Not for the first time, Neil LaBute has constructed a critic trap: it is virtually impossible to review this world premiere without giving away its trademark LaButian twist. So, spoiler alert: anyone planning to discover the play on their own is advised to stop reading now.
The rest of you, say the play's title out loud while contemplating this scenario: a man in his mid-50s is mourning his wife's death. People often gossiped about the age difference between them - she was 15 years older - but Edward Carr didn't care, because "she was worth loving". He won her from her first husband after a fistfight, and they built a profitable business, which he calls his "kingdom", recovering and renting classic cars (the ostensible reason for the title). The sex was always mighty: he never tired of "being inside her".
Yes, LaBute's taboo du jour is incest, and the play is a loose adaptation of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. It ups the ante on what is a familiar LaBute scenario: we are introduced to a male character who seems like an OK guy, and gradually discover that he is, by contemporary societal standards, a hateful moral cripple.
But is LaBute, writer and director, saying that marrying one's mother ought to be acceptable? As with many of his thematic gestures, it is difficult to discern a larger point beyond provocation. The slightly confusing ending seems to indicate that Carr knew what he was doing, unlike his beloved JoJo. And what about the potential effects of inbreeding on their children? Goading audience members into asking such questions seems to be one of LaBute's goals, but if he's trying to deflate political correctness, what is he offering in its place?
Casting the likable and relaxed Ed Harris is another gesture that backfires. He cuts a swaggering figure, but he creates an utterly convincing portrait of a mourning spouse who still can't believe his dear one has gone. What is LaBute saying by having Harris perform Carr as such a nice guy?
· Until December 3. Box office: 00 353 21 450 1673.
