The soprano in David Hare’s new play has nothing of the so-so about her so-fa-lahs. She is “moderate” because, although she has an expressive voice, it is a small one. Offstage, as the woman who has subordinated her career to being the wife of John Christie, the founder of Glyndebourne, Audrey Mildmay is also a moderator. She smooths the path between her explosive husband and the artistic presences he values, nurtures and tries to bulldoze.
Nancy Carroll, gesturing gently, gives Mildmay a dulcet quality without being winsome. Her speaking voice is so mellow that she makes it easy to imagine her as bird-like in song. Roger Allam is masterly as the immoderate Christie. He delivers his speeches vehemently, ambushing the conversations with his verbal pounces on the “chaps” around him. The waistband of his trousers is so high, just under his armpits, that he looks like a round child. He suggests both complete entitlement and vulnerability.
These first-rate performances, fuelled by Hare’s velvety, feline dialogue, are the chief pull of The Moderate Soprano in Jeremy Herrin’s beguiling production. Hare is a prolific playwright but he seems to have rushed out this play. A good dramatic edit would have given it the bite it needs.
There is plenty of interest in the facts that Hare has marshalled about the founding of the Sussex opera house, not least in a central paradox. What is routinely considered one of the most English of arts institutions – private funding, damp grass – was dependent for its achievements on the talents of three refugees from Nazi Germany. This is a shrewd good point to be making now. Other ironies adhere to it. Christie was eager to produce Wagner, with a string quartet. He became celebrated for enabling stagings of the “samey” Mozart.
Softly focused on the Christies, with much of the background delivered as straightforward explanation, The Moderate Soprano is an interesting milestone in the career of someone routinely, lazily described as a political playwright. It suggests that what really fires Hare’s dramatic writing is love.
• The Moderate Soprano is at Hampstead theatre, London until 28 November
