Review Round-up: Greta Garbo Comes to Tricycle

| London's West End |

13 January 2010

Greta Garbo – the Hollywood star forever associated with her wish “to be alone” – is the central figure in Frank McGuinness‘ new play, which premiered at the Tricycle Theatre this week, directed by Nicolas Kent (11 January, previews from 7 January).

Set in 1967 and loosely based on fact, Greta Garbo Came to Donegal centres on two couples on the verge of ending, as their country sits on the verge of violent change. Into this heady atmosphere comes the “great Garbo” (played by Broadway veteran Caroline Lagerfelt), the loveliest and loneliest of all women.

Critics were almost unanimously positive in their reaction to the play, branding it “viciously accurate”, “skilfully imagined” and “delicious”. As Garbo, Lagerfelt was labeled “perfect” by Whatsonstage.com’s Michael Coveney, while her co-stars including Michelle Fairley, Lisa Diveney, Daniel Gerroll and Angeline Ball can also hold their heads high. Although some found the play over-long, the general consensus was a definite thumbs up, with more than one critic drawing comparison with Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa (which McGuinness adapted for the big screen in 1998).

Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (four stars) – “It’s a good set-up that could have backfired but doesn’t thanks to the witty discretion in how McGuinness presents the catalytic arrival of the reclusive star in the Donegal backwater, and the raw passion with which he writes the ensuing domestic crisis; I haven’t admired a play of his so much since Dolly West’s Kitchen ten years ago … The second act contains some of the most viciously accurate writing of the one-time Catholic mentality on education I’ve seen, while the first is an often delightful bantering between Garbo and the others, mostly Sylvia, on cultural differences and The Sound of Music. (Sylvia reminds Garbo of ‘Yoolie’ Andrews.) … Caroline Lagerfelt is a perfect Garbo, high cheek-boned, funny, not remotely caricatured or ridiculous. She finds similarities in the landscape with her native Stockholm, and the play proves a two-way ticket to understanding in a surprising and skilful manner, with Colette’s future resting in Matthew’s painting of the screeching peacock in the fields.”

Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard (four stars) – “McGuinness expertly portrays the toxic ferment of the interactions but has larger themes to unfurl: the fiery pettiness of local rivalries, the narrowness of opportunity for people in this traditional community, the perils of stubbornness, the repressive influence of men. The result is a poignant, intelligent drama, which also contains moments of coruscating humour. The actors revel in the quality of the writing, none more so than Caroline Lagerfelt as Garbo, a perfect blend of twinkly allure, thin-lipped aloofness, oracular brilliance and vampiric venom … Robert Jones‘ hay-skirted set has brilliantly transformed the Tricycle’s stage into a rustic backwater and Nicolas Kent‘s shrewd direction combines subtlety with a fearless embrace of grand gesture. McGuinness has a weakness for going on longer than he should, and here he labours his conclusion. There are also odd anachronisms in the costumes. But there is a huge amount to admire in this painful, compassionate and skilfully imagined play.”

Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (four stars) – “… McGuinness deftly mixes humour and pain, good jokes and darker moods, though he sometimes draws the historical background a touch laboriously … The great screen icon, in her early sixties when the play is set, is played with poised beauty, fascinating reserve and a bone-dry wit by Caroline Lagerfelt, who is also blessed with a delightful and authentic Swedish accent, since her own father was a Swedish diplomat … Michelle Fairley plays this role (housekeeper Paulie) with a superb mixture of warmth, wit and submerged hurt, and the portrayal of the way this lonely woman comes as close to friendship with Garbo as the actress will ever allow, is the chief pleasure of the play … there is strong work from Owen McDonnell as the boozy, bullying chauffeur who lost the family home, Angeline Ball as his outspoken, vulgar wife, to whom Garbo takes an instant and hilarious dislike, and Lisa Diveney as their bright, anxious daughter …The play is too long and untidily constructed, but its warmth, wit and intriguing subject matter make ample amends.”

Benedict Nightingale in The Times (three stars) – “I rather wished that McGuinness had confined himself to exploring a Garbo psyche that was damaged by a drunken father and the death of a sister but, not unnaturally, he wants to give us a plot … Nicolas Kent’s production holds the attention, especially during those passages involving the odd, understated but undeniably mutual attraction that develops between the wary, watchful, maybe asexual, maybe bisexual Garbo and Dover’s wise housekeeper, beautifully played by Michelle Fairley. But the ending, which suggests that the actress is less icy than she claims, is a bit wishful. And the references to an ominous civil rights march occurring offstage in Derry? Well, maybe they are meant to suggest that it isn’t only Garbo who is cut off. But they don’t add coherence to an absorbing but dramatically untidy play.”

Michael Billington in the Guardian (three stars) – “It is hard not to be captivated by Garbo, who self-mockingly describes herself as ‘a great gloomy Swede’ and whose aloofness conceals a considerable acuity … although the play traverses familiar territory, there is a stunning performance from the American actor Caroline Lagerfelt as Garbo. She not only has the right look of attenuated grace: she also captures the nomadic restlessness and amused irony of a woman who sees herself, along with Cardinal Spellman, as one of New York’s ‘most confirmed bachelors’. This rivetingly plausible evocation of a screen icon is well supported, in Nicolas Kent‘s production, by Michelle Fairley as the loveless, life-wasted Paulie, Daniel Gerroll as the quietly acquisitive painter, and Tom McKay as his pugilistic lover.”

Ian Shuttleworth in the Financial Times (four stars) – “Paulie is the great McGuinness woman in the play, and Michelle Fairley turns in a magnificent performance, as her protective cynicism peels away to reveal both regrets and still-active dreams. Angeline Ball as her sister-in-law, Colette’s mother Sylvia, has had her tongue sharpened by life’s grindstone, and Caroline Lagerfelt relishes her portrayal of Garbo right from the deliberately self-parodic opening; very quickly afterwards, though, (as the posters used to say) Garbo laughs. Garbo even dances – a tango with Paulie … Much of the first half of the play feels like an obvious fantasy, but a delicious one; much of the second follows a conventional scheme of family revelations, but does so with sensitivity. McGuinness is not afraid of sentimentality, but he pinches it off before it begins to flow too freely.”

– Theo Bosanquet & Kelly Ann Warden