We round up the reviews for Anthony Lau’s revival of Terence Rattigan’s play.
WhatsOnStage: **** “The clarity of Rattigan’s writing, his wounded observation of how the world can be corrupted when men use power for profit and without concern for women, children or really anyone else around them, still sounds like a clarion call. Man and Boy may not be Rattigan at his humane best, but this stringent revival makes it clear how much more loudly he still speaks than many playwrights who succeeded him.”
The Telegraph: *** “Power, money and sexual leverage drive the revival at the National, but it strains too hard to jazz things up experimentally.”
The Guardian: ** “It is a shame because this is an explosive story about the corruptions of capitalism with present-day echoes of Jeffrey Epstein, but the concepts smother the drama.”
The Standard: *** “The heightened staginess ramps up the excitement of a minor play, and provides a framework for Ben Daniels to strut his stuff. It’s an oddity, this, but worth seeing for him.”
London Theatre.co.uk: **** “Man and Boy may still not show Rattigan at his most humanly rich. But this production – in all its ruthless, game-playing glory – surely shows the play in its finest light.”
The Reviews Hub: **** “Leo Wan gives a very comic performance as the harassed accountant for American Electric, while Malcolm Sinclair manages to provoke sympathy in his role as the otherwise predatory Herries. Nick Fletcher is Sven, loyal though sharply undercut with pragmatism. It’s a shame that we don’t see more of the bubbly Carol (Phoebe Campbell), and Isabella Laughland as Gregor’s wife, the lofty Countess, is funny, but the arrival of her character only delays the very Shakespearean ending.”
All That Dazzles: *** “Putting aside this unevenness, Lau and co have done some truly strong work here, including Kynaston’s dynamic act two turn and Daniels’ act-one steamrolling of an incensed accountant being truly compelling moments of theatre. All a show’s team can hope for is to find its audience, and as many others rose to their feet in rapturous applause, I recognised that what may leave some viewers cold can have a clear, intense impact on others.”
London Unattached: **** “he writing bristles with a muscular, comedic vitality, and in the character of Antonescu the author has created one of the great monsters of the dramatic stage of that, as Michael Billington in the Times pointed out, looks forward to Anthony Hopkins’ Lambert Le Roux in Howard Brenton and David Hare’s Pravda from the 1980s and more contemporary characters such as Brian Cox’s Logan Roy in Succession. Man and Boy is a terrific and visceral piece of theatre that still resonates today.”
The Arts Desk: *** ” Daniels continues to hold the attention, adeptly shifting his physicality from strength to frailty. And he’s ably supported by the whole cast, with Fletcher coming into his own as the kind of loyal facilitator who, nonetheless, has his own exit plan expertly in place, and with the welcome second half addition of Isabella Laughland as Gregor’s wife Countess Antonescu – the title bought, of course. In her garish fur coat, lusty and self-interested, she is as brutally funny as her husband – as ever, it’s the villains who get all the best lines.”
British Theatre Guide: “Director Anthony Lou’s production doesn’t try to be naturalistic. A cast list, with names lighting up when they are part of the action, underlines it is theatre and, instead of real-life scenery, chairs and tables are raised on each other to create positions to match emotion and action and, aided by the movement direction of Aline David, you can’t take your eyes off things.”
Time Out: ***** “I don’t think every part of the design is loaded with meaning. But collectively it sets Rattigan free from chintzy tradition, and when combined with Angus MacRae’s wild, jazzy score gives the whole thing a sense of danger, unpredictability and transcendence of a specific time and place.”
Broadway World: **** “Set and costume designer Georgia Lowe has embraced the spirit of New York’s Art Deco heyday, with everything draped in velvet curtains beneath vintage spotlights, and characters constantly shedding their suspenders and vests like ideological snakeskin. Stylish though this showiness is, it sometimes feels like a distraction from the otherwise intimate staging, as does the gaudy cinema-style cast list on the back wall (a comment on the lives of the super-rich as endless performance, or a reminder to critics of how to spell everyone’s names?).”
London Theatre 1: **** “Ultimately, the plot may feel a bit far-fetched, even absurd at times, but this is Rattigan for the Succession generation – a caricature of toxic masculinity, dishonesty and coercive control. Sadly, there is as much sleaze in the world today as when this play was first performed in 1963. Some 60 years later, we can all still relate to the idea of men in power doing everything they can to hang onto their wealth and influence.”
West End Best Friend: *** “Inevitably, director Anthony Lau’s sub-Brechtian concept for the production dilutes the effect of the powerful performances and works against the truthfulness the actors bring to the production. Those performances, however, ensure that this remains a powerful if flawed account of a late and perhaps minor work by Rattigan.”
The production continues to play until the 14th March.