FROM THE ROYAL COURT THEATRE PRODUCTION
(seen at the afternoon performance on 5th October 2024). Some actors have now left the cast.
You read it here first, folks: John Lithgow really was Roald Dahl’s stunt double. OK, not really, but you would not believe that it wasn’t Dahl himself addressing his publishers, British and American, little mouth pursed “like a cat’s bum” in anger. It is a truly astonishing performance which lifts a solid play to unexpected heights.
Mark Rosenblatt tackles the highly sensitive subject of antisemitism, even more relevant now than in 1983 when the play is set (the play itself was written before October 2023), with an even hand that pinches firmly enough to make the audience gasp.
Nicholas Hytner sensibly relaxes his own magic fingers, the actors happy to slouch against the undergoing-restoration walls (Bob Crowley’s semi-derelict dining room featuring screw jacks as rusty as anti-Israel sentiments expressed), awaiting conductor Hytner’s point to produce their counterarguments.
Fortunately, every single one of them can surf the waves of Typhoon Roald, though how long before wiping out is another matter.
We first meet British publishing mogul Tom Mashler (Elliot Levey) on fawning form, Kindertransport Jewish, taking no stance which might burn his meal-ticket.
The arrival of envoy Jessie Stone (Romola Garai) from their New York office, unbriefed and up-front about the effect on sales of Dahl’s recently-published “abolish Israel” review of a book about Lebanon, detonates like a Middle East missile head.
Garai and Lithgow circle physically and intellectually, his concessions and her fearless statement of position enthralling wrestling. That she is often off-balance but never thrown when Dahl changes tack is thrilling to observe, even more so to analyse after the final curtain.
Seemingly neutral, as Dahl’s partner Felicity “Liccy” Crosland, Rachel Stirling is aware yet deceptively detached - providing the key to another side of the author... and perhaps a counterweight he does not expect.
As their Australian housekeeper, Hallie, Tessa Bonham Jones keeps a constant temperament and supply of comestibles to delight her (what she does not regard as) employers. Her final scenes make some of the greatest impact of the entire piece.
A note too for Richard Hope who, as gardener Wally Saunders, is an honest voice in this wilderness, wily enough not to antagonise Dahl, shrewd enough to calm the overwrought baby he is accused of being.
This is the most important point of the play, and also its single weakness. In the closing scene, Rosenblatt replays the Dahl interview in which the writer admits his likely antisemitism to a journalist, “on the record.”
What we are unsure of, even after 2 hours of analysis, is whether Dahl is clear-thinking enough to truly confirm that belief to himself. The evidence is very strong, yet in reaching it we realise that other aspects of Dahl’s personality – traumas of war, losing children and constant physical pain have all been minimised, losing potential opportunities for further character illumination.
It is easy to conclude that he was an antisemite; but also here a ‘drama queen’ and certainly a highly traumatised man carrying a psychological flaw allowing him to match, emotionally, his target audience - with worrying ease.
Towering central performance, scrumdiddlyumptious work by the rest of those on stage, in almost a giant peach of a play.
