Robert Tanitch reviews Ben Hur at Tricycle Theatre, London, NW6
General “Lew” Wallace wrote his best-selling historical religious novel in 1880. Ben Hur The Tale of the Christ has been filmed most successfully in 1925 with Ramon Novarro and Francis X Bushman and in 1959 with Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd.
Loved Ben, hated Hur, said the camp wags.
The last time it was staged was at Drury Lane Theatre in 1902 and 1912. The box-office appeal on stage and screen has always been the chariot race.
In Hollywood Ben Hur had 300 sets, 50,000 extras, 365 speaking parts and 78 horses.
At the Tricycle in Patrick Barlow’s adaptation, directed by Tim Carroll, they have just four actors: Alix Dumore, Richard Durden, John Hopkins and Ben Jones.
Barlow also wrote the script for the highly successful adaptation of John Buchan’s 39 Steps which began at the Tricycle in 2006 and transferred tom the West End where it ran for nine years
Ben Hur is just the sort of thing Barlow would have put on when he was artistic director of The National Theatre of Brent.
The gross ineptitude, the bad acting, the tacky production, the mistimed sound effects, the sheer awfulness and banality of the dialogue is good for a laugh.
The fact that John Hopkins and Ben Jones actually look as if they could have acted Judah Ben Hur and Messala quite seriously helps the joke.
If you are looking for something really silly to see during the festive season, then look no further. I suspect the production will get funnier the longer it runs.
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