Terence Rattigan worked on his play Man and Boy from 1954 until its first production in 1963. It was intended as a statement of his continued relevance in a British theatre transformed by the arrival of figures such as John Osborne in the late 1950s. Set in the 1930s in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash, the play is a pointed critique of capitalism at its most ruthless. At its centre is Gregor Antonescu, a figure of unrelenting ambition and amoral callousness. Even Patrick Bateman from American Psycho appears to be a rather low-level hustler by comparison. In this current version of Rattigan’s drama, Antonescu is even willing to pimp out his own son. His venal materialism is painted in broad strokes, and Ben Daniels plays the character with an over-the-top energy and swagger, cajoling and conning anyone who stands between him and his goals. His humiliation of the accountant who believes he has uncovered Antonescu's fraud is wonderfully arch, and Leo Wan as David Beeston recalls the unforgettable Peter Lorre. With a black-and-white projection listing the cast and their roles, the staging evokes the clearly defined moral lines of the period's cinema, and one is reminded of such one-dimensional figures as Mr Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life or Jonathan Shields in The Bad and the Beautiful. While Antonescu’s character is probably intended to be more complex because of the father-son dynamic, the reductive nature of the relationship makes it difficult to engage fully with this parent-child conflict. Laurie Kynaston does a fine job of creating his character, but Basil's weakness and his willingness to be complicit in his father’s schemes suggests a lack of principle that robs him of both sympathy and moral authority. Director Anthony Lau’s simple staging highlights the stark ethical contrasts of the piece, but the cast pushing tables around or constantly leaping up on them is more than a little distracting. Throughout his tribulations, Antonescu asserts that success in the stock market depends on confidence and liquidity. The assured portrayals in this production are its strength, while the constant, unnecessary shifting of focus is its weakness. Nonetheless, Man and Boy delivers the thrill of a villain larger than life, leaving the audience with a vivid, uncompromising vision of material ambition and its human cost.
Rated: ★★★★
Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Manuel Harlan
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