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A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewThe Painkiller
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"You went to one meeting for premature ejaculation and you left early! "
— Michelle
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Kenneth Branagh as Ralph and Rob Brydon as Brian (Photo: Johan Persson ) |
The pain in the arse is the normally lovable Rob Brydon, here as very loquacious Welshman Brian Dudley, a lowly reporter of fetes and flower shows for the Swindon Advertiser. Dudley has booked into a hotel room to commit suicide after the break up of his marriage to Michelle (Claudie Blakley). In the adjoining hotel room is Ralph (Kenneth Branagh), calling himself John, in whose luggage is a telescopic rifle and he is taking an inordinate amount of interest in the hotel bedroom window, which overlooks the local criminal court. So one man is bent on doing himself in and the other seems to be an assassin.
A superb clown, Mark Hadfield is the hotel porter showing the two men to their rooms. On stage we can see both rooms, the mirror on the interconnecting wall is explained for us with meta-theatrical humour. However despite the mirrored wall divide, the rooms are far from soundproof. After a noisy and needy telephone conversation with his wife, threatening suicide, Brian attempts to hang himself from the shower and brings away a large area of ceiling tiles. The first mishap for Ralph is the window blind which keeps breaking in the closed position and which the porter is called in to mend.
The porter gets Ralph to agree to look after Brian and we really enjoy Brydon gazing up longingly at Branagh while the suicidal man clutches the hand of his protector. The alternative was to call the police. These two performances zing off each other. Brydon plays the annoyingly wheedling reporter to perfection but the big revelation for me is Kenneth Branagh in a comedy role. He is quite simply superb! The wife's lover Dr Dent (Alex Macqueen), the psychiatrist arrives to sort out his girlfriend's husband and confusing the two men, injects Ralph with a horse tranquiliser which leaves Branagh unsteady and incoherent and at his funniest. There are visits from Michelle and a local policeman (Marcus Fraser) for extra complication.
The play comes in at 85 minutes but there are numerous pratfalls and scenes of unconscious sexual innuendo and we can see that both Branagh and Brydon have either had Caribbean holidays or time at the tanning parlour. Despite the darker side of both men's intentions on booking into the hotel with its beds so decked with cushions, major dismantling is needed before you can get into bed, The Painkiller is a farcical and thrilling evening in the theatre.
| esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message -- if you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to Curtain Up and from what part of the country. |
| The Painkiller
Written by Francis Veber Adapted and directed by Sean Foley Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Rob Brydon With Mark Hadfield, Claudie Blakley, Alex Macqueen, Marcus Fraser Designed by Alice Power Lighting: Tim Mitchell Composers and sound: Ben and Max Ringham Fight director: Bret Yount Running time: One hour 25 minutes no interval Box Office 020 7492 0810 Booking to 30th April 2016 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 21st March 2016 performance at the Garrick Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London WC2 (Rail/Tube: Charing Cross) |
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