Lolita

Synopsis

An adaptation of Lolita and Humber's forbidden love.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 8 September 2009

The novelist Vladimir Nabokov boasted that the notoriety of his 1955 novel had dissuaded anyone naming a daughter Lolita ever again. The teenage nymphet doesn’t appear in Brian Cox’s two-hour monologue, but she’s clearly a girl best avoided: selfish, mendacious, manipulative.

It’s one of the really clever things in Cox’s performance as Humbert Humbert in Richard Nelson’s faithful distillation – every single word is Nabokov’s – that Lolita comes across as a spoilt, irritating little hussy; it adds poignancy to the fate of this flabby, helpless old man smitten with lust for a 12-year-old, sitting in his prison cell, awaiting trial for murder.

The limitation is that Cox hasn’t quite learned the lines – he’s giving just three Monday performances – which is almost fine as he’s legitimately reading from notebooks, but there are worrying little lacunae as his attention flicks between page and audie...

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Latest User Review

fred - 15 September 2009:

Brian Cox has done little theatre in recent years and so we are fortunate to have a quite remarkable stage performance from him in Lolita. He is a magnificent actor. His ability to create the world of this book and the unhealthy relationship with Lolita is breathtaking. This masterclass in acting was justly received with enormous applaase the night I saw it....

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