Orlando Bloom in In Celebration
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Review Round-up: Does Orlando Bloom on Stage?

Pirates of the Caribbean screen star Orlando Bloom made his highly anticipated professional stage debut last night (16 July 2007, previews from 5 July) in the West End revival of David Storey’s In Celebration at the Duke of York’s Theatre. The production plays a limited season through to 15 September.

In David Storey’s play, which premiered at the Royal Court in 1969, Bloom plays Steven, the youngest of three brothers who return home to their Northern roots for their parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. Although they’ve returned to celebrate, the complexities of family life and long-held grievances make a decent party unlikely. Each of the brothers has been transformed, through a university education and professional success.

Steven’s brothers Andrew and Colin are played by Paul Hilton and Gareth Farr, his parents Mr and Mrs Shaw by Tim Healy and Dearbhla Molloy, and the neighbours by Lynda Baron and Ciaran McIntyre. The production is presented by Sonia Friedman Productions, Michael Edwards and Carole Winter, and Tulchin/Bartner Productions.

While some first night critics were underwhelmed by Bloom’s stage debut, it was as much due to his chosen role – as the largely silent, introverted brother – as his performance. The choice of play, viewed as something of a period piece, was also questioned and opinions as to the evening’s entertainment overall ranging from something “richly satisfying” to something “you’d only recommend … to your worse enemy”. There were good notices for Bloom’s co-stars Paul Hilton, Tim Healy and Dearbhla Molloy, although the highest praise was reserved for the show’s ever-prolific producer Sonia Friedman, hailed by one critic as “our last, serious hope of keeping straight plays alive in a West End deluged by musicals”.

Michael Billington in the Guardian (four stars) -“What makes it a fine play is Storey's use of the specifics of family life to explore a cultural malaise. Andrew's anger springs from the deification of a mother who, in Lawrentian terms, feels she married beneath her … But Storey is also addressing the alienation of sons educated out of their class and suffering a peculiar English mix of guilt and insecurity. Andrew's explanation for his sense of hurt may be a bit glib. But through Steven, Storey nails the traumatised rootlessness that comes from feeling one's life has no significance. Bloom lends Steven exactly the right sense of haunted taciturnity and withdrawn moodiness … Paul Hilton as the vengeful Andrew, however, really has to motor the action, and does so with a quivering, attenuated figure suggestive of a Wakefield Hamlet. Even his few gestures of affection, such as dancing with his mother, are replete with irony ... The result is a richly satisfying evening that reminds you of Storey's ability to confront unpalatable domestic truths and to portray an England in which class is still a governing determinant.”

- by Ryan Woods

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