Elsewhere
Elsewhere
✭✭✭✭✩
by Julian Mitchell, directed by Stephen Henry
Oxford Playhouse, Arts Theatre
September 4, 2000-January 28, 2001
Playing at the Arts Theatre was ANOTHER COUNTRY by Julian Mitchell from 1981, a play perhaps better known as the basis for a 1984 movie by Marek Kanievska of the same name. We chose this revival over a number of tempting possibilities not just because it had received universal praise but also because we thought it unlikely to travel since its subject matter is so specific to Britain. We felt (and still do) that only a British cast could play it properly. The work is an indictment of the British public school as a training ground for the politics of blackmail and betrayal.
The play is infinitely superior to the movie which, by trying to open up the action, does away with the crucial sense of claustrophobia. The play shows how the central character, Guy Bennett (based on the real spy Guy Burgess), could have been led to his future career as a kind of revenge for the injustices he experienced in school. The cast, design and direction were so perfect that one couldn't imagine a better production. Particularly impressive were Tom Wisdom as Bennett, Ben Meyjes (in his professional debut!) as Bennett's communist friend Judd, Alex Avery as the house master Delahay and Edward Purver as the nasty politician-in-training Menzies. They, along with director Stephen Henry and designer Tim Hatley are people whose careers will be well worth watching.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in the London Theatre Guide 2000-12-31.
Photo: Ben Meyjes (far left) and Tom Wisdom (second right) with the cast of Another Country. ©2000 Oxford Playhouse.
2000-12-31
London, GBR: Another Country