'Man and Boy' review — Ben Daniels is deeply menacing as the exploitative father and financier in this welcome Rattigan revival

Read our review of Terence Rattigan's play Man and Boy, now in performances at the National Theatre to 14 March.

Summary

• Terence Rattigan play Man and Boy is revived at the National Theatre
• The story is set in 1934 and sees a formidable financier exploiting his son in his business dealings
• Anthony Lau's production is a propulsive experience
• Ben Daniels is triumphant in the lead role and Laurie Kynaston plays his son with compassion

It is a rare thing to see a revival of Man and Boy. Last performed in London in 2005, with David Suchet as the Romanian billionaire Gregor Antonescu, it remains one of Terence Rattigan’s largely forgotten works, while others, such as The Deep Blue Sea, shine as classics. Written in 1963, it has never quite shaken the disappointment of its original short run and reception, at a time when playwrights like John Osborne had catapulted to popularity.

Yet here it is at the Dorfman, marking Indhu Rubasingham’s first piece of programming in the smallest of the National’s theatres. And if any production is going to fight for Man and Boy to claim a more permanent place in the canon, it’s this one. Director Anthony Lau ensures the story is a propulsive, rapid-fire experience, edged with a rippling darkness. With the most recent release of the Epstein files currently unleashing a tempest on the government and beyond, the play feels more contemporary than ever.

Set in 1934, in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash, the narrative centres on financial manipulation, moral compromise, and the corrosive effects of power. Still, the central premise – a formidable financier, who built his empire on racketeering and whose luck is finally running out, using his estranged son Basil as a sexual bargaining chip with Herries (Malcolm Sinclair), the secretly homosexual chairman of American Electric – stretches credibility.

Somehow, though, with Lau’s direction guiding us, the implausibility seems to evaporate. Georgina Lowe’s in-the-round design with a green carpet and a low square lighting rig dials up the intensity and nods to a snooker tournament in action. The whole thing is deeply theatrical: the names of the cast and their characters are displayed on an illuminated board at the back of the stage, lighting up dutifully on each entrance.

Emotion sings through Aline David’s striking movement direction too, which sees the actors dive and slide in anguish across tables or perch atop them to deliver key speeches. The set is left spare: only a clothing rack, a piano and a telephone occupy the corners of the stage’s rectangle.

So the actors are left to do the heavy lifting. Ben Daniels is triumphant as Antonescu – a performance that should surely earn him an award nomination or two. Commanding the stage, lizard-like and menacing, he orders those around him to follow his instructions with the easy authority of a man long accustomed to obedience. Opposite him, his left-wing son Basil, played with compassion by Laurie Kynaston, shrinks in a desperate bid to please, ultimately begging his father to let him help in any way he can. Antonescu is a man who feeds on power, and his treatment of the younger squeaky-voiced financial aide Beeston (Leo Wan) makes that appetite clear.

Man and Boy may still not show Rattigan at his most humanly rich. But this production – in all its ruthless, game-playing glory – surely shows the play in its finest light.

Man and Boy is at the National Theatre to 14 March. Book Man and Boy tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Man and Boy (Photos by Manuel Harlan)