MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
Latest editorial
More themes than thrills in humdrum family drama
Cavorting: Paul Bradley and Belinda Lang in Humble Pie
[Manuel Harlan]
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
Humble Boy
Orange Tree, Richmond
THE BIG problem with a contemporary play which pays homage to other writers is that, without a strong authorial voice, the end product is less than satisfactory.
Thus it proves with Charlotte Jones's Humble Boy, which won several awards after its 2001 premiere.
There are shades of Alan Ayckbourn here and Tom Stoppard. And there's a reworking of Hamlet too, as son Felix Humble (Jonathan Broadbent) returns to the family home after the death of his father to find his mother Flora (Belinda Lang) cavorting with lover George Pye, played with energetic vulgarity by Paul Bradley.
Similar stories
MARY CONWAY relishes two matchless performers and a masterclass in tightly focused wordplay
SUSAN DARLINGTON applauds the translation of Jane Eyre into a ballet that preserves the drama of her formative years
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE review Cottontail, Memoir of a Snail, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and Captain America: Brave New World