Review: MANOR, National Theatre
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan
Moira Buffini’s new play – currently showing in the National’s Lyttelton Theatre – is nothing if not ambitious. A knotty story gesturing towards the lofty themes of fascism, climate change, and the disintegration of aristocracy plays out over two and half hours with a hodge-podge cast of kooky characters holed up in a rambling mansion while a Biblical storm brews outside.
The first act opens on a dysfunctional family drama – Lady Diana Stuckley (Nancy Carroll), her daughter Isis (Liadán Dunlea) and aging, salt-of-the-earth, Stockport-born rockstar husband Pete (Owen McDonnell) rattle around their dilapidated country pile. The family drama element of Buffini’s script is its least compelling element, and it is a struggle to summon up any sympathy for Carroll’s flighty and snobby Diana. It’s only when the storm drives the world outside into the manor house that a modicum of interest is peaked.
The dialogue in the first act feels stilted and the relationships between the characters inconsistent and uncertain. Adrift in a sea of guffawing audience members, some of the laboured and awkward humour is cringeworthy, with jokes mostly made by Lady Diana at the expense of the more plebeian and overweight characters. After a stumble at the starting blocks, the second half of the show kicks into a bit more of a rhythm, rising towards something that reaches towards the cultish, Shakespearean and Biblical – but remains slightly unsatisfying.
The establishment of Amy Forrest’s Ruth as the calculating mastermind behind the fascist organisation that takes shelter in the eponymous manor is a little clumsy. Her relationship with Shaun Evans’ Ted Farrier – the charismatic frontman of ‘Albion’ – devolves into a pantomimic reflection of Lady Macbeth and her husband.
The highlight of the production is most certainly Lez Brotherston’s set design, the walls of which bend and lean queasily like Dr Seuss’s architecture. Jon Clark’s lighting brings this set to life, and shows up the detail in Brotherston’s gorgeous stained glass windows.
Combined with video design by Nina Dunn, the design team create an impressive flood effect, which is worth sticking around until the end of the show for.
Congratulations are due too to fight director Kate Waters, who does a great job with the numerous skuffles that break out onstage, and particularly with a heart-stoppingly convincing fall down Lez Brotherston’s teetering staircase.
Some rather heavy-handed metaphors are packed into this script, which attempts a lot but ultimately falls short of delivering the winding gut-punch expected from a production tackling such intense subjects. Rather than feeling buffeted and ravaged by a raging storm, hair is slightly ruffled by a light breeze.
Manor provides some food for thought, but not enough to fill you up.
** Two stars
Reviewed by: Livvy Perrett
Manor plays at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre until 1 January 2022, with tickets available here.