SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Connecticut
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewHero
|
"We can only do this if we go by the book. Announcing you’re gay to minors is not in the book. That’s in the other book."
— Joe
|
Liam Garrigan as Danny and Daniel Mays as Jamie (Photo: Johan Persson) |
The play opens with Danny recalling the death of his brother Alex, who slipped and cracked his head after being chased by yobs after Alex had taken and was wearing Danny’s distinctive yellow jacket. A group of yobs used to follow Danny home calling him names and he thinks his brother was mistaken for him.
Jamie drops round to see Joe and Danny telling them that he has had an altercation with a seven year old telling a six year old that Jamie is gay. Jamie deals with this well asking the seven year old to explain what he thinks gay means but later when fifty two pieces of paper with the word FAGOT (stet) on them are put through his letter box, he is unsettled. Later there are more serious actions from the homophobic louts.
What EV Crowe’s play does is to expose gay bashing behaviour except that the victim in this case is not gay. The playwright’s point is that gay bashing is wrong no matter what the sexuality of the victim. The “heroic” action is whether Danny should “come out” to his primary school children when his partner Joe says, “Mathematically speaking, I think the square root of male homosexual primary school teacher times one is paedophile.” There are delightful descriptions of a primary school teacher’s themed day fitting curriculum and ethics into studies of Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada.
Jeremy Herrin’s production is set, first in Joe and Danny’s pretty kitchen and then in Jamie and Lisa’s less aesthetic kitchen. Mike Britton’s design, the wooden floor with its multiple, painted and lit lines for court games and the neon squares above recall a school setting. Liam Garrigan’s Danny is essentially likeable, Tim Steed’s Joe is practical, Daniel Mays’s Jamie is cackhanded, awkward and unwelcome, Susannah Wise’s Lisa has a smaller and less significant part.
The sub text is who will make the better parents? A play with important themes.
|
Subscribe to our FREE email updates with a note from editor Elyse Sommer about additions to the website -- with main page hot links to the latest features posted at our numerous locations. To subscribe,
E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message -- if you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country. |
| Hero
Written by EV Crowe Directed by Jeremy Herrin Starring: Daniel Mays, Liam Garrigan, Tim Steed, Susannah Wise Designed by Mike Britton Lighting: Rick Fisher Sound: Ian Dickinson for Autograph Running time: Two hours with one interval Box Office: 020 7565 5000 Booking to 22nd December 2012 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 29th November 2012 at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court Sloane Square London SW1W 8AS (Tube: Sloane Square) |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email . . . also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. |
