The Authenticator

by Winsome Pinnock

seen at the National Theatre (Dorfman) on 25 April 2026

Miranda Cromwell directs Rakie Ayola as Abi, Cherrelle Skeete as Marva and Sylvestra Le Touzel as Fen in a short play in which Abi and her research assistant Marva are invited by Fen, the inheritor of a family estate, to authenticate some diaries she has discovered in a chest, which may relate to her abolitionist ancestor, a Jamaican plantation owner.

The estate is run down - gloriously indicated by Jon Bausor's inventive set, which even contrives a spooky dungeon revealed by the cunning use of a concealed stairway in the floor - and the academics, being Black, have vested interests in the project which may compromise their professional protocols, especially when it seems that the writer of the diaries may have treated slaves badly, and that the family has continued with racist attitudes down to the present day. Yet despite these weighty themes there is much humour in the piece as Pinnock sets about skewering both landed pretensions (Fen's background is belied by her plummy accent) and the clichés of haunted house mysteries with a deft touch occasionally marred by coincidences which are a little too convenient.

Man and Boy

by Terence Rattigan

seen at the National Theatre (Dorfman) on 28 February 2026

Anthony Lau directs this revival of Terence Rattigan's 1963 play Man and Boy with Ben Daniels as Gregor Antonescu, Laurie Kynaston as Basil Anthony (actually Gregor's son Vassili), Phoebe Campbell as Carol Penn (Basil's girlfriend), Malcolm Sinclair as the financier Mark Herries, Nick Fletcher as Sven Johnson (Gregor's assistant), Leo Wan as David Beeston (Mark Herries's accountant) and Isabella Laughland as Countess Antonescu (Gregor's wife).

Basil and Carol, in a not entirely satisfying relationship, are unexpectedly interrupted by the arrival of Basil's estranged father; his machinations turn out to be the primary focus of the play, presented here in an extraordinary production designed by Georgia Lowe. Rattigan's reputation for stolid settings (here, of a 1930s New York apartment) is blown away, replaced by an almost bare stage with a billiards-green baize carpet and functional tables and chairs such as one might find in a community hall. Furthermore the theatre has been reconfigured so that the stage is in the middle with banks of seats on either side. The acting style is also transformed. Gregor in particular slinks and prowls like a wild, not to say feral, animal, moving with a catlike grace that is at times extremely menacing. The tables are pushed and pulled around the stage and frequently mounted by one or more characters in moments of acute emotional stress.

Watching all this as the unsavoury plot unfolds - Gregor is shamelessly prepared to pimp his son out to a financier as a bribe to forestall the collapse of a business merger threatened because the accountant Beeston has found suspicious transactions in the Antonescu empire - is an intoxicating experience. The entrapment of Mark Herries, bamboozled by fast talking and fatefully corrupted by the tantalising offer of a young man's services (with no idea that Basil is related to Gregor), is a horrifying spectacle, while the level of exploitation involved seems too grotesque for the somewhat naive Basil to grasp.

But the irrepressible Gregor can after all be crushed: momentarily by Basil's excoriating put-down, and more fatefully by the unravelling of his business dealings (though not directly the affair elaborated in the first half of the play). As the background to Gregor's personality and his conflicted attitude to Basil becomes clearer we are on the more familiar Rattigan territory of strained relationships and family dysfunction. The mesmerising intensity of the first half perhaps slackens, and Basil's quixotic attempts to save his father despite his obvious flaws (because it is "the system" that is at fault, as Basil the good socialist maintains) is perhaps not entirely convincing. 

Ben Daniels puts in a superb performance as Gregor, ably matched by the rest of the cast whom he manipulates with consummate ease while his star is in the ascendant. When his world collapses his anguish is equally overblown; we may not be sympathetic after being exposed to his ruthlessness, but it ids easy to recognise his nihilism as the obverse of his frenetic energy.

 All in all this revival only serves to enhance Rattigan's reputation as a first-rate dramatist. 

