Rope, at the Almeida December 29, 2009
Posted by cathrynsymons in : Reviews , trackbackPatrick Hamilton is a playwright and novelist whose work has been a little neglected over the years, but seems to be coming back into favour almost a century after his original rise to fame. Rope, which was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock, contends with Gaslight to be his most famous. It’s time I read that copy of 20000 Streets Under the Sky
As the play begins, two Oxford undergraduates have carried out a vicious murder simply to entertain themselves, and are making their friends unwitting extras to a Nietzchean nightmare. We see intellectual arrogance untempered by compassion, set in the early 1920s as social butterflies flit over deep postwar grief.
Blake Ritson is a controlled, tense Wyndham Brandon, the ringleader of the pair, self-confident and without remorse.  At times, he’s so convincing he’s magnificantly hideous – you know he’s a monster but he almost leads you into his world.  His nemesis is Rupert Cadell, played by Bertie Carvel, in a subtle performance of a character who’s war experiences have scarred him, but added depth.
Alex Waldmann (Charles Granillo, the second murderer) seems to be everywhere lately, and is slowly growing on me. His Sebastian in the Donmar’s start-studded Twelfth Night was fairly innocuous, and I’m embarrassed that I didn’t particularly register him in Hamlet. He was very good in Shraddha at the Soho Theatre recently, and here gives us a bundle of nerves, who probably never really wanted to be involved but has past the point of no return. Just as you think he’s going to explode, he calms down again, backwards and forwards, pumping up the tension.
As the play builds to its denouement the tension becomes almost unbearable, with Granillo quietly losing it behind a chair while Brandon and Cadell argue the value of life, murder and its punishment. I don’t want to spoil it, but was relieved that my expected final twist did not arrive, and so society at least is redeemed.
Rope is staged in the round, though this adds little to the play and obstructs some sightlines. It’s not a good idea to open the large lid of a chest, then do plot-explaining things behind it while hidden from 10-20% of the audience. Seat E4 was certainly restricted view, and not in the normal Almeida sense of a 15cm pole which can easily be avoided. Still, it was very cheap, so I’m not complaining.
Rope plays at the Almeida until 6 Feb 2010 and is well worth seeing. Note that the seating configuration shown in their online booking isn’t what’s actually in the theatre for this production. If you’re worried, it might be better to call the box office.
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