A case of theatrical plonk
Theatre Sideways St James Theatre ★★ ★★★
In 2004, Rex Pickett’s semiautobiographical novel about two old buddies embarking on an illfated wine-tasting trip in California became a hit film. Critical acclaim poured on to Alexander Payne’s adaptation as freely as the pinot noir onscreen, while it made stars out of its two leads, Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church. It was so successful that in America sales of merlot, which one character humorously slates, fell.
How, then, does Pickett’s stage adaptation stand up?
If the Oscar-nominated film was a vintage to be savoured, this flimsy comedy is the stuff they serve up in Wetherspoon’s. Light and fruity, but flabby and lacking in structure.
As with the film, the action follows the novel relatively faithfully. Alphamale horndog Jack (Simon Harrison) is getting married in a week and wants one last blowout. Best man Miles (Daniel Weyman), a struggling writer but expert wine buff, takes him on a boozy tour of his favourite wineries.
The exposition comes thudding in, thick and fast, from the get-go. Miles is a wannabe author. His book might be published. It’s been rejected a lot. He’s struggling to pay the rent. We learn all this in the first two minutes via phone calls. This clunky opening scene with Miles sitting on the toilet is emblematic of an inelegantly structured play. Having swathes of plot explained via one-sided phone calls and answerphone messages is unforgiveable. It’s amateur.
The action is diced up into bitty scenes, punctuated by excruciating, clunky set changes, while pathos and depth are muted for laughs.
Moments of great power – such as Miles glugging from a full spittoon – become droll instead of tragic. Insight becomes platitude – “I guess we’re just a couple of f–––ed up guys”. When Miles snaps and hits Jack, it should be shocking. It got the biggest laugh of the night.
In the plus column, Weyman and Harrison are decent enough as the priggish loser and his swaggering friend, though it was tough to buy the layers of midlife despair. Jack’s seedy, desperate lust for a conquest and Miles’s over-reliance on wine expertise – alcoholism intellectualised – became sideshows to an odd-couple road trip. The script bubbles with great oneliners but the whole thing lacks heart and has the curious effect of making you doubt whether the film was actually that good after all.
One to enjoy after a few glasses of Burgundy, perhaps.
Until July 9. Tickets: 0844 264 1240, stjamestheatre.co.uk