Theatreguide.London
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The Theatreguide.London Review
In March 2020 the covid-19 epidemic
forced the closure of all British theatres. Some companies adapted
by putting archive recordings of past productions online, others
by streaming new shows. And we take the opportunity to explore
other vintage productions preserved online. Until things return to
normal we review the experience of watching live theatre onscreen.
The
New Morality
Mint
Theatre November 2022
Mint
Theatre,
the New York company that specialise in rediscovering
early-Twentieth-Century plays, staged Harold Chapin's 1911 social comedy
in 2015 and now make it available online.
It
is a witty and stylish bauble, with situation, characters and dialogue
that anticipate Noel Coward – so much so that one wonders if the young
Coward knew and was influenced by it.
The
social tranquillity of some idle rich summering on a river has been
shaken because Betty publicly insulted Muriel – not for having an affair
with Betty's husband Ivor, but for acting as if she were and thus
subjecting him to ridicule.
The
bulk of the play consists of Ivor, Muriel's husband Teddy and others
trying to follow Betty's logic and find a way out of the social impasse.
And it is all very funny.
Betty
refuses to apologise or explain more than she has, Ivor moves from one
befuddlement to another, and Teddy, already confused by one inscrutable
woman, can't possibly cope with two.
Actually
it is Teddy who does eventually come closest to making sense of it all,
thanks to generous helpings of alcohol, and the play ends with everyone
sufficiently believing they understand everything to be able to carry
on.
All
this is done in high style and wit – a secondary character says he has
always found not trying to understand women 'a labour-saving device' –
and with a sufficient hint of underlying seriousness – Betty is really
frustrated at everyone's seeming denseness – to keep it from floating
away (another reminder of Coward).
If
the play has a weakness, it is that it sets up a real dramatic tension
between Betty's earnestness and Ivor's conviction she is getting worked
up over something minor, and then denies us the confrontation (however
comic) that would resolve it.
Instead
the play moves sideways to Teddy's sudden insight into why men and women
see things like this so differently.
It's
an explanation that probably wouldn't hold up if you thought about it
too much, but fortunately Teddy is drunk when he gives it, and the mix
of his trying to think more deeply than he ever has and having trouble
standing up carries the scene.
As
always, Mint's production is impeccable, making us Londoners wish we
could see everything they do. Director Jonathan Bank hits and maintains
exactly the right balance of comic sophistication and awareness of real
emotions.
Brenda
Meaney invests Betty with the absolute conviction she is right, the
weary exasperation of never being understood and an uncrackable veneer
of soigné wit while always keeping her sympathetic.
Michael
Frederic takes Ivor though several flavours of comic befuddlement
without ever looking foolish, and Ned Noyes rises to the challenge of an
original, convincing and comic drunk scene.
Gerald Berkowitz
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