Amongst Friends
Hampstead Theatre, London
Why does the Hampstead Theatre have such a bad reputation with critics? Every time this venue – which is actually in Swiss Cottage – puts on a new play, the reaction from reviewers is ferocious: “dud” is the polite word for almost every new play here. And critics openly scoff that no one reads the scripts before they are put on stage. It’s only a matter of time before someone suggests renaming the venue the “Turkey Theatre Company.”
So who will defend the Hampstead? Well, I will. As this fringe theatre before fringe theatre was invented celebrates its 50th anniversary, with a new black comedy – Amongst Friends by April De Angelis – I would like to make a plea for tolerance.
Back in the 1990s, I found myself defending many screaming in-your-face plays because I felt that they were undervalued by other critics. Now I find myself arguing that the field of new writing is a very wide one. In this broad church, wild and noisy plays are just one way of plugging into the emotional electric current of society. But there are other ways: for example, gently surreal plays, domestic dramas that happen in kitchens and, yes, living room comedies that are not meant to be realistic, but still offer insights into our world.
De Angelis’ latest is one of those. Set in a gated community, Amongst Friends explores what happens when a rich and successful couple, Richard and Lara, invite a less rich and less successful couple, Joe and Caitlin, to dinner. It has been 12 years since they last saw each other and the reunion is doomed from the start.
As is traditional with such set-piece dramas, an unexpected visitor – in this case, Shelly the local chav – arrives to further disturb the disharmony. She is a familiar stage figure: loud, crazed and incorrigible. She also wants to extort money from Richard and Lara. As her antics appall the audience, it’s also clear that Richard, who is now a prospective Labour MP, is drawn to Caitlin, with whom he once had an affair.
Similarly, the strident Lara, now an outspoken journalist, uses Joe as a sounding board for her own dissatisfactions. After all, she has her own problems, signalled by her inability to leave the flat. And when the hormones start racing between Richard and Caitlin, it emerges that Joe may not be not as strong as he looks and the play ends with more than one victim of this fatal reunion.
Neatly, the intrusion of Shelly, who appears to know a lot about each of the people in the room, seems to echo JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, which was originally staged on the eve of the 1945 Labour general election landslide. This time, De Angelis’ play is being staged on the eve of a “new” Labour defeat. Her barbs and asides about politics and our culture of fear are all well-judged and timely. In a play about friendship, the fact that all the characters are disagreeable says enough about that theme.
Much as I respect Anthony Clark, the Hampstead’s artistic director, I’m not sure that he is the best person to direct De Angelis’ black comedy. On the press night, the play was only fitfully funny and the cast — led by Aden Gillet and Helen Baxendale as Richard and Lara, with James Dreyfus and Emma Cunniffe as Joe and Caitlin, plus Vicki Pepperdine as Shelley – seemed a bit underpowered. But Patrick Connellan’s magnificent set serves the play well. Although this drama might not be enough to restore the reputation of the Hampstead, it is a solidly satirical and enjoyable evening.
Aleks Sierz
