Men's Business by Franz Xaver Kroetz translated by Simon Stephens. The Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 to 12 April 2025, 3☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Rico Redwood Sawyer.

Men's Business by Franz Xaver Kroetz translated by Simon Stephens. The Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 to 12 April 2025,

3☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“Shaken, but not stirred.”

This Glass Mask Theatre in Dublin production of Kroetz's Mannersache directed by Ross Gaynor has arrived garlanded with very favourable reviews for a run at the Finborough. It is a two hander with dog. Lauren Farrell as Charlie, who runs a butcher's shop, and Rex Ryan as Victor, the hunk she has invited to supper, do deliver impressive performances and the action is powerfully handled by Gaynor. Men's Business is one of those plays about sado masochism – she relishes the danger, he hates her dog, which is whining out of sight, accusing her of bestiality, and then embarking on rough sex with her. It is the way he treats women, the only kind he knows, and she lets him so desperate is she for a man in her life. They do not quite bare their all but come as close to it as can be as they copulate at intervals several times, she gives him a blow job, and he shoots the dog after which their games get even more dangerous until the gun which he has brought along gets used again and again. It is clear from the start as she works at the butcher's block tackling a leg of something that things are going to turn nasty but it proves not to be in the way one suspects – those cleavers and knives do not get used. Kroetz and Stephens are formidable playwrights but this relatively short play really is hard to take seriously – the first congress shocks, but then you start watching how carefully the actors are positioned so that what you get to see on screen in cinema and on television all the time nowadays is concealed and marvel rather at the skill with which it has been achieved which is not what the playwrights intended. The arrogant Victor and desperate Charlie are both looking for something and they find it in sex, in violence and ultimately in death - the Kensington gore flows at the end. The problem is that this comes as no surprise, - the relationship was always going to end very badly. The only surprise is how many clothes get taken off – she bares all although his underpants and at first his boots stay firmly on - and how explicitly they perform intercourse while not actually doing it. The dog, played by Cooper, made an appearance and seemed totally disinterested in anything except a desire to get off stage rather than do to Charlie what Victor claimed. The credentials of all involved are beyond impressive but apart from a slight wish to see how far they planned to go, after having gone far enough, this play could happily have stayed in Dublin but it certainly offers sights never seen before on the Finborough stage.

Cast

Rex Ryan – Victor

Charlie – Lauren Farrell

Dog – Cooper

Creatives

Director – Ross Gaynor

Set Designer – Andrew Clancy

Lighting Designer – Jess F Kane

Theatre, play 20 Match 2025.

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