THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
By Charlotte Jones
Chichester Festival Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester, PO19 6AP, until October 18, 2024
Redlands is Rolling Stone Keith Richards' Tudor mansion in the seaside hamlet of West Wittering, just down the road from Chichester. He's lived there for over 60 years, but the house became famous in 1967 when it was the site of a ridiculously over zealous police raid on a party, which led to the arrest and later conviction of Richards, Mick Jagger and others on drugs charges. The initial guilty verdicts were condemned in a Times editorial (by editor William Rees Mogg, father of British politician Sir Jacob, no less) which aided an appeal which the singers subsequently won.
Looking back, it was a watershed moment in Britain's accommodation with more progressive social attitudes. The barrister who, reluctantly, represented the rockers was Michael Havers, who went on to become Thatcher's Attorney General, and who also happened to be the father of actor and now national treasure, Nigel Havers.
These showbiz nuggets prompted Charlotte Jones' play, but oddly it foregrounds the story of the Havers family rather than the trial which would have made a great 'culture clash' play in itself.
Nigel was just 16 when all this happened around him and in this fictionalized account manages to forge a friendship with the worldly Marianne Faithfull, who was caught up in the party and condemned in sexist tirades by the feral tabloid press. Nigel was dreaming of entering RADA but his fusty QC father (the family is packed with judges and barristers) was having none of it. The youngster was ripe for a 'romantic education' with Marianne.
On top of these twin plots director Justin Audibert (this marks his big stage debut as the CFT's new Artistic Director) has added a string of iconic Rolling Stones hits and has staged them with incredible panache. The opening night audience, packed with contemporaries of the Stones, and not just in age, lapped it all up but by making it a nostalgia fest the dramatic potential of this piece gets diluted.
Jones tilts too readily into easy sentiment and the second half plays out like a Netflix feelgood flick, you can almost feel the beats in the script. In fact, a movie version is already in preproduction. Clearing the rights to those eternal recordings is an achievement for any play but they do come with baggage and drown out the drama, lending dramatic power which is not earned in the script.
The cast however are stunning. Jasper Talbot and Brenock O'Connor do not just resemble the youthful Jagger and Richards, they totally embody their animal like energy and sexy swagger. Ryan Dawson Laight's wonderfully eye catching costumes add to the luxurious air of the piece as does Joanna Scotcher's designs, immersing us in both the beige and the day glo of the Swinging Sixties. Stands in the audience double as witness boxes and platforms for go go dancers.
A star is born in young Louis Landau, making his professional stage debut as Nigel. Looking like a child of Eddie Redmayne and Tina Brown he has the easy charm of both and totally commends the stage. Remember the name.
Emer McDaid too perfectly captures Faithfull's mix of willowy flower child and steely confidence but she oddly misses Marianne's husky tone and that deliberate manner of speaking.
Anthony Calf has a total ball barnstorming as Michael Havers with lots of booming entrances from the auditorium. His own father, nicknamed Bongo, was a retired judge and here is quietly encouraging of his grandson's artistic ambitions, pointing out to him that he should go and watch his father in full flight in the Old Bailey as he'd soon realize the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when it comes to theatricality. Clive Francis is a joy as this dapper old roué with a twinkle in his eye.
The Havers family are of course steeped in the law, and this makes the mother Carol's appeal to Michael to care about people not the law
ring hollow. While Jones and Audibert know how to entertain, Jones' script is way too schematic and neatly rounded to really get under the skins of this complex bunch.
