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Presented by New End Theatre

HALPERN & JOHNSON

Written and directed by Lionel Goldstein

Starring Bernard Kay and Ian Barritt

New End Theatre

23 July to 31 August, 2008

Ibs

uzens

A review by Barry Grantham for EXTRA! EXTRA!

A few minutes into ‘Halpern and Johnson’ at the New End Theatre and you know you are in good hands. Here are two splendid actors in whom you can put your trust.
The ability to gain trust is an important part of an actor’s craft. This is why it is hard for unknowns to gain a footing. For management and customers it is better to have a ‘name’ – a name you can trust. An Anthony Hopkins, an Ian McKellen  - a Judy Dench, than risk your time and money on an unknown.  Of course Bernard Kay and Ian Barritt are known actors – I worked with Mr Kay once and a jolly decent chap he is too.   
 
Let us spend a moment considering the matter of ‘Trust’.  If we think about it, we the audience, are putting ourselves into a very perilous and vulnerable position, and here is this actor offering you his hand (metaphorically) and asking you to follow him into another  life, another universe, another world with only the illusion of reality. He is asking you to accept the hallucinatory drug ‘drama’ and follow him – where?  
We need that his hand grip be firm and his step secure. One little waver, one flicker of doubt and we refuse to be taken further.

So where would Messrs Kay and Barritt lead us?   Mr Halpern, overcoat-clad, stands by the graveside of his just departed wife of fifty years, when his thoughts and recollections are interrupted by a total stranger, a bunch of flowers in his hand.  Who is he? What did he know of ‘Flo’?  The mystery is unravelled during the 90 minutes of an amusing and touching play by Lionel Goldstein.

So praise all round.  Meticulous direction by the author, with sensitive lighting, and sound (bird song); enough to help the actors create their own ambience. See the opening where My Kay’s stance and minimal movement convey to any of who have experienced it the surrounding atmosphere of the graveside; the cold, the smell of wet leaves and rotting flowers, the nonchalant, uncaring birds hopping among the testimonials to the departed.

And the play itself?   Did I like it, admire it?  Most certainly.  Is it a great play? Did I ‘Love’ it?  Ah, here’s the rub. To love the play I would have had to find a place in my heart for these two old codgers. And I fear I did not. Not in the way we can for Falstaff, Lear, or each of the protagonists in Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser, - or ‘A Very English Marriage’ in which Finney and Courtenay forged another powerful partnership.

Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30
Saturday and Sunday at 3.30

New End Theatre
27 New End Hampstead
 London, NW3 1JD

5 Minutes from Hampstead Tube

£18 Concessions £15

Box Office: 0870 033 2733 

www.newendtheatre.co.uk

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