Afternoon:
10°c
Nicholas de Jongh's rating
Enjoy old-fashioned vulgarity
By
Nicholas de Jongh
3 Feb 2009
Alan Bennett has always kept a foot in the past and left more than a bit of his heart and soul there too. So it is no surprise that this extraordinary, expressionistic comedy in which Bennett looks back in regret and amusement to the decline of working class Leeds in the Seventies and to the lives of a married couple, not unlike his parents, should prove such an unusual pleasure today.
Its West End premiere in 1980 was rated a failure. Christopher Luscombe’s imaginative production, admired at Bath’s Theatre Royal last summer, revels in Enjoy’s inventive strangeness, reveals it as a nostalgic comedy whose time has come.
Bennett’s surreal, satirical conceit, in which the old folk, Wilfred and Connie Craven, are finally rehoused as exhibits in a new Municipal Museum of Industrial and Working Class life, imaginatively anticipates the theme park and heritage Britain of today. There are other premonitions of 21st century England and the surveillance society in which local councils are eager to probe and peer into private lives: a transvestite young man, dressed in smart skirt and wig arrives at the Cravens — theirs is the last back-to- back house in Leeds. His duty is to record for posterity “a way of life on its last legs” before the bulldozers move in.
What a life of sadly amusing old age Bennett puts before us: one of small expectations, repressions and anxieties. The Cravens’ marriage has long passed into fairly cold storage from which the arrival of this mysterious council official briefly rescues it.
Alison’s Steadman’s delightfully prim Connie, whose Alzheimerish mind is beginning to be lost in a sea of forgetfulness, takes an age to realise the true identity of the transvestite in their midst or to appreciate the fact that her admired daughter Linda is merely a good-time girl.
When Wilfred appears to die and Carol Macready’s wonderful, omniscient next-door neighbour is summoned to pronounce him dead or alive, Bennett opts for the adorable vulgarity of an old-fashioned, seaside, picture post-card. The trousers of David Troughton’s fine,splenetic Wilfred are removed, the signs of his erection causing them to question their death-verdict.
The uproarious scene, harking back to the Thirties and Forties, emphasises Bennett’s equivocal attitude to the destruction of lower-middle class communities and the surreal way in which they are dehumanised by authoritarian local councils.
A high and serious comedy.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (6)
I laughed like a drain. A particular joy was that several Americans in the audience didn't understand why the play is so funny.
- Peter Hodgson, London, 24/04/2009 21:32
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Sheer bliss. Alan Bennett's timeless, surreal play about growing old is beautifully constructed, performed and directed. Alison Steadman, far removed from her role as Pam in Gavin and Stacey, is in her element as the forgetful Connie, whose fumbling about with the presumed dead body of her husband, is worth the price of admission alone. Bennett deals with truth and the pathos underpinning the black comedy proves accessible but also very savage. He proves once again that real emotion lies in ordinary lives not grand ideas or celebrities. David Troughton is also very good as are the entire cast. This is a gem.
- Dj, London, 03/04/2009 09:52
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Alison Steadman and David Troughton come together as the most believeable married couple to have set foot on any stage for a long time. Their detailed and funny performances lift this Bennett curio to a level of haunting reality that stays in the mind long after the set has been dismantled. As Connie and Wilf they convey the right amount of bathos and absurdity; but their real gift to the audience, and Bennett, is that they remain emotionally honest and true to the spirit of the world that is being lost to the advance of time and urban development. The same truthfulness cannot be applied to Carol Macready who comes on as the next door neighbour and does her "turn"; by hogging the stage with her overplayed nonsense she completely upsets Alison Steadman's beautiful understatedness and leaves the stage expecting a round of applause which she receives from an audience sold on her cheapness. The men in grey, who invade Connie and Wilf's life and home, have no soul but this play very definitely has one in the performances of Steadman and Troughton.
- A Gregory, London UK, 15/02/2009 16:48
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What a fantastic production.This is the West End at its best. Congratulations to all involved.I shall return to see it again.The humour is perfection and the darkness of the plot is so pure,you just fall into it with out realising that you are in such a dark lonely space.
Dame Alison surely!
- Selwyn Channon, epsom, 06/02/2009 15:08
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How I agree with you Tom--do ignore the odd less than enthusiastic reviews-they are by far in the minority. I was sititng next to someone who appeared to fall asleep! Blame the cold! the test is that thousands are booking up to this jewel. Yes it is uncomfortable, yes it will make you laugh, make you cry......most of all it will make you THINK, as the more discerning critics clearly have done. Absolutely fantastic-thank you all.
- Janice, London, London, 03/02/2009 21:44
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A wonderful inventive production by Christopher Luscombe, equally matched by a clever realistic set by Janet Bird. I felt that the audience last night (Feb 3rd) missed a great deal of the humour (due to the snow and ice outside?) Alison Steadman gives an outstanding performance as Connie, making the character so real and totally believable, supported so splendidly by David Troughton, they were so well matched, a brilliant piece of casting. Hysterical cameo performance by Carol Macready. You can't fail to enjoy Enjoy
- Tom Rosen, London, 03/02/2009 11:50
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