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By
Felicity Heaton
Terence
Rattigans play Man and Boy is set to a backdrop
of New York during the financially unstable 1930s and explores
the symbolism of man as inhumane and boy as innocent.
The
story is a simple one of a man who has built his empire on fraud
and snitching of money from his business deals and is
seeing it coming down in tumbling ruins around him.
David
Suchet is superb as Antonescu and commands the stage from the moment
he appears back in his sons life to the second he finally
exits at the end.
Ben
Silverstones performance as Basil Anthony, Antonescus
estranged son, is enchanting and heartfelt as he plays out the character
of the innocenta boy who loves his father no matter how hard
he tries not to and no matter how much his father despises him for
it.
The
exploration of the relationship between the father and son is the
crux of the story; the happenings of Antonescus downfall merely
act as a motive to bring the two together after five years apart
and help show the hardness of Antonescus character. He is
a man without love, he sees it as a weakness and believes his son
is soft because of this emotion.
Where
Antonescus character remains steady throughout the play we
see his sons change rapidly from calm to almost aggressive and then
back again, showing the passionate side to him as he attempts to
convince himself and others that he hates his father.
Most
notably it is his girlfriend of only a few months that can see straight
away how much his father means to him even though she has only witnessed
contempt between the two.
The
only downfall of the play is its daring attempt to be played out
on only one set and with only a handful of supporting characters
that appear very briefly. This constraint of the story to one location
makes it hard to connect to the characters and the world they live
in. The play starts off well, with an interesting array of characters
being introduced in a very short space of time but then seems to
follow the empire of Antonescu as it slowly ebbs away.
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