Review: Little Foxes – Young Vic

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Mill Deal Madness and Southern Skulduggery

After two pantos in recent days I had to snap out of ‘Oh yes it is’ mode for The Little Foxes, the Lillian Hellman classic from the 1930s which will not feel like the final part of a seasonal trilogy, that’s for sure, writes Michael Holland.

But when Leo Hubbard (Stanley Morgan) slumped to the floor during the party scene, just a few minutes in, those who did not know the play thought this was scripted and half-laughed as the rest of the cast ignored him and carried on drinking. When Regina(Anne-Marie Duff) looked in horror and asked if there was a doctor in the house and two women leapt from the stalls to the stage we knew this was serious.

Almost an hour later Lyndsey Turner, the director, pronounced Stanley fit and well and we began again.

The Hubbard Clan – Ben (Mark Bonnar), Oscar (Steffan Rhodri) and Regina (Duff giving a  great performance as a woman who really has to fight her corner) – have earnt their money by making black folk pay over the top for goods for many years and now want to consolidate their connection to the old South by buying cotton fields, and to the Giddens family by making a joint deal that involves Horace Giddens (John Light) who is already in a loveless marriage with Regina Hubbard.

The terminally ill Horace, though, is off in a rest home so they need him back to put up the rest of the money to have a mill built by their cotton fields. Regina, who realises she has leverage by being connected to the now very important Giddens’ money, asks for a bigger share. She was right and Oscar, being the weaker brother, has to take a hit to his share being reduced.

While this is going down the Hubbards are also planning to marry Oscar’s son Leo off to Regina’s daughter Alexandra (Eleanor Worthington-Cox) – a young couple who cannot stand each other.

Horace, angry at being brought back, and not keen on the Hubbards’ match-making and skulduggery, refuses the Mill Deal so they ‘borrow’ the funds from him via Leo who works at the bank that looks after the family money. 

Horace, with only Alexandra and his black staff (Andrea Davy and Freddie MacBruce) on his side, makes sure that when he dies the Hubbards will be left with only misery in his will, while house keeper Addie and his daughter will be well looked after.

The Little Foxes is a tad wordy and stays in one room, but we get a real sense of the U.S. South and how money begets greed, and how they kept their money and families close. The casual and inherent racism jars, as does the expectation that women were second class and could be beaten by husbands. Birdie(Anna Madeley) was bullied and beaten by Oscar who compensated his weakness in a man’s world by ill-treating his wife.

The Little Foxes was, oddly, given a mid-century upgrade in decor and costume but the areas it covers are as depressing to audiences now as they would have been when first produced; it highlights all that was wrong in Western society at the turn of the 20th century, and I am not sure why we still need to drag that world up and on to a stage.

Best line was when the Hubbards were discussing the arranged marriage of Regina and Oscar’s children: ‘Our grandparents were first cousins,’ says Regina, ‘Now look at us!’ We did and we see the same in the selfishness of today’s rich.

Stanley Morgan © Johan Persson

Star of the show? Stanley Morgan, of course. Without him recovering there would not have been any good ol’ boys beating their wives and robbing each other. Hence, the big names brought the young actor front and centre for the final bows, which is as it should be. Bravo.

Young Vic, 66 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LZ until 8th February. Times: Monday – Saturday, 7.30pm; Wednesday & Saturday matinees, 2.30pm. Admission: £12 – £59.

Booking: www.youngvic.org

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