Kenneth Branagh ends his season of plays at The Garrick with John Osborne’s 1957 commentary on post-war Britain’s parlous and weakened state, highlighted by the military and diplomatic inadequacies revealed in the government’s handling of the 1956 Suez Crisis, presaging the collapse of the British Empire.The Entertainer was originally penned for Laurence Olivier and was conceived after an evening at The Royal Court Theatre at which Olivier had hosted American playwright Arthur Miller who, backstage after the performance of “Look Back in Anger” had professed to being dazzled by its revelatory style and grittiness. Accounts suggest that Olivier had found the piece unpatriotic but fearing his own career was in decline, had cajoled Osborne into helping him tap into a younger audience’s desire for avant garde kitchen sink realism. The following year the final draft of the play encouraged Olivier to grab the meaty central character of fading lothario and music hall song-and-dance man Archie Rice for himself, over the lesser part of Billy, his father.
Of course the comparisons with Olivier’s original personification (which also made its way onto celluloid in the 1960 film version - garnering one of his many Oscar nominations in the process), are unavoidable. As a child, I remember being transfixed by the stoic, stilted and general creepiness of the character, so I was expectant and intrigued in anticipation of last evening’s performance.
Firstly, it must be noted (ironic as it may be), that nearly 60 years on, many references in the writing will be unlikely to ‘land’ with audience members under 35. That aside, the piece with its many racist and lazy stereotypical references, is exceedingly redolent of a post-Brexit Britain still smarting from an ascendant culture of blame, divisions and societal fears of the unknown. The grubby fading grandeur of music hall and the tribulations of the gin and beer obsessed Rice clan, take us on a journey which juxtaposes patriotism with anti-establishment views and spans three generations of a dysfunctional family each possessing of their own out-of-kilter bigotries and inability to communicate effectively.
Branagh opts for a knowing, oily and energised Archie rather than the “dead behind the eyes”, audience-hating, cynical avoider of the British tax man, he claims to be; He also looked 15 years too young for the part. Gawn Grainger (stepping-in for John Hurt, who had to withdraw from the production due to illness) delivered a measured and confident Billy – cantankerous and endearing at turns and at nearly 78, the embodiment of old-school stage professionalism.
The surprise in the cast for me, was Greta Scacchi who delivered Phoebe (Archie’s long-suffering second wife) as an unconfident malcontent whose only escape from the drudgery of post war austerity and the barely-disguised philandering of her husband, is the gin bottle and occasional forays to the local cinema. Her obsession with trivialities, inability to coherently discuss anything without becoming emotionally unstable - requiring her to lie down – struck exactly the right chord as a hapless and ineffectual by-stander in the unfolding drama surrounding her nearest and dearest. Through her, we are left in no doubt as to the gravity of the situation looming for the Rice family, due to their collective avoidance of the truth by perpetuating a British stiff upper lip in the face of dire of realities, and Archie’s determined refusal to accept the only life-line which is likely to come their way.
Back in London for its 4th season BRIEFS is a not for the faint hearted. In the words of our brilliantly bonkers host, this show ‘celebrates the freak’; and what a celebration it is.