{"id":240265,"date":"2023-11-03T09:28:38","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T09:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=240265"},"modified":"2023-11-03T09:28:38","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T09:28:38","slug":"director-ian-rickson-fumbles-the-ball-as-farce-collides-with-drama-lyoness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/lifestyle\/director-ian-rickson-fumbles-the-ball-as-farce-collides-with-drama-lyoness\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Director Ian Rickson fumbles the ball as farce collides with drama’: Lyoness…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Penelope Skinner’s latest play stars Kristin Scott Thomas as James as Kate celebrated actress Elaine who has been discovered living in Cornwall after disappearing 30 years earlier. Lily James is Kate, a film development executive sent to interview Elaine to find out if the story behind her disappearance merits a movie.<\/p>\n

After a long introduction in which Kate – who juggles a child, professional aspirations and a fast-rising film director husband (James Corrigan) – relates the details of Elaine’s life to her boss Sue (Doon Mackichan), she is plunged into the eccentric world of the actress’s household.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong> Meetings review: ‘One big-hearted and ultimately explosive play’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dressed in a bizarre wardrobe of woollen hats, swimming costume and, later, a black feathered cloak, Elaine entices Kate into revealing feelings of entrapment. Though Elaine’s lesbian poet neighbour Chris (Sara Powell) tempts Kate into straying, this still only raises the sexual temperature to tepid.<\/p>\n

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Switching from drama to comedy with disregard for tone or logic, Skinner’s play is a litany of banal observations on patriarchal control over women. Aiming for an Ealing comedy with contemporary bite, director Ian Rickson fumbles the ball as farce collides with drama. Scott Thomas goes for low-key bonkers while James overcompensates madly with tics, tears and grimaces.<\/p>\n

The biggest laugh comes from the programme note which confuses “the lost city of Atlanta”, capital city of the US state of Georgia, with the legendary ‘lost’ island of Atlantis. Surely some mythtake.<\/p>\n