Don’t Destroy Me by Michael Hastings. The Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, London E8 to 03 February 2024. 3***: William Russell.

Don’t Destroy Me by Michael Hastings. The Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, London E8 to

03 February 2024.

3***: William Russell.

“Half forgotten Michael Hasting’s first play written when he was 18 is resurrected.”

Written in 1956 the play was staged on the London fringe and its success led to George Devine at the Royal Court taking the young Michael Hastings – he was 18 years old, one of the reasons why the play attracted attention – under his wing. Hastings went on to write other plays, most notably Tom and Viv about the marriage of T.S. Ellliot as well as screenplays, books and poetry. He is one of the forgotten playwrights of his generation and this revival directed by Tricia Thorns - more a resurrection really as it is pretty well forgotten -is worth catching. It is well performed but has been rather badly staged in the Arcola so that one never gets any feeling of being in the rundown lodging house in Brixton where the teenage Sammy Kirz – his mother died giving birth to him and he was brought up by his aunt, who has died - has come to live with his middleaged father Leo, a drunk, and his much younger stepmother Shani in the rooms the rent from Mrs Miller. He has come to take up an apprenticeshipThe marriage is in crisis and Shani is having an affair with another of the lodgers, George, the local bookie and wideboy which Leo lets happen. Young Sammy is at sea in this new world where he comes up against the creepy George, the elegant deranged Mrs Pond, who lives on the floor above, her disturbed teenaged daughter who feels sorry for him, and his blowsy stepmother’s insistence on getting the local rabbi to come to help him adjust to his new surroundings .

The play is a messy affair and while the cast do their best to create the mood of the time none of them look remotely like they belong to the 1950s in spite of some nicely chosen props and furniture. The best scene is probably the one when the Rabbi comes to tea and is confronted with mayhem and a young man who has no wish to have anything to do with him. The affair between Shani and George is hard to believe in and what one earth, although Alix Dunmore emotes well in full Blanche DuBois mode, Mrs Pond is on about is anybody’s guess. Eddy Boyce is a touching Sammy although maybe a tad too old, Paul Rider an impressive Leo, Nicholas Day is very funny as the gobsmacked kindly Rabbi making the best of a bad job, and Sue Kelvin does a nice turn in the Gladys Henson role of the landlady. But the set by Alice Marker is one that should have been looked at from the point of view of the audience – there are blind spots as the Arcola audience sits on three sides of the action area and from my seat a large chunk of the action was impossible to see which frankly should not happen and usually does not. Rapped knuckles to director and designer. Don’t Destroy Me is worth seeing simply because for an 18 year old it is an astonishing achievement but a lost masterpiece it is not.

Cast

Nathalie Barclay - Shani Kirz.

Paul Rider – Leo Kirz.

Timothy O’Hara – George Stoud,

Nell Williams – Suki Pond.

Eddie Boyce – Sammy Kirz.

Alic=x Dunmore – Mrs Pond.

Sue Kelvin – Mrs Miller.

Nicholas Day – The Rabbi.

Creatives

Director – Tricia Thorns.

Set Designer – Alex Marker,

Costume Designer – Carla Joy Evans.

Lighting Designer – Neil Brinkworth.

Sound Designer – Dominic Bilkey.

Fight Director – Toby Spearpoint.