National Anthems

Synopsis

Set in Detroit, Michigan, and played in real time, the play takes us to the heart of 80's suburban America, and is at once a searing critique of suburban values and a hard-hitting parable about the American dream.National Anthems tells the story of Arthur and Leslie Reed, an affluent couple whose delightful house is packed with swanky imported furniture and designer clothes and who have a brand new BMW out the front and an ornate Japanese garden round the back. Everything is going absolutely delightfully until Ben Cook - an inner city fire fighter arrives to add a little spice to their 1980s idyll.

Our Review:

9 February 2005

Forty-one years ago, National Anthems began gestating as a one-act student play. Seventeen years ago, actor Kevin Spacey first encountered it in its present form when he appeared in a production at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre in 1988. Now it arrives at the Old Vic, trailing both a long history and high expectations for its highest-profile outing yet.

Spacey may have been smart to cling on to the rights for the bravura star turn it affords him at the play’s centre. The pity is that playwright Dennis McIntyre has only had his ambitions for it realised from beyond the grave. In the 26 years between beginning its writing and his death, aged 47, in 1990, McIntyre saw National Anthems performed in endless readings, workshops and regional US productions – the inevitable fate of much “new” American drama that gets workshopped to death.

In the process, however, some of the play's freshness and spontaneity may well have dissipat...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

195.234.243.2) - 12 April 2005:

A story rooted deep in suburban America, so some of the references were lost on us and we didn't understand all of the football talk. Nevertheless, there were some great one-liners, a lot of laughs and, I have to say, an absolutely stunning performance by Stacey. I used to think he was a very good actor, now I realise he is a great one. He didn't so much act the part, he BECAME Ben the fireman and you watched fascinated as this outwardly cocky man's weaknesses, foibles, prejudices and fears gradually rose to the surface. What a performance. One of the very few times I've been in a theatre and joined the rest of the audience spontaneously rising to its feet to give a standing ovation. We'll be going back in a few weeks to see him in the Philadelphia Story. Can't wait....

Read more and add your own review

Related Whatsonstage.com Articles

20 Questions With…Mary Stuart Masterson More»