My Country; a work in progress

prepared by Carol Ann Duffy

seen at the National Theatre (Dorfman) on 1 March 2017

Rufus Norris directs Penny Layden (Britannia), Stuart McQuarrie (Caledonia), Adam Ewan (South-West), Christian Patterson (Cymru), Seema Bowri (East Midlands), Cavan Clarke (Northern Ireland) and Laura Elphinstone (North-East) in a play comprising verbatim interviews with dozens of people in the various regions of the UK (pointedly excluding London and the South-East, apart from some politicians' statements spoken by Britannia) in relation to the Brexit referendum, with framing and connecting pieces by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

The play opens with Britannia calling the regions together for a meeting "as she always does" at critical moments of history - some previous occasions are referred to, going back to the fourteenth century. As the representatives of six regions arrive they bustle and chatter, the tensions between them veering between relaxed chaffing and more serious confrontation; Britannia is like a convener somewhat weary of the bickering. 

The Red Lion

by Patrick Marber

seen the the National Theatre (Dorfman) on 4 August 2015

The play is directed by Ian Rickson and features Daniel Mays as Kidd, Peter Wight as Yates and Calvin Kemba as Jordan. It is set in the dressing room of a football club. Kidd is the ambitious and slightly dodgy club manager, Yates a one-time player now reduced to managing the club's kit (washing and ironing), and Jordan a promising young player offered a contract with the club.

The three men are all passionate about football, but being totally different personalities, each brings different loyalties to the situation. Kidd regards Yates as a loser and an encumbrance, while Yates sees Kidd as the unacceptable modern face of football as a business instead of a vocation. Jordan wishes to behave in an ethical manner and bridles at Kidd's tactical instructions - yet he fails to disclose a crucial piece of information, naively expecting that playing well in an amateur club with no further ambition bypasses the issue. Since the other two (especially Kidd) see him as a candidate for a potentially lucrative transfer, a crisis rapidly engulfs all three.

In a bare and rather run-down set, with only three actors, a wealth of tension, aspiration, frustration and anger is revealed as the two older men battle for their vision of the game and hope to recruit the youngster to their own cause, without really telling him straightforwardly what is at stake. Marber is excellent at providing dialogue which uses the situation at hand to reveal many issues of personality, status and ambition, and the three actors rise to the challenge. The explosions of energy and anger are offset by scenes of mundane activity or quiet reminiscence, through which we come to realise how heavily invested the three men are in the club. Though sport as a metaphor for life is a well-worn idea, the play uses it with great skill to reveal their characters, their weaknesses and strengths alike.

Daniel Mays brings a cocky urgency to Kidd, his pent-up energy masking an emptiness that only the wiser Yates can perceive - but Yates has neither the strength nor the authority to help resolve the problem. Peter Wight's body language, a pitiable slumped stature from which he rarely asserts himself, conveys the shattered shell of an out-of-touch romantic. Calvin Kemba convincingly sows us a young man looking to his future from a bleak past.  But, for all their shared enthusiasm, the three men are ultimately alone with their demons, which have fairly wrecked the Red Lion club. 

The Hard Problem

by Tom Stoppard

seen at the National Theatre (Dorfman) on 28 March 2015

Tom Stoppard's new play is directed by Nicholas Hytner (the retiring Artistic Director of the National Theatre) with Olivia Vinall as Hilary and Damien Molony as Spike. It is partly an examination of the 'hard problem' of the relation between consciousness and physics, with reflections on the questions of ethical goodness and the existence of God, and also on game theory as manifested in the machinations of the financial world.

The summary shows the grand themes jostling for attention in a single dramatic piece. Stoppard has an impressive track record in juxtaposing unexpected storylines to illustrate often abstruse philosophical questions while providing fizzing entertainment - see for example 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead', 'Jumpers', 'Travesties' and 'Arcadia'. Unfortunately this play is not one to add to the list.