FOUR STARS

 

A quarter of a century passes in a little over three hours during the National Theatre’s compelling revival, under director Simon Godwin, of Eugene O’Neill’s 1928 Pulitzer prize-winning Strange Interlude. That this passage of time is perfectly presented in the sets (Soutra Gilmour), costumes and visible ageing of the characters — brilliant make-up and so swiftly applied! — demonstrates the care lavished on the production. The acting is of a comparable calibre, with Anne-Marie Duff shining in the principal role.

Following her success as the NT’s St Joan, it first looks as if she might be offering us another doomed figure as Nina Leeds, the daughter of a prosperous New England academic (Patrick Drury) driven to neurotic despair by the wartime death of her airman fiancé. On the rebound, after an immersion in rackety sex, she marries Sam (Jason Watkins), a silly-ass student pal of her late lamented, only to learn from his mother (Geraldine Alexander) that a strain of family madness means the she must never have the child she has so fervently hoped for — until the presence of a good-looking doctor (Darren Pettie) suggests an alternative . . .

Commentary (often comically concerned with the doings of his mum, on whom he dotes) is supplied by an ever-present ‘old woman’ of a family friend (Charles Edwards). The characters offer their own as well, in direct-to-audience expression of their thoughts, which often differ wildly from what they are saying.

This device was considered boldly experimental by critics (and O’Neill himself), which was to forget how often one William Shakespeare did the same thing.

 

National Theatre (Lyttelton)
Until September 1
Tickets: 020 7452 3000
nationaltheatre.org.uk