By Felicity Heaton Terence Rattigans play Man and Boy is set to a backdrop of New York during the financially unstable 1930s and explores the symbolism of man as inhumane and boy as innocent. The story is a simple one of a man who has built his empire on fraud and snitching of money from his business deals and is seeing it coming down in tumbling ruins around him. David Suchet is superb as Antonescu and commands the stage from the moment he appears back in his sons life to the second he finally exits at the end. Ben Silverstones performance as Basil Anthony, Antonescus estranged son, is enchanting and heartfelt as he plays out the character of the innocenta boy who loves his father no matter how hard he tries not to and no matter how much his father despises him for it.
The exploration of the relationship between the father and son is the crux of the story; the happenings of Antonescus downfall merely act as a motive to bring the two together after five years apart and help show the hardness of Antonescus character. He is a man without love, he sees it as a weakness and believes his son is soft because of this emotion. Where Antonescus character remains steady throughout the play we see his sons change rapidly from calm to almost aggressive and then back again, showing the passionate side to him as he attempts to convince himself and others that he hates his father. Most notably it is his girlfriend of only a few months that can see straight away how much his father means to him even though she has only witnessed contempt between the two.
The only downfall of the play is its daring attempt to be played out on only one set and with only a handful of supporting characters that appear very briefly. This constraint of the story to one location makes it hard to connect to the characters and the world they live in. The play starts off well, with an interesting array of characters being introduced in a very short space of time but then seems to follow the empire of Antonescu as it slowly ebbs away. | 
