Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

Man and Boy at the Dorfman I knew very little about this rarely performed Rattigan play beforehand but, for me at least, this one was a hit.  I last saw Ben Daniels being amazing in Medea a couple of years ago.  This time he plays Gregor Antonescu, a successful financier in 1934, with all sorts of financial interests including loans to the fascist movements in Italy and Germany, clearly moving in those circles.  We meet him at the moment his dodgy dealing has caught up with him and he seeks sanctuary in his estranged son’s basement apartment in Manhattan.  The murky world of the rich hits pretty hard in the light of the Epstein scandal, showing how disposable people are in this world, including his son, as he offers him up without his consent, to a closeted gay corporate boss.  In this world, people are no more than commodities and Antonesco states 'Love is a commodity I can't afford' .  What matters instead is how anyone or thing can help with the deal....

Well that was an unforgettable hour and a half!  High expectations preceded this and I am pleased to say the production definitely delivered.  I saw Helen McCrory’s  Medea at the National and she was amazing -  all powerful ice cold fury.  Sophie Okonedo’s Medea is different again.  A powerful wounded creature emerging from her lair,  prowling the stage seething with rage and vengeance but with sharp wit and intelligence too, gaining sympathy which made the horror all the more effective.   The performance in the round in a brand new and very comfortable theatre meant that the whole audience was gathered round and somehow complicit whilst also being horrified onlookers unable to stop the headlong rush to disaster.  The cast positioned in the audience certainly helped with that as they wrung their hands and tried to persuade of better ways.   There were a few things that are clearly fashionable at the moment - slow motion movemen...