The young Elaine Daly is discovered doing Panto and invited to the Royal Shakespeare Company where she became a big hit. She moved into television and starred in a long-running sitcom before crossing over into films and into an affair with Clive, a famous, but jealously controlling, film director who wants her around as a muse at all times. This creates a rift that sends Elaine off to star in a play. And that is where it all starts to go wrong, writes Michael Holland.
During rehearsals, Elaine (Kristin Scott Thomas) is harassed by her ex who stands menacingly outside her flat for hours, sends letters that turn from romantic to threatening. Finally, when she returns home with opening night reviews that hail her as ‘Magnificent’, ‘Spellbinding’ and a ‘Force of nature’ she finds her beloved songbirds cold and strangled on the floor. And there the question was posed: Were the birds set free from a life in a cage by being killed?
Taking that as a ‘You’ll be next’ warning, Elaine packs up and leaves for the West Country where she stays incognito for 30 years. Some speculators say it was stage fright that sent her into hiding; others whisper murder…
While there, Elaine moves in to an old dilapidated house that is gradually getting closer to the eroding cliff edge, gets a job in the village shop, takes a swim in the sea every day and befriends her neighbour Chris(Sara Powell). She also spends time rehearsing what would be her comeback show when Clive eventually dies. It is an over the top ‘extravaganza’ that has us – and them – in fits.
One day Clive does die, so Elaine surprises her agent with a call saying she is ready to return to her first love – the stage.
Her agent, however, contacts Lilith, a film development company who send down ambitious Kate (Lily James) to get the full story, with the firm’s agenda being that Elaine is batty and lying about the legendary film director killing her birds. Kate, though, is married to Greg (James Corrigan), a famous, but controlling, film director who travels the world making films while she brings up their young child and tries to keep a career going. So it doesn’t take Kate long to fall in love with the house, the sea, the quality of life and, perhaps, Chris the neighbour, and after spending a little time there, wants her company to do right by Elaine.
It also doesn’t take long for Greg to turn up unannounced to demand Kate’s return. She returns home with him.
This is very much a play about trapped women where #metoo gets a few mentions, but it is Greg who is the most honest. He virtual signals for all the right causes but beneath all that he reveals that he just wants a little woman at home cooking and caring for his children while he enjoys a life of his choosing. It seems like the message here is, what’s the point of being a woman; male and pale runs the show so why bother fighting it?
Penelope Skinner’s Lyonesse begins well, the intrigue builds to a crescendo with the three women dancing with joyous abandon to Free by Ultra Naté, which could not be any more symbolic. Alas, it fades to an audience getting all the metaphorical links to being free but left wondering what actually happens to the protagonists. Who was actually free and who controls the freedom?
Nevertheless, Kristin Scott Thomas is ‘Magnificent’ and dives into the comedic parts just as she dives into the sea every morning. And Lily James is almost a ‘force of nature’ as the spoilt rich girl; others pretty much move around to orbit the two stars, while an under-used Doon Mackichan tops and tails the play as Kate’s hard-headed boss who is very keen to break all the promises made to Elaine once she signs the contract.
Harold Pinter Theatre, 6 Panton Street, London, SW1Y 4DN until 23rd December.
Admission: £34.50 – £242.
Booking: https://www.haroldpintertheatre.co.uk/shows/lyonesse
