HARRY CLARKE KENNETH MACMILLAN TRIPLE BILL
★★★★★
Ambassadors Theatre until 11 May harryclarketheplay.com
Billy Crudup is mesmerisingly magnificent as all 19 characters in David Cale’s absurdly entertaining, shaggiest of dog tales about dastardly deception, crazy capers – and lots of sex.
He flickers between moods and characters with dazzling dexterity as twittering Philip Brugglestein recounts his life. A bullied fey child in Indiana, he escapes into a ludicrous posh Brit persona (think Family Guy’s Stewie) that consumes him. Swaggering Cockney alter ego Harry Clarke emerges in times of need.
Adult Philip flees to NYC, flailing and failing at life until Harry takes charge, gaslighting and seducing closeted jock Mark – plus his sister and mother – in riotously rude scenes. Pretending to be Sade’s ex-manager, lies spiral but Harry always comes out on top, puns intended.
Tragedy and farce collide and conspire. Philip’s fractured personality is rooted in childhood pain that rarely, devastatingly, surfaces. His refusal to face himself prevents penetrating depths, as the script deflects with catty quips and cartoony characters.
Criticising this is as redundant as mockery I’ve seen of Crudup’s “dodgy” accents. That’s the whole blooming point.
To tear Philip’s fictions apart would destroy him and his hard-won, however improbable, life. We must leave him basking in his deckchair, merrily mangling vowels, and finally, unexpectedly, safe.
★★★★
Royal Opera House until April 13, roh.org.uk
Three very different pieces honour The Royal Ballet’s former artistic director and choreographer.
His 1955 debut, Danses Concertantes, matches spikey angles and sharp movements to the Stravinsky score. Plotless and fiendishly demanding, it defeated certain dancers on opening night and left me cold.
1984’s Different Drummer, based on Woyzeck’s cheery tale of a soldier tormented by doctors and a cheating mistress, is thrilling, complex and powerful.
The triumph is Requiem, Macmillan’s 1976 memorial to choreographer John Cranko set to Fauré’s sublime music. Inspired by William Blake’s paintings and danced with exquisite artistry, successive tableaux of beautiful, jaw-dropping lifts culminate in a one-arm overhead showstopper that took my breath away. Spine-tingling perfection.