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By
Rosie Hetherington
With
the strong sweet smells of passive dope smoking, and some irritatingly
catchy pop tunes of the past thirty years this is a play to treasure.
This eternal triangle of free love goes from strength to strength.
Well, from strong emotions to strong language with plenty of dramatic
turns and laughs to be had.
Not
The National Theatre presents this gentle but sardonic comedy of
middle class morality in its first national tour. The brothers concern
over the division of their childhood spoils and property, and the
tendency to remain nice and civilised despite every provocation
marks this out as English humour at its best.
The
play is dominated by Daniel Leatherdale's powerful performance as
"Michael" the elder, more responsible and successful brother.
The Japes of the title is the irresponsible younger brother with
all the usual sibling rivalry and struggle to get out from his brothers
shadow. Nicholas Prideaux as "Jason" expertly plays this
more challenging role of the drunk and recovering alcoholic. Not
to be outdone as the sole female in the cast, Sophie Shaw portrays
"Anita" and later on, her own daughter "Wendy".
She uses a range of emotions that continue to engage the audience
throughout this well structured drama.
The
cast of three people in this marriage lead us from the heady days
of 1973 through the excesses of the eighties and the nineties to
2000. With a simple living room set and changing fashions there
is much to admire and reflect on how simple life used to be. But
was it better? It also shows that those who don't learn their history
are doomed to repeat it.
One
night remains so catch it while you can.
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