Harry Clarke: an 'effortlessly engrossing' one-man play
Billy Crudup is 'hypnotic' but cannot 'paper over the defects'
A string of Hollywood stars have turned up in the West End this year, said Sarah Crompton on What's on Stage. The latest is Billy Crudup, who has crossed the pond to reprise his role in a play that brought him off-Broadway acclaim in 2017.
David Cale's "Harry Clarke" is a funny, smart and "effortlessly engrossing" one-man piece about a fantasist and conman from the American Midwest who starts to speak in a fey upper-class English accent as a child, then moves to New York, where he reinvents himself as a sexually omnivorous Cockney wide-boy. And Crudup is simply superb in it. He doesn't quite nail the accents, but he "charismatically mines each twist and turn", and lands his lines "with immaculate timing". It amounts to a "real tour de force of storytelling and performance".
Crudup is "hypnotic", said Clive Davis in The Times. Playing a string of different characters, he makes the bare stage feel crowded with "hubbub" and adventure in a piece that is packed with droll one-liners. It's "technically dazzling and highly entertaining", agreed Sam Marlowe in The Stage. But it's not enough to paper over the defects in what is a rather slight play. With a few too many "corkscrew twists", and an anticlimactic ending, Harry Clarke is "effectively a series of Escher staircases leading nowhere, ingenious but inconsequential".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The play "is a tribute to that much loved cultural figure, the gay (or at least queer-coded) conman", said Alice Saville in The Independent. In "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Saltburn", these "enigmatic" figures feel like the "product of 20th century homophobia and the double lives it forced so many men to lead", and you sense their "slippery charisma" is at least partly a survival tactic. But the character here has "none of the inner darkness that would make sense of his baroque fabrications".
The evening may please Crudup's fans (and collectors of appalling English accents), but it feels hard to justify the top ticket price of £195 for this minimally staged 80-minute import. Far better to "head to one of London's homegrown pub theatres for all the intrigue, at a tenth of the price".
Ambassadors Theatre, London WC2 (harryclarketheplay.com). Until 11 May
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Voters know Biden and Trump all too well'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Is the Gaza war tearing US university campuses apart?
Today's Big Question Protests at Columbia University, other institutions, pit free speech against student safety
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
DOJ settles with Nassar victims for $138M
Speed Read The settlement includes 139 sexual abuse victims of the former USA Gymnastics doctor
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
5 stellar TV series based on award-winning novels
The Week Recommends Max's 'The Sympathizer' is not the only successful adaptation of prestige fiction
By David Faris Published
-
You Are Here: the new David Nicholls 'past-their-prime' romance
The Week Recommends 'Midlife disenchantment' gives way to romance for two walkers on a cross-country hike
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
The best dog-friendly hotels around the UK
The Week Recommends Take a break with your four-legged friend in accommodation that offers you both a warm welcome
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
5 ways to help the environment while on vacation
The Week Recommends An afternoon of planting trees could be the best part of your trip
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
Sarah Langan recommends 6 women-centric horror books
Feature The horror novelist recommends works by Stephen King, Gillian Flynn, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 spacious homes for car lovers
Feature Featuring a 14-car showroom in Oregon and a Bentley-style apartment in Florida
By The Week Staff Published
-
Olive oil: alternatives for the 'liquid gold'
The Week Recommends As the price of this store cupboard staple has rocketed, we look at ways to save and other oils to use for cooking
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
Get into the groove at these delightful record stores
The Week Recommends Each one strikes its own chord
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published