Theatre reviews: The Libertine and The Good Canary
ALTHOUGH Chaucer wrote some bawdy verse, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester might lay claim to being England’s first pornographic writer.
A favourite of King Charles II and the epitome of the Restoration rake he shared the royal predilection for rumpy pumpy in all its forms.
Stephen Jeffreys’ 1994 play and 2004 film respectively lured John Malkovich and Johnny Depp into its aromatic embrace. Here the British young blood Dominic Cooper steps into the role of the irrepressible libertine. Cooper addresses the audience, saying: “I do not want you to like me!” but then proceeds to try to make us at least understand him.
This is a robust, faux-Restoration play which aims to expose the royal court as debauched, wasteful and morally corrupt. Charles commissions Wilmot to write a play extolling the virtues of his reign and is shocked at the filthy satire that results. Tim Shortall’s versatile set serves as a theatre, coffee house and the palace gardens, where the King’s sundial meets an unfortunate end and director Terry Johnson moves things around with economy and speed.
The three women in Wilmot’s life are wife Elizabeth (Alice Bailey Johnson), concubine Jane (Nina ToussaintWhite) and protofeminist actress Elizabeth Barry (Ophelia Lovibond) with whom the wretched rake falls in love.
All three are outstanding, as are Wilmot’s aristocratic confederates Etherege (Mark Hadfield), young-but-up-for-it Billy Downs (Will Merrick) and Jasper Britton’s cynical and politically savvy Charles II. Cooper brings an arrogant swagger to Wilmot but doesn’t possess the necessary danger or quite elicit the pity we should have for the anti-hero who chose self-destruction through dissipation over longevity as an artist.
It is easy to see what attracted US movie star and theatre director John Malkovich to Zach Helm’s play. A fierce and funny tale of smart Manhattan folk caught in the crossfi re of artistic and social responsibility versus vapid commercial success, it might serve as a blueprint for Malkovich’s own career.
It throws us into the lives of young couple Jack (Harry Lloyd) and Anne (Freya Mavor). Jack is a struggling novelist whose latest book propels him into the big league.
Anne is supportive but her amphetamine and alcohol addiction makes her a social liability, especially at the penthouse party of an upmarket publisher.
As the money rolls in, Anne’s acquisition of drugs increases exponentially. “That’s a lot of drugs!” says her dealer Jeff (a hilarious Ilan Goodman) when handing over an entire carrier bag full of pills. But as the play progresses we begin to understand what lies behind Anne’s fragile, fractured personality and the play contains a revelatory twist.
The Good Canary is a tremendously exciting, funny and moving play, with echoes of People, Places & Things and Betty Blue in its central character, a girl almost too smart to live. Malkovich marshals his cast beautifully and makes the most of theatrical trickery, notably a silent sequence in which the dialogue appears as subtitles and a very funny scene in which Anne cleans the apartment while high as a kite.
Finally he shifts from humour to heartrending horror with practised ease. Hugely entertaining, thought-provoking and bittersweet this deserves to be seen in the West End.
VERDICT 4/5
THE LIBERTINE at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Until December 3. Tickets: 020 7930 8800
THE GOOD CANARY at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, Until October 8. Tickets: 020 8174 0090
NEIL NORMAN @NJStreitberger