Review: LYONESSE, Harold Pinter Theatre
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan
As far as its cast and creative team goes, Lyonesse should have been on to a winner. Writer Penelope Skinner’s previous work, including The Village Bike at the Royal Court 12 years ago, had been well received, Ian Rickson is an experienced director, while Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James bring a touch of genuine stardom to this new play’s highly-anticipated West End debut.
However, despite having what appears to be the right ingredients, the result is a show that is somewhat muddled, confused and, at times, unedifying. Centred around Elaine (Scott Thomas), a sort of provincial Norma Desmond grande dame, Lyonesse lurches from one undeveloped plot idea to another, without ever giving its audience any kind of resolution or pay-off.
Elaine, who we are told was a star of the stage in her day, vanished from the public eye 30 years ago after a harrowing experience with a male film director. Kate (James) is tasked with travelling to her crumbling Cornwall home to find out what really happened and convince the reclusive actress to let her turn her life story into a film.
But Lyonesse doesn’t appear to know what it wants to be or where, as a play, it wants to sit. Not especially funny, not particularly dramatic, it seeks to explore female narratives in a male-dominated world but rarely dares to go beyond fairly bland platitudes and stereotypes.
When Kate first meets Elaine and her lesbian neighbour Chris (Sara Powell) in Act One, it is mere moments before she is spilling her innermost anxieties to the pair about her unhappy marriage and resolving to leave her husband Greg (James Corrigan). James, voice cracked, spends the entire play apparently on the verge of tears but without ever actually shedding any. Kate begins pleasant enough with her screwball energy but soon becomes one dimensional.
In Act Two, when husband Greg travels to the remote home to find Kate (who by now has decided to leave him and start a new life in Cornwall with Elaine), he seems more interested in engaging in debate over celebrities being accused of historic sexual abuse than saving his collapsing marriage. Although his appearance injects a little energy into the play by the way of much-needed conflict, Greg is soon revealed as a cardboard cut out of a shallow liberal, who thinks the whole #MeToo thing has gone a bit too far. We never get to find out why he holds his ill-informed opinions.
Scott Thomas does serve up moments of genuine levity and relief, however. While never quite producing belly laughs, her comic timing and biting delivery helps to hold the show together. Elaine is vaguely believable as an Ab Fab style, eccentric former actress. But the ‘performance’ she puts on to tell her story slightly misses the mark, goes on too long and is sometimes a little awkward to watch. Meanwhile, Doon Mackichan provides some better viewing as Kate’s boss Sue, who is all shoulder pads and severe fringe cuts.
There are obvious plot parallels to be drawn with Sunset Boulevard, the musical revival of which opened to rave reviews at the Savoy Theatre earlier this month. But bloated at almost three hours long, Lyonesse should not have made it to the West End in its current shape.
For all of Lyonesse's shortcomings, Scott Thomas does at times produce a compelling depiction of Elaine and manages to squeeze out some genuinely funny moments for, at this stage, a grateful audience. Skinner’s script teases fleeting sparks of sharper, more compelling dialogue only to be snuffed out by occasional misdirection.
Lyonesse has been given a stage far too grand for its merits, and does little to shift the narrative or further the #MeToo movement.
** Two stars
Reviewed by: Tom Ambrose
Lyonesse plays at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 23 December, with tickets available here.