Venue: Garrick 1970
Directed by Mark Cunningham
Four playlets
Black and Silver
The New Quixote
Mr Foot
Chinamen
Cast
Richard Briers
Lynn Redgrave
Review
The Stage: R.B.M.
There
are
cleverness, skill and invention in Michael Frayn’s “The Two of Us”,
a four-play production at the Garrick; there are also long-windedness,
shortage of ideas at certain critical points, and a need for a steadily
sustained theatrical flourish. So obviously we have a mixed evening.
Yet one can easily imagine Mr Frayn coming up later on with something
with a better all-round polish, firmer handling, and finer judgement as
to just how long a work can go on with safety.
In" Black and Silver" we have a couple in the throes of trying to recapture the romance of a Venetian honeymoon; now they have a baby yelling in the offing, and habit has grown many a crust. It is fun some of the time; at other times it flags. “The New Quixote has a young man talking badly digested Freud as he prepares to move in with a woman whose idea it is that he should stay but one night. This, too, has its diversions; this, too. rather disappoints in the end. Getting closer to underlying realities, in ”Mr Foot" Mr Frayn is at his best, with a husband and wife deep in frustration, the husband's wagging foot being expressive of a world of suppressed hysteria and emotion gone to dust. Farce comes with “Chinamen, a sort of Goldoni sketch in a with-it London setting, which at its best, is slick and ingenious.
The acting, like the plays, varies in impact and quality. Richard Briers and Lynn Redgrave, playing many parts, shoulder the evening valiantly. In “The New Quixote" they are at their best, and “Mr Foot” brings excellent moments from them. One wanted throughout, however, a brighter sparkle, more variety, at once a deeper and a lighter touch, and as with the plays, a pervading theatrical flourish.
In" Black and Silver" we have a couple in the throes of trying to recapture the romance of a Venetian honeymoon; now they have a baby yelling in the offing, and habit has grown many a crust. It is fun some of the time; at other times it flags. “The New Quixote has a young man talking badly digested Freud as he prepares to move in with a woman whose idea it is that he should stay but one night. This, too, has its diversions; this, too. rather disappoints in the end. Getting closer to underlying realities, in ”Mr Foot" Mr Frayn is at his best, with a husband and wife deep in frustration, the husband's wagging foot being expressive of a world of suppressed hysteria and emotion gone to dust. Farce comes with “Chinamen, a sort of Goldoni sketch in a with-it London setting, which at its best, is slick and ingenious.
The acting, like the plays, varies in impact and quality. Richard Briers and Lynn Redgrave, playing many parts, shoulder the evening valiantly. In “The New Quixote" they are at their best, and “Mr Foot” brings excellent moments from them. One wanted throughout, however, a brighter sparkle, more variety, at once a deeper and a lighter touch, and as with the plays, a pervading theatrical flourish.