PATRICK MARMION reviews In Praise Of Love at the Orange Tree Theatre: Neat twists and terrific acting lift period drama purgatory

Daily Mail​

7 days ago

In Praise Of Love (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond)
Verdict: Love stuck
Letters From Max (Hampstead)
Verdict: Tragic poetry
Terence Rattigan brings out the Italian in me – which is strange as I don't have a single Latin gene in my body. Yet all his English emotional understatement leaves me aching for operatic outpourings. And his 1973 play, In Praise Of Love, is a prime example of his Anglo-Saxon reserve.
Reportedly inspired by his friend Rex Harrison's marriage to his third wife (of six), Kay Kendall, it's about a former WWII Estonian resistance fighter Lydia (Claire Price) hiding a terminal illness from her chauvinist literary critic husband Sebastian (Dominic Rowan).
Why this subterfuge should be seen as evidence of enduring love is beyond me. Her servility – and his pomposity – is surely also evidence of coercive control.
And yet, despite a first half drowning in a vat of viscous exposition, explaining themselves to each other and a biddable American friend, the second half is much more intriguing.
The arrival of their son Joey (Joe Edgar), a Liberal Party activist and rookie writer, forces them to stop beating about the bush.
Before that Rowan is confined to a straitjacket of two-dimensional ineptitude but he is thankfully granted a third dimension after the interval. And being Estonian, Price's breezy, charming resourceful Lydia is given free rein throughout, as we discover her fascinating history as a resistance fighter.
Until then, emotional lockdown is maintained by rivers of Scotch, while Amelia Sears's tidy production takes us down memory lane on Peter Butler's set of Scandinavian painted floorboards, G-plan furniture and super-snug flares. But thanks to a few neat twists – and some terrific acting – we are, eventually, released from Rattigan's period purgatory.
There is no shortage of emotional exposition downstairs at the Hampstead Theatre, where they are hosting a eulogy for American poet Max Ritvo, who died of cancer in 2016, aged just 25.
His story is told in letters exchanged with his writing tutor, Sarah Ruhl, at Yale University.
Written by Ruhl herself, the play charts their relationship over the last few years of his short life – his dread of what he calls 'chemo-land'; her increasing awe at his literary talent – as they probe questions of life and death.
There is no shortage of emotional exposition downstairs at the Hampstead Theatre, where they are hosting a eulogy for American poet Max Ritvo, who died of cancer in 2016, aged just 25. Letters From Max is on until June 28
'Dreams,' Max muses, 'show the life beyond life... but death is not the life beyond life.' Elsewhere, he is more esoteric and, crucially, his poetry – of which there is a lot – is more reflective than dramatic and doesn't drive change.
That, however, doesn't stop Eric Sirakian immersing himself in Max, revealing him as a visionary child. And Sirine Saba is no less emotionally steeped in the attentive role of kind-hearted Ruhl. Blanche McIntyre's production is also a journey into the underworld, reversing the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice on a glossy black set with an alternately cheerful and mournful cellist, Laura Moody.
Much depends on how Ritvo's poetry lands with you. He had huge talent, but sadly needed more time to develop than he was given.
In Praise Of Love runs until July 5. Letters From Max is on until June 28.