Morning:
14°c
Some fares could fall by more than a third when Oyster is extended to every national rail station in London, it has emerged
More...
New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Henry Hitchings's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Gareth Machin.
Cast: Ian Hart, Hattie Morahan, Lindsey Coulson, Paul Ready
Description: Caryl Churchill's play about relationships focuses on two couples who are engaged in three short tangled conversations.
Trains: Tube/BR: Waterloo 
Phone: 0207452 3000
Website: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk
Like ships in the night: Paul Ready (Pete) and Hattie Morahan (Dawn)
It's on sleepless nights that we review the parade of our accomplishments, neuroses and missed opportunities. Sex apart, the shared routines of sleeplessness tend to be cranky and garbled, and it’s the politics of these routines that Caryl Churchill unpacks in this play from 1980.
First we see Frank (Ian Hart) and Margaret (Lindsey Coulson) arguing. The accusations flow thick and fast. Frank repeatedly tells his wife to “shut it”, then insults her housekeeping skills. She nags about his drinking and infidelities. It’s a roilingly competitive relationship, characterised by overlapping speeches of complaint.
Next we shift to Pete (Paul Ready) and Dawn (Hattie Morahan), who by contrast seem almost tranquillised. When they speak, they fail to communicate, as though using two different languages.
An escapist, Pete relates everything to films — Alien, in particular — and has no vocabulary with which to respond to Dawn’s nervous exclamations “I feel completely unreal” and “I think I’m dead”. She fondles a knife. He doesn’t even notice and makes gassy after-dinner sounds — “Mmmm”, “Ahhhhh”. The scene ends with a crimson stain spidering across the counterpane.
Finally, as if playing musical beds, Pete and Margaret are together. They assure each other that they have learnt from past crises. But their rapport is haunted by familiar patterns of behaviour. Relationships, we’re to understand, do not accommodate change; even when we start afresh, we are condemned to relapse into the same old roles.
To emphasise this doomy continuity, the set throughout is the same, even though the action occupies three distinct rooms. In fact, it’s the set of the National’ s current Phèdre, albeit with the addition of a sharply lit and surprisingly unrumpled double bed.
While that’s not a problem, the play would work better in a more intimate space than the 890–seat Lyttelton. The actors are eloquently uncomfortable, especially the underappreciated Hart and sharp-edged Coulson, but the writing lacks the energy and imagination of Churchill’s best work and it feels more like an authorial exercise — a trio of interesting doodles — than a fully developed piece of theatre.
In rep until 25 August. Information: 020 7452 3000.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
