In 1962 there were six plays by Jean Anouilh running in London. Today he is all but forgotten, so it is good to see a revival of this divertissement about the tensions inside a predominantly female cafe-orchestra pumping out familiar tunes to a French spa audience.
Music may have charms to soothe a savage breast but it doesn’t seem to do as much for the players. In Jeremy Sams’s stylish translation, the simmering rows are sexual, social and political.
The leader and the cellist fight over the male pianist, who turns out to be a creepy voyeur. A spinsterish violinist and a man-hungry colleague reveal their polarised private lives. Battle is also waged over who did, or did not, collaborate with the Nazis. You could see the play as a mini-portrait of a divided, postwar nation. But the real joke lies in the contrast between the jaunty music – credited to Felix Cross – and the jealousies within the group: even a number called Rapture in Havana, for which they gaily don sombreros, is followed by a serious rupture.
Kristine Landon-Smith’s production neatly captures the attempt to cover the crises with a grimly smiling insouciance. My only complaint is that the accents of Teatro Latino’s multinational cast are not always easy to penetrate. There are, however, deft performances from Amanda Osborne as the orchestra’s despairing leader and from Stefania Licari as a temperamental musician who explains she did her bit for the Resistance by playing out of tune to German audiences. It would be good to see this 50-minute piece paired with another play but it reminds us that there is still life in the abandoned Anouilh.
At the Omnibus, London, until 17 February.
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