For Services Rendered (Minerva Theatre, Chichester)
At first sight, this looks like a typical drawing room: all the correct elements are in place: the French windows, the tennis party, the posh family. But as the play progresses, it's clear we're in a different territory. Only the bizarre addition of the barbed wire in William Dudley's backdrop jars – a bit of heavy-handed signpost to the antiwar message.
Notionally, the theme of the play is the long-term consequences of the war, particularly the lack of marriage prospects for young women. It's fair to say that the sight of a woman proposing to a man and a young woman prepared to run away with an older, married man she's not in love with would have been more considerably more shocking in Maugham's time.
The theme is blindness in all aspects: from the physical sightlessness of the war veteran Sydney, the financial blindness of ex-naval officer Collie, unable to see the consequences of his business practice and Leonard Ardsley's lack of awareness, emphasised in his closing speech, thankful for his family's health and happiness, oblivious what's going on around him.
Director Howard Davies cannot remove all dated aspects of the play – the first half of the play in particular seems stilted, not helped by the rather cumbersome exposition. There are plenty of laughs from the audience – although I'm not sure that all were intended by the author.
But he's helped by a terrific ensemble. There are strong performances from all the Ardsley siblings: from Justine Mitchell as the perennial spinster Eva, Jo Herbert soldiering away in an unhappy marriage and Yolanda Kettle as the alluring Lois. Particularly strong is Joseph Kloska's Sydney, admirably bitter as the blinded war hero. Filled with more insights than his sighted counterparts he traverses the stage, a sardonic Tiresias, commenting on the foibles of the family. There's good work too from Stella Gonet as the mother of the unhappy children, Anthony Calf as an oily womaniser and a nicely understated performance from Simon Chandler as the father immersed in work, oblivious to the sadness around him.
What doesn't date is the anger of a generation betrayed. "Our story is the same as thousands of families in England. And Germany. And France," says Sydney. It's a cry heard still and one that echoes beyond the confines of the Ardsley drawing room. In many ways, this is a dated play but Davies's revival reminds us that some of the themes are still relevant.
For Services Rendered runs at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester until 5 September. For more information or to book tickets, click here.
