The Soldier's Fortune

Unfortunately the latter lacks a lot of the polish of Hytner’s production, and - more crucially - it lacks the laughs. The absence of, what for want of a better term we’ll call the Rory Kinnear factor, is quite glaring.

Lan’s production is blessed with, what on paper sounds like a fantastic cast, but together they fail to inject the requisite energy and excitement into this limp staging. Anne-Marie Duff, so brilliant in Channel 4’s Shameless, flounders as the young wife of the one-eyed Sir Davey Dunce, whose extramarital liaisons with returning soldier Captain Beaugard (played by Corrie’s Ray Fearon) are choreogrpahed by the scheming but impotent Sir Jolly Jumble.

As Sir Jolly, David Bamber seems more comfortable with the material, relishing his role as a randy old goat, lisping and swaying, and generally giving a full blown panto performance. The always reliable Oliver Ford Davies, as the blustering cuckold, is also entertaining - but even their combined efforts can’t quite rescue this only intermittantly amusing production.

The actors are not helped by Lizzie Clachan’s set. Initially impressive, she has completely refigured the Young Vic space to include an ornate proscenium arch; but once the red velvet curtains are pulled back, only a further series of steps are revealed – its rather disappointing. In fact the design as a whole doesn’t feel particularly well thought through, as the actors end up spending far, far too much time dashing up and down all these steps; all this running about adds little to an already tangled plot. The reshaping of the space has also had a negative effect on the sightlines, with one scene, set in a men’s bath-house, played out in a pit on one side of the theatre that the audience on the other side seemed to have trouble seeing into.

Lan is clearly fond of Otway’s bawdy comedy and boasts in the programme notes that he only had to snip 5% of the original text. However, at nearly three hours in length, you soon feel yourself wishing he’d hadn’t been quite so reverent. There are some glittering moments, but moments are all they are – they’re too few and far between, especially in a production of this length. There are too many awkward gaps where nothing much actually happens. I found myself checking my watch towards the end, not a good sign.

Ultimately the fault is with the source material, Otway’s play isn’t quite in the same league as Etherege’s, the plotting is flabby and the ending anti-climactic. The cast do their best, but no-one seems quite sure what they’re trying to achieve with this revival. A lot of effort and energy have been expended on this, but perhaps this was one play best left on the shelf.

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