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"Surging out of the chiaroscuro of griefs and
hopes, Alan Howard presents the husband as a sad sleepwalker. This is a
riveting performance and a breathtaking paradox: touching at the start but, as
his paranoia deepens, winding up the master of all he surveys. A minor play,
but a production that will glow in the memory for years to come." |
"Another special treat is the return to form of both
Richard Eyre and the NT with de Filippo's La Grande Magia. I have no
complaints at all (for once) at the extravagant use of sets, for Anthony Ward's
superbly realised progression from light into darkness (with the usual nod to
Mark "shafty" Henderson's so-evocative lighting) is just what the play needs -
see Robert Hewison's review, especially, for a rare exploration of what good
design can do for a piece which relies on its artificiality to produce some far
from artificial truths. It's also a pleasure to see Alan Howard at last finding
a role to which he can bring the full force of his skill at externalising inner
torment - Calogero's journey from priggish self-satisfaction through doubt and
near-madness to self-knowledge is one of the most exciting and moving
experiences to be seen at present on the London stage. Several critics have
remarked on the inappropriateness of David Ross's comic explosion into the
second act, more Dario Fo than de Filippo, but I wouldn't have missed it for
anything.
Prompt Corner
Theatre Record, Volume XV, Issue 14,
7.8.95
"Richard Eyre's witty and dazzling revival of Eduardo de Filippo's 1948 fantasy deploys every theatrical strategem in the book for an ambitious evening of surreal tragedy tinged by farce............
Most memorable of all, however, is Alan Howard's
terrifying descent into pitiful madness as he fixes the audience with
lugubrious treacle eyes and cradles a casket containing - so he believes - his
wife as tenderly as if it were a baby."
Maureen Paton
Daily Express,
14.7.95
