Paul - Ian McKellen
John - Jimmy Akingbola
Gita - Bindu De Stoppani
Susan - Deborah Findlay
Mina - Emma Beattie
Stephen - Tom Burke
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Directed by Michael Grandage
Designer - Paul Wills
Donmar Warehouse during the last week of
the run (do you seeing a pattern forming?!)
I missed the rehearsed reading of Mark's first full length play when it was performed 10 days ago at the Royal Court so I felt as though I was paying my dues here.
Mark has distilled the political and social climate into it's purest form.......the us and them. As is the way of the world and the intelligent beings that inhabit it, the tables turn and the hunters become the hunted. This is more a product of their own conscience and they suffer willingly. A long discussion about acceptance and submission. I felt some parallels with last night's Thomas Moore and Ian McKellen's character both suffering incarceration for being passive but with very different convictions of the soul.
To say this is innovative probably implies that it's originality is productive but I didn't feel it had quite the brio I was expecting. I can't find fault with any individual aspect but the total didn't appear equal to the sum of the very fine parts.
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