Anne (Gina McKee) was always happiest when her children were young and she could devote herself entirely to the needs of her family. Now she thinks that life has cheated her and that husband, Peter (Richard Clothier) is cheating in their marriage. But Anne’s real problem is depression following the departure of her grown-up son from the family home.
In Mark Bailey’s design, the dazzlingly white family nest is not just empty but bleached of all colour – like Anne herself, who drifts around ghost-like in a medicated haze of pills and alcohol, telling her hubby she wishes he was dead and longing for her beloved son, Nicholas (William Postlethwaite), to call her. But Nicholas is living his own life with his girlfriend, the beautiful Elodie (Cara Horgan).
Anne’s mind may be messed up, but French playwright Florian Zeller certainly knows how to mess with the audience’s wits in this play which, like the superb The Father, offers a series of repeated scenes played and rewritten slightly differently, forcing you to question everything you see and the very nature of reality. Is Peter really having an affair? Does Nicholas actually turn up at the family home in the middle of the night? Does Elodie pop round and flaunt her young body in front of the ageing Anne, or is it a hallucination?
Although the technique is the same as that used in The Father, where it allowed the audience to experience the central character’s terror as his dementia advanced, it’s far less subtle and interesting here. Anne’s smothering mother-love is uncommon, not universal. But McKee is utterly haunting, and Clothier does fine, understated work as Peter. Even if you can’t quite find a sympathy for the characters, Anne’s despairing cry of “What was it all for?” echoes around the theatre like a wake-up call.
• At the Ustinov, Bath, until 20 June. Box office: 01225 448 844.
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