Peter Viney's Blog

The Lie
By Florian Zeller
Adapted by Christopher Hampton

Ditrected by Lindsay Posner
Designed by Anna Fleischle

The Menier Chocolate Factory, Southwark

Friday 22^nd September 2017,  20.00

CAST

Samantha Bond – Alice
Tony Gardner – Michel
Alexandra Gilbraith – Laurence
Alexander Hanson – Paul

SEE ALSO: The Truth, by Florian Zeller, adapted Christopher Hampton, Menier 2016

We had decided never to do two unlinked plays in the same day again, as the concentration goes, but we had to make an exception for this one. We’d long ago booked Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon at The Globe with an overnight stay. The Menier Chocolate Factory is only a five minute walk away, and last year The Truth was so totally enjoyable that time flew by. After a heavy afternoon with King Lear, it seemed a pleasant change.

The play is a companion piece to The Truth, with the same four characters. It has been recast from The Truth, but after James Dreyfus dropped out, Alexander Hanson came in. He was in The Truth last year playing Michel, but now switches to play Paul, which in this one is the larger role. I guess they’d already cast Tony Gardner as Michel.  The addition of a beard this time differentiates him from his previous role. The Truth was my choice for Best Modern Play of 2016, and Alexander Hanson was in my Top Three actors of 2016. Alexandra Gilbraith was in The Rover, in my 2016 Best Of … for pre-20th century.

We’d read about the replacement back on September 13th. We were surprised to get this from the Menier on Thursday the 21st:

(We) have been working tirelessly to make this a smooth transition and we are delighted to confirm that the performance you have booked on Friday 22nd September at 8pm will go ahead as planned. In order to offer you the best experience possible Alexander Hanson will be performing with the script on stage.

Odd. It’s listed as commencing on the 14th September. One would have thought that seven days was enough time to learn the part. My companion reckons that the back and forth in the text over the same true or false incidents would make it especially hard to learn, because it would be so easy to find oneself drifting into another section. You also can only work on the fast repartee with your counterpart in a dialogue.  So, were earlier previews cancelled? The website says:

Previews may be cancelled due to Hanson stepping in so late in the rehearsal process, and the Menier will be in touch directly with any members of the public affected.

There are rehearsal photos with James Dreyfus online dated 4th September. Anyway, we were lucky. It’s listed as a preview on our tickets. When we bought them, it was supposed to be seven days into the run. At £39.50 each, I don’t see it as a major cheap concession for previews either . If you’re charging £85 to a couple (with donation and post) for a four person play with one fixed set, in my mind that’s a proper performance. Sorry. It is discounted, but not by much.

Paul (Alexander Hanson) & Alice (Samantha Bond)

We have the same four characters as The Truth. This time, we begin in Alice and Paul’s apartment (which we never leave). Alice (Samantha Bond)wants to cancel dinner with their friends Laurence and Michel, who are expected in half an hour. She claims she will be embarrasssed because she passed Michel in the street (she was in a taxi) and he was kissing another woman. She thinks she should inform Laurence (Alexandra Gilbraith). Paul (Alexander Hanson) believes that in the circumstances, she should lie. That basic question runs the length of the play.

The director, Lindsay Posner, introduced the evening, explained Alex Hanson’s late arrival, and watched.

In fact, the two parter first scene with Alice and Paul was all there, because Alex Hanson was not using the book at all. It appeared only after the scene, then he was checking text from then onward. Inevitably, in spite of a brilliant and impassioned reading, something is lost in the interaction. It simply cannot feel as real.

Laurence (Alexandra Gilbraith) & Paul (Alexander Hanson)

More to the point, The Lie suffers in comparison to The Truth. It focuses mainly on Alice and Paul, and so Michel and Laurence become very much subsidiary characters. The main issue is that we were held in suspense in The Truth, never sure who was lying. Here we pretty much knew it all from the beginning because we had seen the first one. Florian Zeller says in the programme:

It’s a play constructed around a series of false trails. The situations are deliberately conventional – at least apparently so – to give the audience the (false) impression that they always know where they are.

I think I pretty much knew where I was and who was fooling who from the outset. So did my companion. The basic true / lie argument is repeated  too often in much the same words, so it feels padded out.  Add that Paul’s “confession” scene is mirrored pretty much to a door slam by Alice’s confession scene. The Truth is intrinsically the better play.  I re-read it before seeing The Lie so was not relying on just memory of one performance. However, my companion had not re-read the text, but still remembered The Truth‘s plot clearly. There’s more balance between the four characters in The Truth, and that ‘Who’s telling the truth?’ suspense holds right through. It also has more than one set.

Michel (Tony Garner) and Paul (Alexander Hanson)

There are some rusty bits of translation that creak … Taking the piss x three for example. Lead us up shit creek x 2,  make a song and dance about it, They all felt somehow forced, false. Uncharacteristic of Zeller’s short line fluency. The slightly stilted feel to the language makes it sound “French” or a translation (good), but somehow those colloquial bits stand out as clashing. The whole urbane attitude to infidelity theme is a set French cliché anyway. And a trifle self-congratulatory too.

The Lie has a tour de force acting from all four, and with Alexander Hanson somewhat hampered by the folder with the script, Samantha Bond is the outstanding one. The other pair are wonderful, but we don’t see nearly enough of them. We were reminded that Alexandra Gilbraith has a superb voice. Tony Gardner was the perfect urbane, smooth Michel. The flashback / coda after the apparent curtain call is the best bit of the play … always good to hold the best to last. No plot spoilers.

The Truth was a clear five … this one is a three. It’s definitely not as good as The Truth. It will sparkle more in the interaction when Alexander Hanson has dropped the book.  He was not far away, it looked more like a reassuring glance at the page than a ‘reading.’ The major error was in recasting it. It needed to be done in tandem with `The Truth with the exact same casting (as in The Norman Conquests trilogy).

Yes, it was a preview, but not an RSC ultra-cheap one, so I think reviewable. I’ve held it back a few days until Press Day. It was a comparative disappointment.

***

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID
Domenic Cavendish, Telegraph ***
Susannah Clapp, Observer ***
Maxie Szalwinska, Sunday Times ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

STAGE PLAYS BY FLORIAN ZELLER
The Lie, Menier Chocolate Factory 2017
The Truth, Menier Chocolate Factory 2016
The Height of The Storm, Bath, September 2018
FILM
The Father by Florian Zeller 2021

LINDSAY POSNER
The Truth
Communicating Doors
Dinner With Saddam
The Hypochondriac
A Little Hotel On The Side
She Stoops To Conquer
Hay Fever
Abigail’s Party

ALEXANDER HANSON
The Truth 2016 (Michel)
Wars of The Roses: Richard III, Rose Kingston (Buckingham)
Wars of The Roses: Edward IV Rose Kingston (Richard, D. of York)
Wars of The Roses: Henry VI Rose Kingston (Richard, D. of York)

ALEXANDRA GILBRAITH
The Rover, RSC 2016 (Bianca)
The Merry Wives of Windsor, RSC 2012 (Mistress Ford)

SAMANTHA BOND
Reading Samantha Bond’s extensive cv online, I noted that she was in the original Southampton production of Daisy Pulls It Off in 1983. Hey! We saw that twice! I can’t claim to remember her in it though the photos online look familiar. I certainly remember her Lady Macbeth with Sean Bean as Macbeth in a huge production at Milton Keynes.