Highly anticipated does not say it. But how else to describe national treasure Alan Bennett turning his attention to the crown jewels of 20th century British art, WH Auden and Benjamin Britten?
Those looking forward to a meaty evening of highbrow discourse between poet and composer or, like me, secretly dreading a tedious evening of reverential biography, will be disappointed or, like me, delighted. I should have known better. Bennett doesn’t do reverential or tedious. It turns out the biographical and pretentious bore that might have been exists as a play being rehearsed by a company of actors — at the National no less.
Bennett’s fifth collaboration with director Nicholas Hytner— his first since the monster hit The History Boys — is not so much a play-within-a-play but a worthy drama-within-a-comedy.
And if the notion of a play at the National being about a play at the National sounds self-regarding, the rehearsal room setting allows Bennett to combine biography — much of it about Auden’s and Britten’s sexuality — while having lots of fun with the process of theatre making.
This then is a play that is not only about two great artists, and how the act of creation mellows with age into routine (the meaning of the title), but about making theatre too.
Under the world weary authority of Francis De La Tour’s stage manager, Richard Griffiths (who stepped in for Michael Gambon) is Fitz, the disruptive veteran actor who plays Auden. What is revealed is how an actor’s personality bleeds into the role they play. Both brilliantly reveal how actors’ personalities bleed into the roles they play Alex Jennings is Henry, the actor playing Britten. Less is revealed about Auden and Britten.
It could be said there is not much meat on this play – Bennett’s that is, as opposed to that of his Author. But what meat there is is absolutely delicious.