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Honour
(Cottesloe Theatre)
What a difference an ocean, or at least a different production,
can make.
| "Held
perfectly in balance by its director, 'Honour' is acted with
wrenching feeling by a cast that features Corin Redgrave and
Eileen Atkins..." |
When
I first saw this Australian marital drama on a big Broadway stage
in 1998, I was unimpressed by its inward-looking story of a long
lasting marriage that is fatally disrupted when the husband falls
for a 28-year-old woman who is just four years older than his daughter.
But
seeing it again in the much more intimate Cottesloe - arranged with
the audience on two sides, like eavesdroppers to this scene of domestic
upheaval and emotion - I was overwhelmed by this forensically-observed
triangle of a betrayer, the betrayed and the catalyst of the upheaval.
Held
perfectly in balance by director Roger Michell, it is acted with
wrenching feeling by a cast that features Corin Redgrave as the
husband, Eileen Atkins as his wife, Catherine McCormack as his mistress,
and Anna Maxwell Martin as the daughter.
amazing
study
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Eileen
Atkins: heartbreaking power
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As
he breaks the news of the collapse of their marriage to his unsuspecting
wife, Redgrave's performance is an amazing study in wrestling with
feelings he doesn't fully comprehend, but which he seems powerless
to resist. And as she receives the news, Eileen Atkins registers
with heartbreaking power just how
suddenly her entire world has collapsed.
Atkins
is surely one of the five greatest actresses in the English-speaking
stage world. My list of the other four being Judi Dench, Maggie
Smith, Penelope Wilton and the American stage and television actress
Alison Janney.
This
is, quite simply, the best acting performance on any London stage
right now.
Honour
is at the National Theatre, Cottesloe, South Bank SE1 until 27 March.
Tickets £10 - £27. Box Office: 020 7452 3000
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