Christopher Walker reviews Ben and Imo
“Two-handers”, plays with just two characters, are demanding creatures.
Not only must the two personalities be well drawn, but if they are to hold the audience the roles must be played by actors at the top of their game. At the same time, they risk being lost in large theatrical spaces big enough to accommodate a couple of elephants on stage, or at least a grand chorus.
Fortunately, all of these stars align at the dear little Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond for the RSC’s production of Ben and Imo.
Mark Ravenhill, one of Britain’s greatest modern playwrights tackles the subject of Benjamin Britten, one of our greatest modern composers. The action is set in his house on the Suffolk coast at Aldeburgh in 1953, as the ‘great man’ struggles to compose a new opera, Gloriana, for the coronation of Elizabeth II.
Samuel Barnett is quite brilliant as Britten, capturing the soul-wrenching angst that surrounds the act of creation. The many self-doubts and stresses. He also looks like Britten, thanks to designer Soutra Gilmour, though he adapts the composer’s very clipped voice for modern ears.
“Imo” is Imogen Holst. Another great composer’s daughter. She has been brought to Aldeburgh to help Britten in a role that veers from musical assistant to wet nurse. Victoria Yeates also gives a first-class performance.
Their relationship is love/hate. Loving and hating what they see in each other and in themselves. It is raw and tempestuous, and in an auditorium of only 180 seats very much in your face. Do not expect a quiet night.
Of course, the bittersweet brilliance of the play is that all the self-doubts that haunt Britten, and give poor Imo such a rough ride, prove to be true. Gloriana was indeed tuneless and not a great success. Britten’s greatest operatic works were arguably behind him.
The writing is strongest in capturing these self-doubts and the creative dynamics of their relationship. It is not otherwise multilayered, though it does touch on the extraordinary flourishing of public-sponsored arts Britten ushered in.
For tickets go to https://orangetreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/ben-and-imo/
Pictured top: Victoria Yeates (Imo) in Ben and Imo (Picture: Ellie Kurttz)
