The Late Middle Classes
Donmar, until 17 July
Lilies of the Land
Arts, until 17 July
Plotless plays are usually the work of beginners or nutcases. Very occasionally they’re produced by seasoned theatrical wizards. Simon Gray belongs to the third type. The Late Middle Classes is an absorbing and often hilarious portrait of the buttoned-up English bourgeoisie of the 1950s. Celia and her pathologist husband Charles have pitched up in Hayling Island but they can’t wait to swap its provincial torpor for the glamour of London. Their big move is dependent on their son Holly’s ability to get a full scholarship to a public school. His musical talent is being encouraged by the creepy Mr Brownlow, an Austrian refugee who moonlights as a composer, and whose excitable manner at the piano stool hints at forbidden lusts. Rationing has reduced the family to sub-Soviet levels of penury.
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