Andrew Scott is undoubtedly one of the most watchable and clever actors in the UK.London theatre goers currently have an exciting opportunity to watch him close up, very close up, in a tiny theatre seven flights of stairs above the former St. Martin’s School of Art on the Charring Cross Road.
It’s a temporary performance space with a trendy bar attached and the audience sit on a mish-mash of chairs banked around three sides of a space that’s smaller than most people’s living room and which is dominated by an awkwardly placed and permanent pillar.
It’s here that Scott plays Langley Collyer, the eldest of the two real-life Collyer Brothers who were something of a legend in New York, having lived in a Harlem mansion amongst the accumulated junk of a life time’s hoarding.
Playwright Richard Greenberg’s claims to know very little of the actual scandal but has instead opted to create a fictional account of how the brothers descended from bohemian eccentricity in their youth to a less appealing mental deterioration in middle age.
Langley is an obsessive; obsessive about music and the tiny details of existence that become objects of wonder to him. As you’d expect Scott brings every one of his wide eyed, twitchy, charmingly neurotic actor traits to the role.
David Dawson is equally engaging as his brother Homer who sacrifices a career in the law to look after his brilliant and damaged kin, becoming disturbed and hopeless in the process. He at least has the rational thinking to recognise how desperate their plight becomes, besieged by hostile neighbours and incapable of assimilating into conventional life.
The first half opens with the brother’s return from a successful piano recital Langley has given, in the company of Joanna Vanderham, a rebellious débutante (Milly Ashmore) A delicate, funny and captivating squabble ensues as to who would make the best husband for her.
When we return after the interval years have past, eccentricity has developed into full-blown crazy and the always cluttered reception room has descended from opulence to rubbish tip, reflected in the psyche of the three characters.
It’s a play about brotherly love and a play about forging an alternative perspective on the world which is both full of wonder at, for instance, the beauty of a leaf and fear, both of invasions from an uncomprehending world and an inability to master the basic tasks necessary for survival.
The production, directed by Simon Evans, powerfully utilises the venue’s potential for claustrophobia
The production, directed by Simon Evans, powerfully utilises the venue’s potential for claustrophobia as what begins as a cosy and eccentric nest for free-thinkers becomes a filthy, booby-trapped cave.
All three actors are terrific bringing great nuance to roles which could simply have been collection of twitches and eye rolling. It’s an extraordinary production, telling an extraordinary story and well worth a visit.
I really hope Andrew Scott tackles a less kooky role soon, though. As his looks mature it would be really sad if he became a parody of himself or joined the ranks of mannered, stagy actors.
I have seen three Mike Bartlett plays this year - the career-defining performance of Tim Piggott Smith as King Charles lII in New York; Love, Love, Love, probably the best production of a play I've seen at a drama school - brilliantly directed by Sarah Esdaile at LAMDA; and, tonight, Bull at the Young Vic. Mike Bartlett is one of the finest writers of the day; to say I am a fan is a gross understatement.