In 2004 film maker Alexander Payne adapted Rex Pickett’s semi-autobiographical novel about a two man stag trip through America’s wine producing regions, the result was an academy award and an upsurge in the popularity of Pinot Noir. Now Picket has returned to his hit book and dramatised it for the stage. I'm new to the party having neither read the book, seen the film or chosen wine based on either.Daniel Weyman is fantastic as the nerdy, neurotic, wannabe novelist Miles (based on the young Pickett) who has organised a wine tasting trip for his best friend the debauched, womanising, alpha male, Jack; played by Simon Harrison, who beautifully captures his insensitive crassness and bewilderment when things don’t go his way.
Jack is about to get married and the road trip through the wineries is Miles’s way of celebrating their friendship but for Jack it’s an excuse to have a lot of sex before his wedding.
The pair lie their way into the lives of two waitresses; Miles goes along with the pretence that his novel’s about to be published to impress, thoughtful wine expert Maya (Ellie Piercy) whilst Jack keeps his impending marriage a secret to get Terra (Beth Cordingly) very willingly into bed.
But there are many more lies being told than that and the long evening consists of a series of episodic incidents, focused around the men’s crassness, selfishness, self-denial, cowardice, disrespect, violence and stupidity. These attributes lead to them getting laid, to drinking great wines and into a test of their friendship, whilst almost getting their comeuppance.
Throughout there’s a lot of the “banter” through which men bond and express affection. This is often laugh out loud funny stuff with plenty of great one-liners about women and wine. As is often the case in stories about nerdy men by nerdy men, the nerdy man ends up with a gorgeous girlfriend.
Both actresses do a great job of creating 3 dimensional characters from 2 dimensional roles. I really enjoyed Cordingly’s full-throttled lust, devotion and rage. Percy captures both the shy, damaged side of the recently divorced Maya and her cautious optimism about the future. She deserves so much better than Miles/Picket or certainly as Picket represents himself here.
The play’s slightly reminiscent of the work of Neil Labute who’s so adept at depicting cruel people doing cruel things. The difference is Labute presents them to us for analysis; Picket presents his stupid, insensitive sexists as entertainment.
Brilliant though the two central actors are as our odd couple, I found myself disliking the characters more and more and caring about them less and less as the 2.5 hour evening went on.
Presumably in the film you get lots of shots of beautiful landscapes to take the edge off the ugly behaviour. Unfortunately at the St James Theatre events play out against hideous cumbersome, sludge yellow, folding screens which change constantly via a lot of pushing and pulling to no great effect, accompanied by jarring jazz music, regularly draining the action of any momentum.
Credit should be given to the stage management team who do an amazing job of providing a constant stream of prop wine bottles, the fake contents of which reflect the description of each wine.
People were laughing loudly around me and some friends and family of the cast gave the show a standing ovation but personally I couldn't wait to get away from the central protagonists.
There is something about a Conservative Government and a floundering Labour opposition that lends itself so beautifully to political satire. After all, that was the climate that sawSpitting Image become one of the most successful comedies ever.