Robert Tanitch reviews Relative Values at Harold Pinter Theatre, London SW1
Noel Coward’s comedy was never that good. It felt dreadfully old-fashioned, even at its premiere in 1951. It was, as Coward himself acknowledges, the sort of comedy of manners which Somerset Maugham might have written in the 1920’s. It feels as if it should have been set no later than the 1930’s.
The son and heir of a countess is about to marry a glamorous Hollywood movie star. His mother is not pleased that he is marrying beneath him. Neither is her personal maid who just happens to be the movie star’s elder sister. She hands in her notice. The Countess, who adores the servant and has relied on her for the last 20 years, immediately elevates her to the rank of companion-secretary.
The comedy is a satire about class, privilege, old-world snobbery and social inferiority. The humiliation of the movie star (Leigh Zimmerman) is not that funny.
Patricia Hodge is the Countess, vicious in her put-downs. Caroline Quentin has the most fun as the personal maid, especially when she is listening to her sister (who does not recognize her) telling the assembled company enormous lies, romanticising about their sordid slum upbringing in London’s East End. Meanwhile, Steven Pacey, playing a nothing role, finds a gay sub-text where there isn’t one.
Rory Bremner, making his theatrical debut, is the philosophical butler, who is modelled on James Barrie’s admirable Crichton and believes there never was and never will be social equality and toasts to it.
Trevor Nunn gives the production a handsome set (designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis) and puts the comedy in context with extracts from old Movietone newsreels from 1951. There is so much dead wood in the play that it is surprising that he didn’t also do some serious cutting
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