This is the theatre debut of film director Joe Wright. The man behind recent screen versions of Anna Karenina and Atonement grew up at the Little Angel Theatre in Islington, launched and run by his parents.
So it seems apt that he switches to stage with a comedy by Arthur Wing Pinero, who also grew up in Islington. It’s a love letter to the theatre — a warm view of what happens behind the scenes.
The title is not immediately intelligible. It refers to Rose Trelawny, star of the Barridge Wells Theatre (a thinly disguised Sadler’s Wells). At the outset she is renouncing the stage for a smart marriage and a more restrained life of snuff-taking and whist drives.
Amy Morgan brings an understated radiance to Rose. There is a gulf between her usual diet of melodrama and the manners of her prospective husband Arthur’s family. The result is a study of social differences and divisions, in which concerns about performance and authenticity are to the fore.
The play dates from the 1890s and it is creaky, feeling like a series of contrived sketches. Here it is presented with “respectful additions and ornamentation” by Patrick Marber, the author of Closer and Dealer’s Choice.
Marber introduces good jokes but could have been a more strict editor of Pinero’s slow exposition. And Pinero’s own jokes aren’t always great. There is only so much mirth that can be extracted from the word murmur being mixed up with murder.
Ron Cook excels as Arthur’s often thunderous grandfather, issuing the ominous instruction: “Save your tears for the bedroom.” He even manages to make sneezing seem amusing.
Peter Wight and Jamie Beamish are robust presences but there is less confident work elsewhere.
Daniel Kaluuya is winsome yet not entirely comfortable as a playwright who aspires to bring realism to the Victorian stage, while Daniel Mays at times pushes too hard for laughs.
The humour tends towards farce, with a fight scene just before the interval especially ripe. Yet the pace is uneven and the best moments are long coming. Although there is visual interest throughout, the production needs more snap and bubbly charm — and less caricature.
Until April 13 (0844 871 7624, donmarwarehouse.com).
