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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: Trevor Nunn.
Cast: Kevin Spacey, David Troughton, Sonya Cassidy, Ian Conningham, Adam Booth, Janine Duvitski, Branwell Donaghey, Nicholas Jones, Paul Birchard, Ken Bones, Vincent Pirillo, Simon Lee Phillips, Janet Whiteside, Sarah Ingram, Christopher Ragland, David Burrows, Sam Cox, Mark Dexter, Sid Livingstone, Paris Arrowsmith, Mary Doherty, Susan Tracy
Description: Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee's 1955 legal and moral drama, starring Kevin Spacey. Directed by Trevor Nunn.
Times: Tue-Sat 7.30pm, Sun 5pm, mat Sat 2.30pm, extra mat Nov 29, 3pm, ends Dec 20
Price: £10-£48.50
Trains: Tube/BR: Waterloo 
Phone: 0870060 6628
Website: www.oldvictheatre.com
Extra info: Food, Pub
Watchable: Kevin Spacey imbues every gesture with significance as Henry Drummond in the courtroom drama
Kevin Spacey’s latest offering at the Old Vic is a revival of a 1950s play that dramatises the confrontation between science and religion. Beginning as a portrait of a town that is “the buckle of the Bible Belt”, it turns into an old-fashioned courtroom drama.
The historical basis for the story presented by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee is the so-called “Monkey Trial” of 1925, which led to the conviction of John Scopes for teaching Darwin’s evolutionary theory to his high-school science class in contravention of Tennessee state law.
Here Scopes is the soft-spoken Bertram Cates, and his case is disputed by two lawyers of contrasting temperament and ethos. In the courtroom enlightened rationality is embodied by the bewigged, lumbering and hunched figure of Henry Drummond (Spacey), and religious fundamentalism by the three-time presidential candidate Matthew Harrison Brady (David Troughton).
Clearly their tussle is meant to be timely. The issue of what should be taught in schools is flamingly alive, and, in America especially, the tension between Creationist dogma and intellectual freedom is oppressive. Moreover, this year marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th of On the Origin of Species. But the play’s level of argument is low, and the experience of watching it becomes a judicial process in its own right.
The case for the prosecution is robust. Instead of the white heat and subtleties of debate, we have a clunky exposition of starkly binary positions. When the play was written it must have seemed a bold affront to McCarthyism, but now it feels more like an essay in dramatic torpor.
If you don’t think that the world was created in 4004 BC — on 23 October, at nine in the morning — you’re going to find Brady’s bug-eyed expostulations ridiculous. Troughton brings a booming energy to the role that tips over into the histrionic. And, even if Drummond in the end takes him seriously, the pious rhetoric Brady spouts seems bovine.
On the other hand Spacey is, as ever, luxuriously watchable. He imbues every gesture with significance; no little twinge is unpoetic.
Rob Howell’s design impressively exploits the depth of the Old Vic’s stage, and Trevor Nunn’s production contains agile ensemble work from the huge cast, which evokes the sheer spectacle of community and is enhanced by Steven Edis’s atmospheric music.
There’s even an appealing turn by a live rhesus monkey, but none of this extenuates the turgid preachiness of the play.
The title comes from a verse in the Old Testament book of Proverbs: “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.” It’s a banal maxim, which suggests the piece’s tepid didacticism.
“Look underneath the paint,” says Drummond, recalling the childhood disappointment of hankering after a fancy rocking horse and finding, when he got it, that beneath its gaudy surface lay rotten wood. It’s an uncomfortably apt line, for despite solid and at times silvery execution Inherit the Wind is unappetising fare.
Until 20 December. Information 0870 060 6628.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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This is a very strange choice of play for Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic. It doesn't seem worthy of being revived. The performances are good, and there is lots to enjoy in the production, but it genuinely is a very poor play, which puts across arguments that to a modern audience are likely not to seem complex enough. For acting alone it has to be worth three stars, but the limitations are really obvious, and on my observation although it is true that many of the audience enjoyed the play a great deal there were also others who found it stale and didn't have much enthusiasm for sitting through it. It is not long, about two and a half hours, but feels longer.
- Kevin Duggan, London
I suspect that the majority of the audience would disagree with Henry's assessment of the play. At the performance I attended a capacity house was gripped and totally involved from start to finish.
- Sebastian Petit, HIGH WYCOMBE, UK
