THE HOUSE OF YES review/The Hope Theatre, Islington/8 -26 October 2019

Richard Braine • 11 October 2019

‘...a wonderful evening’ ★★★★★

My wife was in Alan Ayckbourn’s production at the National Theatre of ‘Tis Pity she’s a Whore’. The sponsors were worried about the title of the play. So Alan said, “what if I call it ‘Tis Pity she’s not with the Prudential’? The reply came back, ‘oh could you Alan? That would be great!’

I mention this story because Wendy Macleod, in this wonderfully assured production of her play, ‘the house of yes’, has subtitled her piece ‘a suburban Jacobean tragedy; loosely based on ‘Tis Pity she’s a Whore’.

The momentum of the plot is driven by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In the midst of dreadful weather (beautifully sound-scaped by Simon Arrowsmith). Marty (Fergus Leathem) brings home his girlfriend Lesly (wonderfully detailed work from Kaya Bucholc) to meet his family. The welcome Lesly receives is both astonishing and blissfully funny.

It’s certainly the darkest of comedies and at the same time it is just as Macleod says a ‘suburban Jacobean tragedy’. The piece is redolent of latent violence, cynicism and corruption. For the next eighty-five minutes we watch as a family completely disintegrates. 

Marty’s twin sister is called ‘Jackie –O’ and as the name suggests pays homage to JFK’s wife. (We never discover if that is her real birth name.) It really is a wonderful turn from Collette Eaton as Jackie-O. She finds a tautness, fragility and sheer ‘sexiness’ that is quite gasp inducing. It is a riveting performance. Her demented laugh/howl at the beginning of the play is worth the admission price alone.

But the acting honours go to Bart Lambert as Anthony. His ability to turn on ‘a sixpence’ is one of sheer genius. He can take you from belly laughs to inherent, mesmeric violence in nano- seconds. It is really hard to watch anyone else when he is on stage.

The play may not be up there with the best of Harold Pinter but it is extremely thought provoking, alarming and very, very funny.

The production though would really be as nothing without the sheer brilliance of the director Matthew Parker. Every moment presented to us sucks us into this demented world. Not a jot or full stop is ignored. It is the work of a craftsman fully engaged in telling us an extraordinary story.

The Hope Pub theatre has been extremely fortunate to have had at its helm a man of such rare talent. I’m sure it won’t be the last we hear of him as he moves on from his role as Artistic Director of The Hope. He does not need my best wishes. He will get every accolade that the theatrical world can bestow.

All in all a wonderful evening. Congratulations to everyone concerned.

Oh....and at the first night party of ‘Tis Pity she’s a Whore’ one of the suits sidled up to Ayckbourn and said, ‘glad you didn’t change the title Alan. The original name really is quite good’.  

Photo credit: lhphotoshots 

THE HOUSE OF YES by Wendy Macleod
Directed by Matthew Parker
The Hope Theatre above the Hope and Anchor
Islington
8th-26th October
Concessions apply to OAPs, Students and Equity Members. 

Reviewer Richard Braine is actor, director and playwright. 
As an Actor he has worked extensively throughout the country including Chichester Festival Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange, Birmingham Rep, and Stephen Joseph Theatre in Yorkshire. His Television and Film credits include: “Calendar Girls”, “Pride, Prejudice and Zombies”, “Finding Neverland”, “Bridget Jones”, “Suspicions of Mr Whicher”, “Mr Selfridge” and many years ago Gussie Fink-Nottle in “Jeeves and Wooster”. He has also filmed over 150 Commercials all over the world. 
He has directed the European premiere of Sternheim/Martin “The Underpants” at The Old Red Lion Theatre and written three plays: “Being There with Sellers”, “Bedding Clay Jones” and “Sexing Alan Titchmarsh”.

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