✭✭✭✭✩<b>
</b><b>by Alan Bennett, directed by Nicholas Hytner
Robert Fox Productions, Queens Theatre
December 7, 1999-July 15, 2000
</b>
The first first play of my winter theatre trip was THE LADY IN THE VAN at the Queens Theatre. Maggie Smith as the title character was absolutely wonderful. We had not seen her on stage since her years at the Stratford Festival in Canada and were delighted to see that her delivery and timing are as perfect as ever. Nicholas Farrell and Kevin McNally, playing the two Alan Bennetts, were also excellent and the play as a whole was much more substantial that we had expected.
The play is based on a short by Bennett in turn based on a real-life incident. It recounts his interactions with a female tramp named Mrs. Shepherd, who “temporarily” parked her camper van on Bennett’s front lawn in north London for 15 years. I had worried that in being based on real events that the play might be too anecdotal.
As it happened, Bennett places the real life incidents in the larger context of a writer dealing with a highly unusual character both as the real person who must interact with her (Alan Bennett 1) and as the writer (Alan Bennett 2) trying to glean as much “material” as possible. The humour thus derives not just from Maggie Smith’s character but also from the interactions of Bennett with himself. The play’s main flaw is that Bennett’s neighbours are portrayed as little more than caricatures. But then, Maggie Smith’s presence on stage tends to turn everyone else into lesser beings.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in the <i>London Theatre Guide</i> 2000-02-25.
Photo: (top) Maggie Smith; (bottom) Nicholas Farrell and Kevin McNally. ©2000 Steffan Hill.
<b>2000-02-25</b>
<b>London, GBR: </b><b>The Lady in the Van</b>