Wonderful wife... Pam Ferris won the plaudits for her performance as the beleaguered spouse of Robert Lindsay's Archie. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
An intense state-of-the-nation drama with the Suez crisis as its backdrop, John Osborne's play opened at the Old Vic last night with Robert Lindsay at its centre. The Entertainer paints a grim portrait of a society in decay, using the music hall as a metaphor for the England of the late 1950s, and is just as relevant today as it was then.
The fortuitous similarities between now and 1957 have not gone unnoticed by any of the critics. Writing for the Evening Standard, Nicolas de Jongh feels that the play "has dated and matured as well as vintage cheese" and the current situation in Iraq "lends an arresting topicality to John Osborne's 50-year-old, rotten-state-of-the-nation drama". Our own Michael Billington sees The Entertainer as "one of those rare plays in which national politics and private emotion become increasingly inseparable", while the Independent also finds the "contemporary resonances... hard to miss". Benedict Nightingale of The Times feels that Osbourne's Archie "embodies an ennui that traverses the centuries".
Behind this palpable political edge are some captivating performances from the cast. Billington is distinctly impressed by Robert Lindsay's handling of his central role in the play, viewing it as an unequivocal star performance, while de Jongh appreciates his "irresistible comic turn". Alice Jones of The Independent is less enamoured of Lindsay, seeing him as "a twitchy, uncomfortable stage presence, constantly interrupting himself with irritating stage patter and vaudeville gestures".
Pam Ferris's portrayal of Archie's beleaguered wife is universally heralded. The Independent claims she was "magnificent" and "steals most of the scenes she is in", Billington agrees that she was "outstanding" and Nightingale claims that she "verges on the extraordinary".
However the critics are also united in their judgment that the production has not resolved the problems of the troublesome third act. De Jongh calls it "redundant" and Nightingale feels that even the high standard of this production "can't prevent us from finding the play a bit long". But despite admitting that some might find it "cursorily written" Billington feels the play "strikes a genuine elegiac note for a vanishing England and a disintegrating hero".
