Following a successful West End season at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket, Daytona came to Richmond Theatre.
The sitting room set took us back to mid-80s Brooklyn when it was fashionable to have saloon doors into the kitchen and wear aprons. The upper backdrop showed the New York skyline of yesteryear and I still get a chill when I see the Twin Towers. The characters, like the cast and the audience, were all mature in years. It was a packed auditorium.
There are two interwoven storylines: a long lost brother (Billy – Oliver Cotton) who turns up at the house of his 72 year old brother (Joe – Harry Shearer) and sister-in-law (Eli – Maureen Lipman) with shocking news as they prepare for a dance competition. And there is a secret that has had a major impact on all of their lives.
Although there were occasional laughs, the going in the first half was slow – my companion fell asleep. The focus was on Cotton who was comically hyper and manic at times. Maureen Lipman hardly featured.
The pace picked up after the interval and despite powerful performances from both Lipman and Cotton neither the story, nor how it was told, gripped. Shearer’s character did not allow him to expand his role beyond caricature.
The New York Jewish accents were wobbly at times. There were a number of long monologues where the players told their stories that could have been broken up with more dialogue. I also had some trouble with the characters saying things that were distinctly non-Jewish – it underlined the inauthenticity.
I had been expecting a gentle comedy set within a ballroom and instead was served a quietly dramatic and distressing story of family betrayal and Nazi war criminals. Yes, there were one or two dance routines – but it wasn’t quite Strictly standard.
We came away mulling over ideas of forgiveness, moving on, pain inflicted by enemies and those we love, wasted lives, enduring love, love triangles and the appropriate treatment of war criminals so it wasn’t quite the light entertainment we had expected. But it was thought provoking.
Daytona is on at Richmond Theatre until Saturday 6th September
