Time travel back to a different time, almost familiar
Line of Beauty at the Almeida – set in the heady days of the early 80s – catches that moment when hedonism raised its head from the doldrums of the 3 day week, power cuts and rubbish in the streets.
When greed was good, Thatcher was in the ascendant and intense gay sex was where it was at. That is, just before the reality of Aids was setting in.
Based on the Booker winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst, Jack Holden has adapted this for the stage for Michael Grandage with a strong cast prepared to shock.
Two very established actors (Charles Edwards and Robert Portal) are joined by a younger cast showing great skill, in particular Jasper Talbot as Nick, the openly gay protagonist who lodges in the London house of his University friend’s Tory MP father, Alistair Nwachukwu as his early London lover and Arty Froushan as his louche replacement. Ellie Bamber as the disturbed daughter (and pivotal character) also impresses.
This play (there was an earlier TV series you may have caught) takes us through the key complexities of a time when anything seemed possible, until it wasn’t.
All the characters are flawed, save perhaps that of Nwachukwu’s almost holy innocent of a lover, some very much more than others, and in the end the castle comes tumbling down at the hands of Bamber’s Cat – rather less a holy innocent than she seems.
This is a play where you have to think as well as respond, and where, at the end, nothing is actually resolved. No loose ends are tied up, which is both frustrating and very true to life. We don’t know how, or how soon, there will be any final resolution, nor can really guess what it will be. Which is rather like life. The play earned strong applause, is sold out, and I suspect may earn a revival or transfer.
Oh, and if it does, don’t miss the Margaret Thatcher cameo, including Thatcher dancing. Now that’s funny!