The Man of Mode

Synopsis

Dorimant, who can generally charm any woman in town back to his apartment, can't persuade Belinda into his bed until he's promised to dump Loveit, his current mistress. Mission accomplished, he turns his sights on Harriet, who is rich enough to solve his financial problems but smart enough not to play his game. George Etherege's glittering masterwork of Restoration Comedy is set in a London obsessed with having it all, and takes a steely look at young people driven by the need to have the latest clothes, the latest gossip and each other's bodies.

Our Review:

7 February 2007

George Etherege’s scathingly funny portrait of London manners, fashions and hedonism is one of the most brilliant of Restoration comedies, and Nicholas Hytner’s revival in the Olivier is a stunningly brilliant production to match. In an age when style columns and fashion fascism are dominating our newspapers and magazines, Etherege’s play seems less a remote classic than a much-needed contemporary satire.

We first meet the anti-hero Dorimant – played by Tom Hardy as a smug, heavily tattooed, vacuous amalgam of Alfie, Casanova and David Beckham – cavorting with scantily clad models at a fashion shoot. This is the first of several interludes which Hytner and choreographer David Bolger have devised to cover the scene changes and give a vivid physical dimension to the metropolitan charade.

Showered and suited, Dorimant – widely taken to be a sketch by Etherege of his friend, the royally approved rake the Earl of Rochester -- soon joins the dirty dancing en route to Mrs L...

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Latest User Review

ajh - 5 April 2007:

This bang up-to-date version of Etherege's satire on the mores and morals of an urban beau monde contains much to admire and enjoy. Some of it is genuinely inspired (making Mrs Loveit the proprietor of an upmarket ladieswear store...the wealthy Yorkshire folk transformed into a monied Asian family...the design as a whole) and the show as a whole goes with quite a swing under Nicholas Hytner's slick direction and with Vicki Mortimer's attractive design. There are a few problems however: for a start, the whole thing is way too long. This is largely due to the long, and frankly unnecessary choreographed sections by David Bolger. Initially diverting, they become increasingly annoying and just feel like glorified scene changes. I also wasn't hugely taken with Tom Hardy's barely audible Dorimant. Although suitably languid, he has insufficient comic skill and precious little charm. No qualms at all however about Nancy Carroll's terrific, stunning looking and hilariously funny Loveit or Rory Kinnear's riotous Fopling Flutter (his second act song is worth the price of admission alone!). Nice support too from Bertie Carvel and Hayley Atwell. The updating, with mobile phones and emails replacing billet doux etc., works well on the whole, and it is fun sitting amongst exactly the crowd whom the show is satirising!...

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