Evening Standard from London, Greater London, England • 244

40 THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 1897 Reviews EVENING STANDARD Life is a house party on the cruise ship of fools Heartbreak House Almeida Theatre NICHOLAS DEIONGH Genet delivered and played in Wildean style of exquisite comic Saradox Penelope Wilton a electable Hesione who exudes the dead-pan humour of a Bloomsbury hostess and Patricia Hodge all snobbish hauteur and terrific fun as her sister Lady Utterword preside over the illusion-stripping Simon hilariously distraught and caddish Randall John tough businessman with a soft centre and Peter Hector dressed to flirt in his Valentino costume make handsome examples of hollow Edwardian pomp and circusmtance a night high with laughter and serious delight Box office: 0171 359 4404 superlative Ellie quickly achieves self-assertion She ends up with Captain Shotover her and octogenarian father played too young by Richard Griffiths but with a fetching air of world-weary indignation The process that brings Ellie to Shotover also involves a discovery of how Heartbreak House (an early version of Britannia pic) is a temple of illusions a cruise ship of fools heading for the rocks People here mask their true selves: a preshadowing of Pirandello and Jean UNTIL I saw David absolutely ravishing production I rated Shaw's Heartbreak House as no more than an over-extended comedy of upper-middle class drifters But Hare has lifted the pall of arch and stagey winsomeness and all those sub-Chekhovian emphases which have often stifled the theatrical significance In conception Heartbreak House emerges as a fierce state-of-the-nation indictment His company one of the best ensembles semi in London for years play it at speed with lashings of wit fun and passion The witty escapism and political detachment of Shaw's Edwardian and Bohemian people for whom life is a house party and war will be just a frightfully big adventure has never so hit home Admittedly Vicki stage set ineptly lit provides no atmospheric sense of the play's Sussex country location She supplies a conservatory with a view of bride walls and not a room resembling a facade as Shaw stipulated But the main dramatic lines come over with piercing clarity When EUie Dunn arrives at Heartbreak House smitten by an imposing liar who proves to be Hector husband of her hostess Hes-ione Hushabye her heart duly breaks But Emma The sound of silver in the air as the Steinway sings Prom 60 Royal Albert Hall RICK JONES AUDIENCES prefer variety At the Royal Concertge-bouw all-Strauss concert on Tuesday there had been room to lie on back in the arena but for last mixed-bag programme the Prommers crowded together like a field of tulips from Amsterdam The orchestra brought a UK premiere: Three Preludes by Tristan Keuris the Dutch composer who died suddenly last year at the unripe age of 50 The first was heavy-footed murky and rather sinister the second was elegantly syncopated and dominated by strings and harp while the third was a frantic sprint coloured by Caprice turned to menace as comedy brasses became violently and flighty woodwinds pan-over stabbing strings A savage Romanian dance traced the line between seduction and rape Dance of the Seven Veils continued on a similar if more lyrical theme when the mood of the evening was for something different Percussion with an Iberian flavour emphasised sultry barbarism which contrasted violently with the sophisticated almost arrogant three-time of the waltzes This was a floor-show when nobility was required No encore followed BOX Office: 0171 589 8212 PR0MS on the undamped strings The sound was silver on the air He played not a single unclear note and even hispianissimo breathed The Miraculous Mandarin a pantomime about a prostitute and her pimps touting for the ultimate client elicited the most vivid playing from the orchestra Riccardo Chailly hunched conspir-atorially on the podium ushering in each dark chilling scene like one shepherding flies into a web tuned percussion instruments hammering at different speeds and the occasional bar of three-eight to confound the stiff conductor Indeed they were written as a test piece for a conducting competition the product more of craftsmanship than of inspiration The pianist Arkady Volodos came on to perform Piano Concerto No 2 and made the Steinway sing trilling in thirds in the second movement radpnTa high Ratings adequate good very good outstanding poor ENTERTAINMENTiGUIDE THEATRES 49450804166060 0(-f tag fee)Gnxps 494 5454 741333214365588 CAMBIIDGE0171494 34444444200000 GREASE NOWIN ITS Sffi FANTASTK YEAH StirrMg LUKE GOSS 'AMmttrHR'Diiimr Mon-Sat7JfanWedASalinah3pra GREASE NOWBOOKING WTO 1MB APOLLO VICTORIA cc 0171 4166058 cc 24tes 9171344444401714200000 GnafsOI71 41660750171 4133321 Tkts it HMV Sum A Tawer lacaria AadrewLbydWebbei'i STARLIGHT EXPRESS THE FASTE5T SHOW ON EARTH WUeknuddenm 1945 daikr ARTS WQ 1171 S3S 3334 GIELGUD 0171 494 £30 cc 344 4444 THE REDUCED SHAKESPEARE COMPANY Bind New Skew THE IDLE THE COMPLETE WORD OF GOD (abridged) 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THE WORLDS MOST POPUUR MUSICAL LESMISERABLES NOW IN ITS 12 A RECORD-BREAKING TEAR m- a LMaxnnraioninMiiMUKiiicniw LIMITED NUMBER OF SEATS AVAILABLE DAILY FROM BOX OFFICE NO PERFS FROM Kl SEPT DUE TO REFURBISHMENT NEW COMPANY RE-OPENS SEPT NBSttmateanceled-lkfcethalden oonladBaOfficefcr detail 0171 5 4945380 24 hour adk card bated cnadnyand i of Damn Rumon muric and Mca by Rank Loeser boot by Jo Swing end Abe FORTUNE BORCC8171 83622383128033 74945388 NOW IN ITS Ith HIT YEAR IONERT DAVID DEMEGER PULLAN SmiHI'i THEWOMANINBLACK CRITERION 39 17373444444 REDUCED SHAKESPEARE COMPANYin THE COMPLETE WOIRS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (abridged) AI37kfiin97miHto VprMnmbfiaay'SUndan HyMtfcarinUI Mablnurat3pmSatat5pail Sunat4pmEKiatfaa thecomPletehbtoit OP AMERICA (akridgeO ItfRrStaia'HwSnYixiie ifeLaegeitR miac Cmkj Hid NmMdatTaJai'M 1 CONDITIONED THEATRE THE OPERA uQ UUw Tkketselect WwWMEn IhwWMEnd Thwtn Specialist Directed taHAROLDP ROW BOWING TO MATH Ew745UabWed4Sal300 LYTTELTON Tort (PRESS NIGHT) 700 Tooor 7 JO CHIPS WITH EVERYTHING by Anrid i WQBEii COnESLOE Totby 2J0 A CLOSER A new Patrick Umber Tomor 7D0 KING LEAR Tie mm tBOt indcUfaf icanceM-TKianouefi contact Bos Office for dediii APOLLO LABATTSBO a (Mkk(fee) 01714166083 cc no tag fee 344 4444420 0000 Grm4166075 freephone 0800614903 SUMMER HOLIDAY PHOENIX B0CC39 1733 CC 344 4444420 0000 Qfee) Groupa 436 £884133321 piajfer yean Mai NoFWHiiiSattan RuafagTiaKZnn BLOOMSBURY THEATIE 017l3888822(sdioclntesinB) Ndund Youth Thedrepeesent I0ME0 A JULIET FiaMcn(mahonlOll1617) LONDON PALLADIUM BOOC 494 5020344 4444(61 tttaervdig)4200000Gms017 4945450 3128000 Tteabo at HMVTowRecod! 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