The U4 Theatre Company, Judith Sanderson (Martha), Tom Scutt (Nick), Ruth Westley (Honey) and James Williams (George), certainly elected to take on an enormous challenge.
The actors' understanding of the characters' motivations was complimented by Scutt's inspired design that exploited the colour scheme of the acting space, revealing a sensitive understanding of the suggestive power of red and black.
Williams and Sanderson were utterly convincing as the middle aged couple, George and Martha, he an unsuccessful academic she, socially ambitious. Equally brilliant were Scutt and Westley who played the ostensibly perfect young couple whose shared personal demon is Honey's terror of pregnancy.
For me, the darkest character was Nick, the embodiment of everything that is selfish in American society.
Above all, this play attacks the very basis of American optimism, showing it to be a confection of complacency and psychological weapons of mass deception.
MICHAEL J WOODS
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