LESS THAN KIND
Written by Terence Rattigan
Directed by Adrian Brown
‘Less Than Kind’ is the ‘lost play’ by Terence Rattigan which astonished the critics when its premier, earlier this year, opened the celebrations to mark the centenary of the writer’s birth, and reaffirming his reputation as one of England’s greatest dramatists.
info@planettheatreproductions.com
TELEPHONE
Sean Garvey, Producer.
T: 0207 392 7319
M: 07595 606 099
REVIEWS
****
Libby Purves
THE TIMES Critic’s Choice.
The tiny Jermyn Street Theatre fires the first shot in the centenary salute to Terence Rattigan, and it’s a treat, wearing its cleverness, insight and teasing echoes of Hamlet lightly. Even the 1944 setting feels topical: a Tory government, shortages, talk of “a new Home Front”, and a schoolboy rebel quoting Labour Weekly and denouncing capitalism. Olivia’s son, played with a beautiful air of arrogant naivety by David Osmond, breaks the lovers up. The second act piles on elegant ironies, mirror situations, a purringly minxy turn from Caroline Head and a Machiavellian denouement. The great thing about Rattigan is that he knew a lot about misery, loneliness and disappointment — but didn’t feel that he should leave an audience feeling that way.
****
Andrzej Lukowski
TIME OUT Critic’s Choice.
At its heart, Less Than Kind, though spiked with zingy one-liners, is an aching Chekhovian treatment of parental duty and adolescent angst. As a fringe production, this is superior stuff, and it’s possessed of something very special in Sara Crowe’s moving nuanced Olivia.
TOUR
14th–18th February
28th February–3rd March
5th–10th March
12th–17th March
19th–24th March
26th–31st March
2nd–7th April
A production that is beautifully acted, full of evocative period detail and very funny.
Paul Taylor, The Independent ****
Jermyn Street Production.
© Planet Theatre Productions 2011