Death and the Maiden

Death and the Maiden was another joy brought to me via an email offer.

These come think and fast. Some I accept, most I refuse. And the ones that I do accept are usually spur of the moment decisions, "I fancy that" moments.

So when the time comes to go to the show the spur is long gone and forgotten. Part of the joy of the show then comes from trying to remember why I chose to go there in the first place.

The "there" this time was the Harold Pinter Theatre, which I been to twice previously this year when it was called the Comedy Theatre, and I suspect that the reason that I went was the "Olivier Award winning" tag.

On my previous visits I sat in the stalls but this time I was up in the circle. Even cheaper than that I went for a seat at the end of a row which had slightly obscured view. Giving up the right to see part of the stage where nothing happened saved me £10 on the seat next to me. Result!

Death and the Maiden is set in an unnamed Latin American country (the author is Chilean) that has recently emerged from military rule and is now stumbling towards democracy.

Part of this is a truth and reconciliation committee established by the new president. A leading human rights lawyer is appointed to the committee and this is a major career break for him. Immediately after the announcement he returns to his beach house and his wife.

He is delayed by a puncture but is rescued by a good Samaritan, a doctor, who has a spare and a jack (the lawyer's wife gave his away to her mother). The doctor turns up at the beach house to return something to the lawyer and is persuaded to stay for the night.

Things take a sinister turn in the morning when the wife confronts the doctor accusing him of being part of a group that had detained and raped her under the old regime. She then tries to extract a confession from him, tying him up and brandishing a gun to do so, while her shocked husband argues that proper justice, of which he is now a significant part, should be allowed to take its course.

The three then discuss, debate and dispute the past and how to deal with it.

The doctor proclaims his innocence throughout but give a couple of hints that he may be guilty even though the evidence against him is little more than consequential, such as his having a tape of Schubert's Death and the Maiden in his car which the wife remembers from her captivity.

As the words fly between them we learn more about the past, how it has changed them all, and we confront the difficulties of reconciliation for a nation through this specific example with its representatives of the wronged, the accused and justice.

The play takes place in one scene, the beach house, and has just the three actors. Thandie Newton (MI: 2), Tom Goodman-Hill and Anthony Calf (New Tricks) are all superb.

Death and the Maiden skilfully combines a plot that grows and surprises with a close examination of the political and personal realities of oppression. It may have been written about 70's Latin America but it translates easily to today and to the recent conflicts in countries like Libya and the Ivory Coast.

Betrayal at the Comedy Theatre

We all make mistakes and going to see Betrayal was one of mine.

I was tempted by the big names, Pinter wrote it and it stars Douglas Henshall (Primaeval) and Ben Miles (Coupling), and was finally hooked by a ticket deal that got me a reasonable seat for £25.

The play opened badly.

In the first scene lovers Douglas Henshall and Kristin Scott Thomas (a new name to me) met in a bar that reeked of the waiting room in Brief Encounter. At first I assumed that Henshall's character was meant to be drunk as he mumbled his way unconvincingly through the opening dialogue.

The stilted conversation was due, at least in part, to Henshall forgetting lines and having to be prompted. After that I was never sure if the poor dialogue was down to more forgotten lines, bad acting, real drunkenness or the director's intention. Either way the dialogue sucked throughout.

The play tries to be clever by starting at the end and working back to the beginning but once you know how it ends there are no surprises and no drama.

The characters were mostly unconvincing too. Henshall and Miles are prominent literary figures, both edited poetry magazines at Oxbridge, but you had to be told this as you would never have guessed. Miles came across as a businessman, which, to be fair, he had become, while Henshall was a school teacher. Economics probably.

Kristin Scott Thomas was a compelling gallery owner and was the one bright spark in the whole production.

Unfortunately her brightness made the dimness elsewhere even more obvious. I could never convince myself that a bright young thing like her could have had an affair with Henshall. The surprise was even greater than Shula Archer's when Caroline Bone revealed that her secret lover was Brian Aldridge (a classic Archers episode).

The betray in the title is missing from the play. Betrayal is a much stronger word than, say cheating, but nobody in the play seems that bothered by anybody else's infidelity.

There is only one scene with any passion in it at all and that's when Miles accuses Scott Thomas of having an affair with Henshall. But one good walk later and all is forgiven and life carries on as before.

Betrayal is a limp play presented limply and while Kristin Scott Thomas brightens it a bit that is not enough to make it worth seeing. Avoid.

The Children's Hour at the Comedy Theatre

The Children's Hour is another of those plays that I got tempted in to seeing via an offer through work (thanks Elaine!).

The name Keira Knightley was bit of a pull too but, to be honest, apart from knowing that it was a name that I should know I knew little about her.

They play, dating from 1934, tells the story of two school teachers who, after years of struggling, are starting to make a real success of their venture when a child's lies about their relationship throws their lives in to turmoil.

It takes the first half of the play to introduce the characters and the scene and then the story really unfolds in the second half.

In addition to the two teachers (shown here) there is the tell-tale schoolgirl and her aunt who is material in giving the story legs.

And therein lies the strength and weakness of the play. The story burns slowly as the morale mood of the time eats in to the women's lives. I'll not say more about the plot at the risk of spoiling it but I will say that there were a couple of surprises at the end. Well, they surprised me anyway.

The plot is a real strength, as is the acting of the two women. They are very convincing both as earnest teachers and as bemused victims.

I found the stronger characters, the young girl and her aunt, to be less believable and their actions were never fully explained. I don't blame the two actors for this at all, the weakness is in the play's characterisation of them but the play is much more about the plot than the people so this is only a minor gripe.

I'm not sure that the play is worth the hype that it's getting because of its stars but if you look past the names this is a good story well acted and that's plenty enough for a good night out.