State of the nation

England People Very Nice
Olivier

Toyer
Arts

The Arts Theatre has reopened. Yet again! This time the biennial refurb has muted the foyer’s garish lights and turned the bar into a louche, shadowy little ‘boite’. It’s open to anyone and has the intimacy of a private club. Give it a try. The theatre’s new incarnation opens with Toyer, a drama adapted from a best-selling novel by Gardner McKay. This is an old-fashioned rep thriller in the mould of Sleuth, although it lacks that play’s inspired formal inventiveness. It starts with a needy, gay youngster Peter inveigling his way into the apartment of a female psychotherapist living alone in the LA hills. Now then, could this little Peter chap also be the psychotic genius, dubbed ‘the Toyer’, who’s been terrorising the city by drugging women and operating on their brains so as to leave them in a permanent coma while avoiding murder charges? A glance at the cast-list answers that question. Still, fans of the horror genre will find this a skin-pricklingly wonderful night out (I watched the scary bits through gaps in my fingers), and Al Weaver’s performance as Peter is a treat. A superb mime, he gives a masterclass in how to conjure a whole company of character actors from nowhere. One to watch.