Reykjavik by Richard Bean. Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London until 23 November 2024, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Mark Douet.

Reykjavik by Richard Bean. Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London until 23 November 2024,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“Powerful and finely played.”

It is 1976 and Donald Claxton, owner of a Hull fishing fleet, is in his office when he hears if a disaster off the coast of Iceland and decides to fly to Reykjavik to see the survivors. In this wordy but impressive play about the death throes of an industry on which Hull once depended Richard Bean has returned to the industry he first looked at 21 years ago in Under the Whale Back, although that one was about the men on board a fishing vessel, this one is about them on land faced with the aftermath of survival and the reality that their way of life is coming to an end. Claxton has to cope with the necessity to walk the widow's walk, face up to the people who come to see him, and the aftermath of the disaster. Then we get the surprise. The Second Act is set in the bar of a rather horrible Reykjavil]k hotel presided over by an extremely unfriendly hotelier in which the survivors are passing the time trying to get drunk on some kind of non alcoholic beer and a local spirit, available under Iceland's peculiar licensing laws, which transforms it into something potent but revolting –  Claxton arrives and he is not welcome.

Bean is possibly best known for Two Men One Governor so anyone expecting the laughter of that is in for a shock, but out of the aftermath of the disaster he does create a world in which how the survivors deal with what happened is funny simply because people react in a wild variety of ways – there is a pissing on chips set on fire in order to put the fire out rampage, the way the fisherman who really is not devoted to the profession sets about wooing the the young female whose hotel it is – and her hostility is melted, as well as the superstition about deaths at sea when windows blow in and lights go out. The performances are impeccable with John Hollingworth as Claxton providing the essential link to the two different halves, and managing to  make the employer who could so easily have been someone who exploits the fisherman someone who does care about his employees, while the rest of the cast playing different roles in each half are astonishing. Look how the trendy vicar of Act One becomes the raging Jack in Act two and marvel. Director Emily Burns has taken what could have been unweildy and made it work seamlessly and the way that the office set of Act One becomes the bar of the Reykjavik hotel in Act Two is another of the evening's triumphs. This is world where the Cod Wars have brought the industry in Hull and around to it knees, where everything about how that essential addition to chips in the British diet was acquired has come to an end, an elegy to times past and not necessarily times past that should be regarded with regret at their passing.

Cast

Sophie Cox – Charlotte Einhildur.

Matthew  Durkan – Reverend Polkinghorne, Jack Jopling.

Laura Elsworthy – Lizzie Jopling.

Paul Hickey – William Claxton, Quayle.

John Hollingsworth - Donald Claxton.

Adam Hugill – Ricky Toov, Snacker.

Matt Sutton – Baggie.

Creatives

Director – Emily Burns.

Designer – Anna reid.

Lighting Designer – Oliver Fenwick.

Sound Designer – Christopher Shutt.

Composer – Grant Olding.

Dialect Coach – Mary Howland.

Fight Director – MC_ Combat (Maisie Carter).

Theatre, play.                 24 October 2024.

Photo Credit - Mark Douet.