Robert Bolt wrote many fine plays other than his seductive whitewash of Sir Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons, so it is refreshing to find his first West End hit getting a rare outing. But, while it is directed with loving care by Benjamin Whitrow and outstandingly designed by Alex Marker, it remains a good play overshadowed by a great one.
Given that Bolt’s hero, Jim Cherry, is a fantasising salesman at loggerheads with his children, but stoically supported by his wife, it is impossible not to think of Death of a Salesman: a play Bolt said he had neither read nor seen when he wrote his own. But Kenneth Tynan was spot on when he pointed out in 1957 that “while Miller attributes Willy Loman’s downfall to social forces outside himself, Bolt looks inside Jim Cherry for the seeds of his failure”. It is fair to say, however, that Bolt never really explains the source of Jim’s tragedy and that he is far better on domestic effects than psychological causes.
The most painfully vivid scenes show the suburban hero robbing his wife’s purse and looking guiltily on as his son takes the blame, or ducking the chance to fulfil his romantic dream of becoming a Somerset farmer.
The domestic tension comes across strongly in this production. Liam McKenna as Jim admirably blends physical burliness and emotional flakiness, Catherine Kanter as his wife sharply exhibits the strains of marital loyalty and James Musgrave and Hannah Morrish show how the sins of the father are visited upon the children. Whatever its flaws, the play is worth seeing as a reminder that, even after the Royal Court revolution of the mid-1950s, the West End was not quite the cultural desert of popular myth.
• At Finborough theatre, London, until 20 December. Box office: 0844 847 1652.
