www.eft.co.uk
Dates & Times - 1 - 5 Oct at 7:30pm Mats Wed & Sat
at 2:30pm
Continues on tour following Venues & Dates
see end of review
Seen to review at King's Theatre Edinburgh 1 October 2002
Run Time - 2hours 20 mins with 15 mins interval
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Contrasting roles of humour and depth.
An Englisman Abroad - Theatre Royal Bath Production
Robert Powell as Burgess and Liza Goddard as Coral
Browne
© The photographer 2002
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It's always a risk going to see a revival of a play you saw when it was new,
still in the West End of London and with its starry first cast. I saw these
in their first outing double bill, with Alan Bennett, Prunella Scales and
Simon Callow. But I'm glad I took the risk last night.
Robert Powell takes the role of both the single spies mentioned in
the overall title, Burgess and Blunt two B-----s, both agents of her Majesty
but their first allegiance to Communist Russia. One had to flee England
at the weekend (his Secret service tail didn't expect him to do anything
naughty out of "working" hours). The other, Blunt, became keeper
of the King's and then the Queen's pictures. She could be said to have inherited
him along with the crown and the royal visits. Both belonged with Kim Philby,
Maclean and John Cairncross, to a Cambridge Spy ring. Powell acts
two very different Englishmen, Burgess hanging out all over the place, still
loving what he left, charming in his disorder. In the second play we have
Blunt, hiding himself in the art world, a chilly academic, played with impenetrable
tight laced style by Powell.
In An Englishman Abroad actress Coral Browne, Liza Goddard,
in Moscow as part of the advance troops of culture during the The Thaw of
1958, finds Burgess throwing up back stage in Michael Redgrave's sink. A
few days later, she's in the exile's flat measuring him up and listening to
her ex-beau Jack Buchanan's recording "Who Stole My Heart Away" until
they get the okay to go out, the lunch wasn't up to much either. But Bennett's
lines, seemingly light, really get to the heart of alliances, and the loneliness
of being gay or royal. In a week when secrets are being revealed, I'm talking
Major and Curry here, when Burgess says "No point in having a secret
if you make a secret of it" we hear the sharp bell of political truth.
A Question of Attribution - Theatre Royal Bath Production
Robert Powell as Blunt.
© The photographer 2002
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A Question Of Attribution is set just as Blunt's Secret Service regular
questioner comes to tell him the immunity Blunt has won't protect him from
exposure as the fourth man. Blunt is more preoccupied with his own discovery,
a third man in a painting attributed to Titian. When he goes to Buck House
where it hangs, he has an unscheduled encounter with HM Queen. She has a
rare afternoon off, due to a new swimming pool springing a leak. In this
the first representation of a
living monarch on the stage, Bennett has written a witty expose of how a
monarch's life results in an extensive knowledge of facts, avoidance of
expressing an opinion and houses full of gifts and articles you have never
chosen. It's not easy to be HM, even more difficult to give an essence of
her on stage, Goddard's characterisation hovers near but never satisfies,
whatever a Royal does - hesitation isn't part of her approach.
Timothy Kightley is a tailor of discretion and later a SS bod learning
about art accurately describing post realism as "Forget the rules,
let's kick it about a bit", while Nigel Barrett ( seen at 2002
Edinburgh Fringe in award winning Al Hamlet Summit) rightly gets a round
of applause for the intensely knowledgeable Royal Household servant Colin.
All in all it's a very good double bill, references in one feed into
the next or reflect back to the one which precedes it. Bennett's view
that loving or representing a country are no easy things uses history
and art to present fascinating and unusual insights. And it's a pleasure
to see Powell on good form, in contrasting roles of humour
and depth.
© Thelma Good 1 October 2002. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
The Lord Chamberlain who would have blocked such a
play and his office ceased in 1968. Until then plays except those performed
in clubs had to be authorised by him.
Cast
shown in order of An Englishman Abroad/A Question Of Attribution:
Burgess/Blunt - Robert Powell
Coral Browne/ Her Majesty The Queen - Liza Goddard
Tailor/Chubb - Timothy Kightley
Tolya/Phillips - Tom Ewen
Shopkeeper/Colin/Restorer - Nigel Barrett
Tour details of this production of
Single Spies - A Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution
Tours to in week begining
7 Oct - Jersey Opera House
14 Oct - Theatre Royal Bath
21 Oct - Chelmsford Civic Theatre
28 Oct - Malvern Festival Theatre
4 Nov - Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne
11 Nov - His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen
25 Nov - Grand Theatre, Swansea
Tour ends
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