Robert Tanitch reviews Dessert at Southwark Playhouse, London SE1
Oliver Cotton’s comedy-thriller, directed by Trevor Nunn, offers one-sided debate, moments of sheer farce and rather too much shouting for so intimate a theatre.
Stephen Hagan in Dessert
A British multimillionaire and his wife entertain a wealthy American couple to dinner. He has just paid £24,000 for a painting which could be by Giorgione; and if it is by him it could be worth £8 million. The financier already has a pension worth £16million. Does he deserve a bonus on top of that?
A soldier in combat fatigues bursts into the room and threatens them with his gun. He has seen military service in Afghanistan and has lost a leg. He tells them that his dad lost all the money he had in shares in a firm which the financier liquidated.
Will he kill them or has he come just for the money?
Stephen Hagan as the soldier harangues the diners (and audience) in a very long and relentless anti-capitalist monologue. “I am not here for a debate!” he shouts when he so obviously is.
Dessert is a seminar on Greed and the lengths to which people will go. Everybody wants money. The question is how much money? Why should some people get more money than others? At what point do pay-outs become obscene?
How much is a newscaster worth? Does a footballer deserve more money than a NHS nurse? How much should a soldier on active service be paid?
If you were a soldier and won the military cross which would you prefer the medal or the money? How much is “an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy” actually worth in cash?
How much is a Van Gogh painting worth today? How much did Van Gogh get for his paintings when he was alive?
If Bernard Shaw, for instance, had written Dessert you can be absolutely certain that he would have given the financier (played by Michael Simpkins) a much better hand than Oliver Cotton has given him. As it stands Dessert is entirely the soldier’s play and Stephen Hagan rides high.
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