What: Heroes
Where: Langham Court Theatre
When: To Nov. 30
Rating: 2 1/2 stars (out of five)
You could call it Grumpy Old Soldiers.
Langham Court Theatre’s latest show is Heroes, a Tom Stoppard translation of a 2003 comedy by the French playwright Gérald Sibleyras. Set in 1959, it’s about three veterans who, having served in the First World War, are eking out their twilight years in a retirement home for soldiers.
Heroes is a clever little play, percolating with gentle humour. These decrepit vets, sensing their days are numbered, plan to escape to the hills.
Agoraphobia, fainting spells and burgeoning senility conspire against the scheme.
In some ways, their situation is reminiscent of Waiting for Godot. Like Beckett’s antiheroes, these geezers are ensnared in stasis, waiting for something that never arrives. This is a universal condition, of course, which gives Heroes a welcome depth.
This production, which did earn laughs on opening night, is a good news/bad news proposition. The good news is that the set, created by director Don Keith and set artist Anne Swannell, is rather spectacular. It depicts a lovely old rest home, a vintage French building with exposed bricks, picturesquely rusted gates and projections of clouds (perhaps parallelling the veterans’ own lives) that drift by lazily.
(One quibble: the set features a dog statue that’s moved about by one of the veterans. The statue is so large, it would surely weigh 200 kilograms if real, surely beyond the average old — or young — man’s ability to shift.)
The not-so-good news is that the level of acting is decidedly mixed. The cast comprises Bill Christie as Gustave, Alan Ormerod as Henri and Tom Holder as Phillipe. On Thursday, the trio often struggled with words delivered hesitatingly, with actors stepping on each other’s lines.
This gave the sense they’d yet to fully assimilate their roles (although perhaps it was just opening-night jitters).
That’s not to say there weren’t good moments. For example, at his best, Christie captured Gustave’s bitterness and a brittle arrogance that camouflages an unhappy personal history. Yet overall, the undercooked quality of the acting led to stilted interactions.
Heroes may well be a show that improves as the run continues — and if so, it’ll be worth seeking out. Sibleyras (via Stoppard) has created quirky, trickling dialogue with subtle flows and eddies. There’s a wistful yearning to this bittersweet play; it says something poignant about the human condition.
