The Dresser

by Ronald Harwood

seen at the Chichester Festival Theatre on 26 January 2017

This revival of the play, first performed in Manchester in 1980, is directed by Sean Foley with Ken Stott as 'Sir' and Reece Shearsmith as Norman, the eponymous Dresser. It portrays the close but fractious relationship between the autocratic actor manager of a wartime repertory company and his dresser, who possessively manages to cajole the over-stressed performer to rise to playing King Lear during an air raid.

The first act takes place in the dressing room; there is an initial panic because 'Sir' has had some sort of collapse in the market place and has been hospitalised. But he later appears, having discharged himself, and insists that the evening's performance should not be cancelled. The second act takes place partly on stage during the performance, and partly in the dressing room. The set is artfully designed to revolve to allow smooth transitions in the second half.

The play is full of sharp perceptions about repertory life, particularly during the war when there was much physical discomfort and evidently a short supply of new male talent (the supporting males are either past their best, or else physically wounded and hence discharged from the Services). Also, the actor manager's style, though comic at times to watch (though never to experience), is monstrously selfish. But then, so too is Norman, who fiercely defends his patch, more than half aware that his sense of self is totally dependent on his position, quite apart from his livelihood.

Ken Stott is wonderfully over the top, irascible, pettish, dominating, outrageous, yet able to summon reserves of actorly power even as he is struggling to remember which play he is in and when he should go on stage. Reece Shearsmith gives us an utterly convincing Norman, fussy, diligent, not quite sufficiently able to disguise his campness, full of little routines to keep things running his way, pathetically in need of approval when he is forced to make a public announcement. 

The play stands or falls by the relationship these two present to us, and in this case it was completely convincing. One could easily understand the curious reliance the two have on each other, and the completely different way in which each both acknowledges and denies the fact. Norman's ultimate realisation that Sir has completely failed to mention him in his projected memoirs is quite heartrending.

The production is also well served by the supporting players, who circle round their capricious boss with varying degrees of respect, affection and misplaced aspiration. This is a fine revival.