This play is rarely produced, and the explanation for that rests rather with the circumstances of its debut rather than its inherent quality. In 1962 Rattigan had fallen out of fashion, and this major statement was an attempt to rebuild his fortunes by challenging the ‘Angry Young Men’ and Kenneth Tynan, their advocate, on their own ground – a hard-hitting intense and confronting portrait of a charismatic financial who will go to any lengths and use any means to keep his empire of dubiously funded companies afloat.
Unfortunately audiences failed to judge the work on its own terms, reluctant to allow the playwright to escape from the comfortable pigeon hole of reassuring drawing room comedy where he had mainly made his reputation, and it has largely languished since. But Ben Daniels’ towering performance at its centre, assisted by many fine supporting characterisations, makes this play compelling from start to finish.
The play begins innocuously enough as a young couple in basic New York apartment uncouple themselves in order to head off to work, she as an understudy, he as a pianist in a bar, excellent naturalistic playing by both Phoebe Campbell and Laurie Kynaston. But they are interrupted by an unexpected visitor, Gregor Antonescu, a major international corporate player, whose empire is on the verge of collapse. It turns out that he is the father of the young man, who broke off contact five years ago and changed his name. Now he needs his son’s help, willingly or unwillingly.
What follows through to the interval is a vertiginous set of power plays in which Antonescu charms, wheedles and bullies his way back into the driving seat in both business and relationships. He uses his son and his son’s flat as bait to lure his main business enemy back into an uneasy alliance despite the revelation of apparent rampant financial corruption. The succession of ploys, gambits and stand-offs involved requires a larger-than-life performance to carry conviction and this it receives from Ben Daniels, in what is the best London-based acting I have seen this year to date, monstrous and magnetic in equal measure.
He is assisted by truly tight playing, especially from Laurie Kynaston, as the son who carries on loving his father come what may, by Nick Fletcher as Gregor’s sidekick Svem, both suave and sinister, and Malcolm Sinclair, as a classic American ‘good ol’ boy’, whose surface bonhomie conceals ruthless exploitation. In the second half when what has been ravelled up, unravels again, there is also a lovely cameo from Isabella Laughland, as Gregor’s wife, a ‘countess’ in name only but with a generous heart, rather like the similar character in Rattigan’s wartime classic, Flare Path.
There is a catch though, and that lies in the production. Director Anthony Lau does not seem to believe in the play’s ability to stand on its own feet, and hobbles matters with clunky framing devices and over-emphatic staging. A cast list in neon lights (thankfully, I had my back to it) stands above the audience on one side of the traverse setting. A sign marked ‘knock, knock’ sits above the suggested doorway to the apartment, and the characters slide table around and mount them when they appear to be ascendant in the arguments. While the otherwise minimalist set is inoffensive – there is no need for 1930s period detail here – all these interventions hamper the action rather than enhancing it.
I am reluctant, however, to end this review on a critical note or in an ambiguous verdict. While in several ways the production does the play no service, the performances are still outstanding, and the play itself needs no apology. I cannot award the evening the highest accolade, but this is still a ‘must see’ that hopefully will lead to further more sympathetic productions of one of Rattigan’s very best plays. Perhaps, by then, one of the West End theatres will have been renamed after him too. A further revival of this play would make an excellent opening show. After all, the subject matter could hardly be more topical.
Terence Rattigan
Director: Anthony Lau
Cast: Phoebe Campbell, Ben Daniels, Nick Fletcher, Laurie Kynaston, Isabelle Loughland, Malcolm Sinclair, Leo Wan
Until March 14 2026
2 hrs 25 mins with interval
Photo Credit: Manuel Harlan