Review – ANOTHER COUNTRY at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Monday, June 30 to Saturday, July 5, 2014.

 

NOT just another country, but another time, another place, even another world.

It was the world of the upcoming establishment between the wars – a 1930’s public school where wood panelled walls contrasted severely with cut glass accents. Peculiar places in which lives were shaped as much as by house masters and their lessons as they were by the cruel traditions of humiliation and abuse where pontificating prefects administered punishment.

Probing the development of young minds, it’s all loosely based on the early life of the infamous Cambridge spy Guy Burgess and provides plenty of food for thought as to why someone would betray the country of their birth, their family and friends.

There’s plenty to consider too. The system, the state of the world then, and the surroundings, could all have played their part. And that’s before you dig deeper into subterfuge, blackmail and homosexuality.

The grandson of Sir Richard Attenborough, Will, is not so much the ‘Red under the bed’ as Communist champion Judd, he’s a severely studious high-profile Marxist.

He stars along with Rob Callender as Bennett (aka Burgess), as Julian Mitchell’s play looks at how these ‘friends’ attempted to take on the controlling public school system of that era.

Attenborough, a Cambridge graduate himself, provides an empowering performance as Judd pursues his ideals, while Callender is near perfect as Bennett pursues another pupil! There’s a certain delightful decadence about him as he slides onto a window ledge to observe his target with binoculars. He’s lithe, languid, and at times a bundle of nervous energy in an eye-catching performance.

A scintillating second half probes deeply into the mindset of the boarders, in particular Callender - as he takes on board what lies ahead for him, and it provides the perfect antidote to a slightly ponderous pre-interval period in which it was difficult at times to catch all the lines as some were mumbled.

Back in the mid-1980s it was Rupert Everett and Colin Firth making their names in the film version of the play, while Kenneth Branagh had been in the original stage version, and this excellent all-male cast of 10 in this touring revival could well provide a name or two to follow in their footsteps. There were other fine performances too from Rowan Polonski (Fowler) and Bill Milner as Wharton, the nervous new fag.

Although quite wordy it was far from as dry as first feared and it is certainly thought provoking. Particularly when considering the author’s remarks in his programme notes - where he says little has changed in the running of the country 80 years on from the imaginary events of the play – ‘public schools are flourishing as never before... and public schoolboys rule our society’.