Review: IN PRAISE OF LOVE, Orange Tree Theatre

Photo credit: Ellie Kurttz

In Praise of Love at the Orange Tree Theatre is a confident production of a Terence Rattigan play that has aged less well than some of his earlier pieces. Originally part of a double bill, the play was expanded when the companion piece failed. The Orange Tree has had success with previous Rattigan plays but they were from much earlier in his career; In Praise of Love was first seen in 1973.

Sebastian Cruttwell is a Marxist literary critic who appears to be concerned only with his own career; his wife, his son and even the name of his cleaner seem to be of little concern to him. There are suggestions of a relationship with an offstage character, Prunella, but we are assume he is as off-hand with her as with everyone else. The author spends most of the play showing us how unpleasant Sebastian is, only to make a late bid to indicate things were not quite as they seem. Dominic Rowan blusters his way through the part convincingly, and gives us a believable picture of a man who crumples under pressure in one of Rattigan’s typical scenes of male despair and desperation. The English vice, Sebastian contends, is not admitting to our emotions.

As Liberal candidate and playwright son Joey, Joe Edgar is convincing as the offspring of his father, both turning against him and yet also formed by him. The bond between the two men is almost stretched to breaking point but it is still there. Edgar’s performance also provides some of the more comedic moments in what is essentially a tragedy. Daniel Abelson, replete with the appropriate 70s moustache, is friend and confidante Mark. It’s a difficult part; the character is something of an enigma, obviously successful, but we know little about him. For much of the time, he seems to exist in dramatic terms in order to allow the other characters to be more fully explained, but Abelson makes much of the role, his easy conversational style contrasting well with the other male characters.

At the centre of the relationships between these men is Lydia, wife, mother and friend, who is given a luminous almost other-worldly aura by the excellent Claire Price. Estonian by birth and having suffered greatly during WWII, Lydia seems to have a puzzling attachment to her idle and apparently uncaring husband, but we come to understand her motivation as more detail is revealed. It’s a touching and heartfelt performance at the core of the play, with key moments underlined by the sounds of the Estonian Singing Revolution, a subtle touch which could perhaps have been used more extensively.

Director Amelia Sears makes good use of the in-the-round auditorium at the Orange Tree so that we feel we know the offstage rooms as much as the one we see onstage, and has managed to give us convincing characters even when they seem so rooted in a different time and different beliefs around gender roles. Hat-box, letters and chess game all play their part as they should in the somewhat complex last act of this play. Designer Peter Butler suggests the 1970s with subtlety in his book-lined study, avoiding any caricature explosion of orange and brown. Prawn-filled avocados do appear, but are ignored…

Not just for Rattigan completists, In Praise of Love offers excellent performances in a good production of a tricky play. As the Orange Tree shows us once again, Rattigan has been unfairly written off in the past, and we look forward to further revivals of his work.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Chris Abbott

In Praise of Love plays at London’s Orange Tree Theatre until 5 July, with further info here.