The figure of Mrs Thatcher looms larger than the Queen in this timely revival of John Osborne’s critically-acclaimed play The Entertainer, in which the backdrop is updated from the 1950s Suez crisis to Argentina’s 1982 invasion of the Falklands. The first act opens with the voice of the prime minister announcing the invasion in the Commons, and the second act begins with Shane Richie as failed music hall man Archie Rice, dressed in powder-blue outfit and wig as Mrs T, delivering a number that I found hilarious.
Remarkably this is the first national tour for Osborne’s play, his follow-up to Look Back in Anger, the play that made his name. Richie, who is perhaps best known for playing Alfie Moon in the soap opera EastEnders, is following in the footsteps of the likes of Laurence Olivier in the lead role. The production is directed by Sean O’Connor, and began life at the Curve in Leicester.
In this update, some things have changed, and some remain the same. The drab interior of the rented digs in which almost all the action is staged, apart from when Archie appears in front of the curtains, seems more 50s than 80s, with its picture of the young Queen on the wall. Archie’s almost religious devotion to Double Diamond beer perhaps belongs to that period, too. On the other hand, the Dad’s Army theme – itself post-50s – has been adapted to ‘Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Argentina?’ and jingoistic Sun headlines abound. The casual racism of the early dialogue brought a few uneasy titters from the audience. The “blacks” soon become “the Poles” upstairs, banging on the ceiling for quiet as the Rice family periodically erupts into recriminations and uproar.
Archie Rice is an entertainer playing a summer season, trying and failing to emulate his more successful father in the family business. As his soldier son sails with the Task Force to liberate the Falklands, his daughter Jean (Diana Vickers) returns from campaigning against the war, and breaking off her engagement because of her fiance’s support for it. We are poignantly reminded of the easy, affectionate relationship between Jean and her grandfather Billy Rice, played with bemused dignity by Pip Donaghy, at the death of Billy in the second act.
I thought Sara Crowe as Archie’s put-upon wife Phoebe almost stole the show, as she looks up from the ironing – I seem to remember a lot of ironing begin done in Look Back in Anger as well – to protest wearily at Archie’s bullying, and his late-night activities downstairs with women he has brought back from the pub while she is trying to get to sleep above. The family’s patriotism is understood rather than bawled out loud, except for a drunken rendition of Land of Hope and Glory that is overtaken by massed choirs. Jean is the only dissenter, railing against the population’s enduring worship of a gloved arm “waving from a golden coach”. Christopher Bonwell, in the minor role of Frank Rice, tries to stay neutral during the family arguments, which carry on after the funeral of his brother, who has been killed after being captured in the Falklands. .
This current production has been billed as a “state of the nation” play, and it is that. But it is also an affectionate look at the music halls, and a performer that is dying with them, as his life collapses around him. Archie Rice’s self-pitying catchphrase is “I Have A Go!”, often delivered with a nervous twitch, but he is lost, as late in the second act, he tells the audience: “Look at my eyes. I’m dead … just like you shoddy lot out there.” One of the most moving moments in the affecting second act is when Shane Richie sings the old Mary Hopkin hit ‘Those Were The Days’ with awareness and pathos. With the good old days in mind, I was slightly dismayed to see the cast wearing discernible mics, although I understand that it is now common practice. I don’t know what Archie’s dad Billy would have said, though.
The difference between Suez and the Falklands was that the former represented an ignominious military defeat for Britain that brought home to this country its diminished status after the second world war. The Falklands, on the other hand, was a surprise victory that made many feel that Britain was still Great. That The Entertainer is being revived at another time of national crisis is no coincidence.
Osborne’s play was originally in three acts, and when I saw the Old Vic production with Robert Lindsay a decade or so ago, I remember it as being rather wordy. It’s now been stripped down to two acts. I don’t know whether it’s my advanced age, but I found this production much more moving than the Old Vic one, even if one or two of Shane Richie’s jokes were a bit bluer.
A number of unoccupied seats at the New Victoria theatre in Woking on Monday night may have provided an apt reminder of a declining theatrical tradition – but I do hope theatregoers come out and support this production in greater numbers this week. It certainly deserves it. Plays like The Entertainer don’t come to Woking that often. Take the chance to see it!
[Greg Freeman September 2019]
The Entertainer is at Woking’s New Victoria theatre from Monday 23 September to Saturday 28 September
Woking Writers Circle 