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The
Milton Keynes Theatre has brought yet another fine production from
the National to their venue in the form of Charlotte Jones' Humble
Boy - a touching and very funny play that was originally seen at
the Royal National Theatre in 2001 with Diana Rigg and Simon Russell
Beale.
In
this touring production, Hayley Mills plays Flora and Hugh Sachs
plays her son Felix who returns home for his father's funeral. Both
are excellent. Ms Mills provides a delightful mixture of cold and
vain haughtiness combined with the vulnerability of faded glamour,
although she looks absolutely fabulous and far too young to have
a 35-year-old son - but artistic license prevailed - we knew that
she was old enough. How annoying!
Hugh
Sachs meanwhile portrays what essentially seems to be a bit of a
socially inept emotional wreck with a bit of bravado that comes
from his brilliance as a scientist plus that same vulnerability
that makes Felix his mother's son.
Echoing
the themes of Hamlet, respect for father after death and disdain
for the mother because she wants to remarry etc, the death of the
father has brought friends and family together and of course, in
the best of comedy traditions, as secrets are uncovered, everybody
behaves rather badly.
There
is also quite a lot about beekeeping in it! Is this alluding to
the 'buzz buzz' that Hamlet says to Polonius or a re-working of
'to bee or not to bee'?!
It
is very funny. There are some fantastic one liners like Felix Humble's
rueful observation that if his mother Flora marries the coach magnate,
George Pye the resulting union will be the Humble Pyes.
And
the grace said by Mercy, brilliantly played by Brigit Forsyth, as
she finally lets rip was so hilarious that you could barely hear
the closing lines for the laughter in the audience. The spontaneous
round of applause she received was well deserved.
But
under the laughter, the play is a study in grief and the various
reactions to it. But as it is all tied up with the subjects of astrophysics
and quantum theory, it not only has allusions to Shakespeare's Hamlet
- but also to Stoppard. It therefore makes you think a lot as well!
The roles of science and nature and man's intervention in both,
and the likening of scientific theories to the model of the family
will send you away with plenty of food for thought.
Just
as recent research is helping to linking seemingly incompatible
areas of science, Flora and Felix are probably more alike than they
think they are.
For
me, it was also slightly reminiscent of Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession,
with its garden setting, the returning academic, the mother's dubious
past and the unravelling of secrets and lives. And maybe a little
Ayckbourn was there too, with Jones' ability to make you laugh heartily
before waves of sadness and pity also wash over you. As a playwright,
being likened to a mixture of four of the finest playwrights ever,
while still being something unique, can't be bad!
The
set, designed by Tim Hatley, is fantastic. A large, lush, but unkempt
garden that rose steeply from a patio with a magnificent beehive
at the top also reminded me of my own late great aunt's garden where
I had enjoyed many happy visits as a child and nostalgia crept in.
The
play also goes a bit Ayckbourn at the end, a little metaphysical,
and there's a twist that makes you want to watch it again with your
new knowledge. And with that little teaser, I'll say no more. You'll
just have to go and see this intelligent and witty comedy for yourselves!
Katy
Lewis
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