Honour (Cottesloe Theatre)
What a difference an ocean, or at least a different production, can make. | "Held perfectly in balance by its director, 'Honour' is acted with wrenching feeling by a cast that features Corin Redgrave and Eileen Atkins..." |
When I first saw this Australian marital drama on a big Broadway stage in 1998, I was unimpressed by its inward-looking story of a long lasting marriage that is fatally disrupted when the husband falls for a 28-year-old woman who is just four years older than his daughter.
But seeing it again in the much more intimate Cottesloe - arranged with the audience on two sides, like eavesdroppers to this scene of domestic upheaval and emotion - I was overwhelmed by this forensically-observed triangle of a betrayer, the betrayed and the catalyst of the upheaval.
Held perfectly in balance by director Roger Michell, it is acted with wrenching feeling by a cast that features Corin Redgrave as the husband, Eileen Atkins as his wife, Catherine McCormack as his mistress, and Anna Maxwell Martin as the daughter. amazing study
 | Eileen Atkins: heartbreaking power |
As he breaks the news of the collapse of their marriage to his unsuspecting wife, Redgrave's performance is an amazing study in wrestling with feelings he doesn't fully comprehend, but which he seems powerless to resist. And as she receives the news, Eileen Atkins registers with heartbreaking power just how
suddenly her entire world has collapsed.
Atkins is surely one of the five greatest actresses in the English-speaking stage world. My list of the other four being Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton and the American stage and television actress Alison Janney. This is, quite simply, the best acting performance on any London stage right now.
Honour is at the National Theatre, Cottesloe, South Bank SE1 until 27 March. Tickets £10 - £27. Box Office: 020 7452 3000
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