FOUR STARS

Among many top-notch performances to be enjoyed on the London stage at present, that of Kim Cattrall, in the Old Vic’s welcome revival (director Marianne Elliott) of Tennessee Williams’s Sweet Bird of Youth, is worthy of particular attention.

Building in some ways on the man-hungry reputation arising from her role as Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones, Cattrall shows us another cougar in fading actress Alexandra Del Lago.

Having run in shame from what she believes is a disastrous attempt at a movie comeback, she surfaces, as the play begins, in a hotel bedroom , unsure where she is or with whom she is travelling. Drink, we can be sure, has been taken — as it often had with Williams by the time he wrote the play in 1959.

The audience shares in Del Lago’s journey of discovery as her location proves to be the Gulf Coast town of St Cloud, childhood home of her companion Chance Wayne, a name revealing of his go-getting nature.

“Lucky Del Lago!” many will think as this well built young man parades before her/us in his pants. As played by handsome Seth Numrich, Chance is hardly the too-old-for-a-gigolo character suggested in the text, just as Ms Cattrall herself seems pretty prime. But, hey, who expects — or really wants — theatrical verisimilitude in this area? By turns fragile, fearful and fiery — well, she is an actress — Del Lago proves an endlessly fascinating figure against whose machinations Chance never really stands a, well, chance.

But his ambitions, it soon becomes clear, don’t really relate to her (save where bankrolling is concerned).

His aim is to reignite the romance he once enjoyed with Heavenly Finley (Louise Dylan), to the fury of her bigoted politician father, Boss Finley (Owen Roe).

He is determined to force the failed actor out of town once more, with his odious son Tom (Charles Aitken) and his mates supplying the necessary muscle. Steadily, the play builds to a shattering climax.

 

The Old Vic, London
Until August 31
Tickets: 0844 871 7628 oldvictheatre.com