Emlyn Williams’s play caused a stir when revived at the Finborough three years ago. Audiences were astonished that a 1950 commercial piece could deal so frankly with the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of public figures. Now Blanche McIntyre’s impeccable, almost entirely recast production has gained even more traction with the stream of revelations about the sex lives of celebrities and allegations of corruption in high places.
Not everything in Williams’s play convinces. It’s hard to believe that his hero, a famous novelist called Will Trenting, who specialises in studies of society’s lower depths, is a Nobel prize winner: he’s far too young for a start. But the play’s suspense derives from the idea that, at the very moment when Trenting’s knighthood is announced, stories surface about his double life as a frequenter of Rotherhithe pub orgies. Without condoning Trenting’s activities, Williams suggests that creativity cannot easily be reconciled with conformity and that there was a climate of fear in the 50s that licensed blackmail. But what is fascinating is to see how this oft-derided, well-made play could be a vehicle for adult themes.
One of the many virtues of McIntyre’s production is that it leaves us to work out the story’s implications, not least the idea that it acts as a metaphor for the problems of the married bisexual, from Oscar Wilde to Williams himself. Alexander Hanson excellently conveys the hero’s literary passion and craving for lurid excitement, and there is first-rate support from Abigail Cruttenden as his surprisingly tolerant wife (below), Sam Clemmett as his devoted son and Jay Villiers as his stiff-backed publisher. And even if Bruce Alexander makes a bit of meal of the role of a wheedling blackmailer, it is good to see Olivia Darnley retained from the original cast as one of the hero’s night companions.
Given the revival of interest in the work of Rattigan and Priestley, it is clearly time for a new look at Williams, who was no less of a guileful craftsman.
• Until 13 December. Venue: St James, London. Buy tickets for Accolade from theguardianboxoffice.com
• Blanche McIntyre: the stage director who works hard to make it all look easy
