Amid this year’s many theatrical events to mark the centenary of the First World War, there won’t be anything more demandingly dense than Peter Gill’s Versailles. Focusing on the conflict's aftermath, it is packed with meticulous research that sometimes makes it resemble the more ponderous sort of history lesson.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed seven months after the war ended, and Gill examines the various resentments and forced settlements with which it polluted post-war Europe. The contentious consequences of peace come under the scrutiny of Leonard Rawlinson, an earnest young civil servant beautifully played by Gwilym Lee. His passionate intelligence collides with the obstinacy of officialdom, and he is haunted by the ghost of his dead lover Gerald.
As a piece about loss Versailles is convincing. The miasma of death hangs heavy in the air, and we also see characters who are stripped of their identity now that the conflict is over. Gill directs sensitively, and there are polished performances from Francesca Annis as Leonard’s laconic mother, Tamla Kari as his forward-thinking sister, Adrian Lukis as their cultured neighbour, and Tom Hughes as Gerald.
At three hours (with two intervals) this is meaty fare. Yet it takes too long to advance beyond dry exposition, and there are times when Gill shows us far too much of the bureaucrats’ dull loquacity - notably during a lengthy discussion of German coal production.
The play’s range and polemical ambition are admirable - in its hefty seriousness it calls to mind the work of George Bernard Shaw, and there are some wickedly pointed lines. But only in the final third does it seem intimately human, and by then we’ve had to endure a lot of turgid debate.
Until April 5 (0844 871 7624, donmarwarehouse.com)
Read More
MORE ABOUT