The Holy Rosenbergs, National Theatre, review
This new play by Ryan Craig is bum-numbingly worthy. Rating: * *
Bum-numbingly worthy: Henry Goodman (David) Susannah Wise (Ruth) in the Holy Rosenbergs at the National Theatre Photo: Alastair Muir
By Charles Spencer 6:11PM GMT 17 Mar 2011
Comments
In journalism, worthy is a synonym for dull, as I discovered during my first week in Fleet Street. I handed my boss the debut feature I had written for the paper. He read it carefully, gave me a kindly smile, and said it was very worthy. Briefly, I glowed. “Now go and rewrite it and make it interesting,” he said.
I rather wish someone had offered similar advice to Ryan Craig when he handed in the script of The Holy Rosenbergs. Boy, is it worthy. Conscientiously, laboriously, bum-numbingly worthy.
And, if that weren’t enough, it is up to ears in debt to Arthur Miller, in particular to two of his greatest plays, Death of a Salesman and All My Sons, as well as being burdened with a plot that repeatedly strains the audience’s suspension of disbelief beyond breaking point.
We are in a present-day Jewish home in Edgware. The father, a decent, loving family man, has fallen on hard times after a scandal involving his kosher catering business, though it is typical of the piece that the actual nature of the scandal proves downright bathetic when it is finally revealed.
But a bigger crisis presently engulfs the Rosenbergs. Their older son, Danny, has just been killed flying gunships over Gaza with the Israel Defense Forces, and the funeral is to take place the following day. His sister, meanwhile, is a lawyer who has been working on a UN report into war crimes in Gaza. The local Jewish community is up in arms about what they see as her betrayal of Israel and is threatening a demonstration at the funeral if she turns up.
That you might think would be enough for any play, but Craig can’t resist thickening the mix by making the family hold a crucial dinner on the evening before the funeral for a wealthy doctor who might be able to save their tottering catering business.
If you can believe this, or that the decent doctor, who has only bad news to bring to the feast, would attend on such a night, then you will believe anything.
Laurie Sansom’s production, staged on a vertiginous, in-the-round configuration of the NT’s Cottesloe auditorium, struggles heroically to make the play seem persuasive, but he cannot disguise either its improbabilities or its schematic nature.
At least some excellent acting averts total ennui. Henry Goodman is superb as the father, trying to hold the family together in the face of grief, bad luck and, it transpires, in a Miller-like twist, guilt. His dogged determination and desperate brightness are powerfully caught, his moments of despair extremely moving. One longs to see him in a great Miller play rather than this ersatz derivative.
There is strong support from Tilly Tremayne, as his anxious, stoical wife, and Alex Waldmann as their mixed-up younger son. But Susannah Wise struggles to make sense of the contradictions of the conflicted human rights lawyer, and the dramatist brings little fresh insight to the vexed subject of Israeli/Palestinian relations.
Worthy? Yes. And worth avoiding, too, I’d say.
loving family man, israel defense forces, henry goodman, ryan craig, susannah wise, suspension of disbelief, charles spencer, flying gunships, debut feature, fleet street, rosenbergs, war crimes, arthur miller, son danny, catering business, death of a salesman, breaking point, alastair, jewish community, betrayal
No comments:
Post a Comment