Ross, at the CFT last night

Yesterday was a bit special. I had booked as soon as the ‘Friends’ booking period opened with ‘Ross’ as a main aim for the season. A big name always gets the theatre goers excited and this Terrance Rattigan 1960’s play would obviously be packed.

 

Adding Joseph Fiennes as the star, playing the heroic legend T.E.Lawrence, otherwise known to the world by the nom de guerre Lawrence of Arabia, made sure the Chichester Festival Theatre was a smash hit.

 

Joseph Fiennes could not have been more perfect to play the less than perfect arrogant, strangely withdrawn and troubled Aircraftman Ross. The whole of the all male cast gave excellent performances. Michael Feast, Paul Freeman, Nicholas Prasad, Eben Figueiredo and Brendan Hooper were all superb, what a great cast. 

We had never seen the play before but had seen the film with Peter O’Toole playing Lawrence creating an image that is in the heads of many people because of him. Joseph Fiennes portrayal of this hard to understand man, with so many contradictions, made the character seem less romantic, deeper and more troubled and complex, as I saw him. This is a great production, though quite hard work in a lot of ways. There is nothing fluffy and romantic about this version at all, it is tense, worrying and most unpleasant at times as it progresses. Thank God in his Heaven for the moments of humour. There was plenty to talk about on the way home and plenty to think about too and not all of it nice. It was, as the standing ovation displayed to the cast, an excellent evening of true theatre.  

The ‘We’ I referred to earlier, were my husband Steve and our friend and fellow triathlete Anthony Towers and yours truly of course. Our seats were in row D and had a clear view of the super set, seemingly simple but with so many scene changes appearing like magic actually through the stage, it was a wonder in itself and also a wonder, that during those changes, that appeared to be carried out by cast members, that there were no disappearances into the various dark holes. 

One of my theatrical foibles is that I get very cross with actors who have been known to the public previously as great singers. Peter Polycarpou is brilliant as Sheik Auda Abu Tayi; I have to admit that, but you see, I loved him to bits as John in Miss Saigon singing the powerful Bui Doi song. He was also in Pyjama Game a couple of season ago at the CFT, long before that he was the bloke who was always in prison in Birds of a Feather yonks years earlier.

The three of us had also enjoyed a very nice meal in Brasserie Blanc before the performance. Good value from the new summer Menu Fixe.