Young Marx

by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman

seen at the Bridge Theatre on 20 December 2017

Nicholas Hytner directs Rory Kinnear as Karl Marx, Nancy Carroll as Jenny von Westphalen, Oliver Chris as Friedrich Engels and Laura Elphinstone as Helene Dumuth in this inaugural production of the Bridge Theatre situated in one of the new developments on the south-west side of Tower Bridge.

The play concentrates on the early years of Marx's life in London when he and his wife Jenny and four children (in the play, only two) and Helene Dumuth were living in a two-room flat in Dean Street Soho. Though some events have been 're-arranged' so that they can appear within this setting and time frame, the scenes presented in the play are essentially 'true', though at the same time the playwrights have noticed the farcical elements of the situation and have consequently emphasised Marx's larrikin nature as a young man.

Follies

by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Goodman (book)

seen at the National Theatre (Olivier) on 19 December 2017

Dominic Cooke directs Imelda Staunton, Janie Dee, Philip Quast, Peter Forbes and many others in this revival of Sondheim's bittersweet 1971 musical in which the demolition of an old Broadway theatre brings a group of 'Weismann girls' to a reunion during which memories are evoked and life stories hinted at and regretted.

Impresario Weismann produced an annual variety show of 'Follies' between the wars (1918 to 1941); In 1971, with the impending demolition of his theatre, he hosts a reunion with eleven 'girls' and one 'boy' from his troupe, plus two husbands and some other guests (or staff). The older, and possibly wiser, characters are shadowed by their younger selves in full 'Follies' costumes.

Misalliance

by Bernard Shaw

seen at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond on 14 December 2017

Paul Miller directs his third Shaw play at the ever-impressive Orange Tree Theatre (unfortunately I missed his The Philanderer though I saw Widowers' Houses in 2015). The new play fizzes with ideas and with almost absurd social situations, but the witticisms reveal unexpected truths and often surprisingly painful tensions, both between characters, and between the social roles people live by and their own (usually flattering) images they have of themselves.

In the hands of an excellent cast the now-unfashionable wordiness of Shaw is managed with great verve and dexterity; the speed of delivery is perhaps only possible in such an intimate space, but it certainly helps in preventing the play from being bogged down by its own verbiage. What lifts Shavian cleverness into something more probing is the deft revelations of depths of character beneath the surface brilliance of the dialogue. From the peculiar camp narcissism of Rhys Isaac-Jones's Bentley Summerhayes to the worldly-weariness of Simon Shepherd as his father Lord Summerhayes, from the brittle self-righteousness of Jordan Mifsúd's interloper to the bullying suavity of Luke Thallon's Joey Percival, we see people who can experience real pain, which their superficial behaviour can mask but not entirely conceal.