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Family ructions

Lloyd Evans

Wednesday, 2nd April 2008

God of Carnage
Gielgud

Never So Good
Lyttelton

Into the Hoods
Novello

Ian McNeice does an enjoyable Bunterish turn as Churchill but, like Macmillan, he’s barely even a caricature — just a big outline with nothing inside. The script’s anachronisms and blunders are embarrassing to begin with (Eden opening the door for a butler), and then irksome. ‘Eisenhower’s on the hotline,’ announces a Downing Street aide. Well, any twit knows the hotline wasn’t established until Kennedy’s presidency and it linked Washington and Moscow, not Washington and London. Someone with O-level history should have had a skim through the text. Brenton has real problems making his females likeable. Macmillan’s mother is drawn as a hectoring snob and his wife Dorothy is simply illegible. One minute she’s boasting to Macmillan of her adultery, the next she’s trying to seduce him. Later she claims to adore him. Even the beautiful Anna Chancellor can’t paper over the mortal cracks in the characterisation. A fine idea for a play, disappointingly executed.

Into the Hoods is an unexpected joy. Superbly choreographed and with a cast of world-class acrobats, the show riffles through virtually the entire back-catalogue of dance music celebrating the great (Chaka Khan, NWA) and mocking the worthless (MC Hammer). The troupe’s finest talent is Rowen Hawkins, who can hop on one hand, and there’s an extremely witty performance from Christian ‘Bounce’ Alozie playing an ugly sister in a hot pink skirt. Best of all are the child performers. Yasmin Chevannes, as Fairy Gee, has an instinctive exuberance that recalls the careless grace of Michael Jackson before his ‘reverse suntan’ phase. A treat.

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Oleg Vassiliev: Recent Works
Faggionato Fine Arts, 49 Albemarle Street, London W1, until 23 January 2009

Poles apart

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Saul Steinberg: Illuminations
Dulwich Picture Gallery, until 15 February 2009

Cartoons & Coronets: The Genius of Osbert Lancaster
The Wallace Collection, until 11 January 2009

In perfect harmony

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Henrietta Bredin talks to the conductor Brad Cohen, who mentored Alex James in Maestro

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My favourite programme last week was France on a Plate (BBC4, Sunday) in which Dr Andrew Hussey investigated the link between gastronomy and la gloire; French glory and destiny.