★★★

“a sturdy bio-drama from a master in connecting the past to the present”

It’s 1939, war is in the air and we are in Hyde Park. But not in London. Hyde Park is the family estate of the Roosevelts where their sprawling country home Springwood is. President Franklin D and his wife Eleanor, together – uncomfortably – with his mother, the actual owner of Springwood, are about to host the first-ever visit of a reigning British monarch to the United States. A picnic is planned. It seems a trivial detail, but how will the royal couple get on with hot dogs and beer?

Richard Nelson’s new play is enjoying its world premiere at Hampstead Theatre and it’s a suitable place and audience for this clever dramatisation of a pivotal moment in history. It’s job is to explore relationships. Upfront is the ‘special’ relationship between the UK and the US which this moment in time may enshrine. The US was late into the first world war. Can the King George V and Queen Elizabeth count on that country’s support again should conflict erupt in Europe?

Also in the foreground of the drama are the multiple personal relationships: the President and his wife; Eleanor and Mother; the King and Queen; and Franklin D Roosevelt’s other ‘special’ relationships. Under all of this lie the more abstract relationships: between leaders and their people, then the same leaders with their respective disabilities.

Springwood is based on Nelson’s own screenplay for the 2012 film ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’, which had been observed to be good potentially for presentation on stage. After Stanley Tucci withdrew as director (too busy) Nelson stepped in. Given his own history of directing his own plays as well as writing interconnected family-cycle plays, this was a sound decision. His ensemble-naturalism background suits this material which could easily become a soap opera in the wrong hands.

It’s a strong ten-person cast, with Robert Lindsay and Jemma Redgrave secure in their roles as the President and Eleanor. To my mind, however, Andrew Havill as King George (‘Bertie’) gives the outstanding performance. There were moments when one could swear King Charles had taken on the part, so good was his characterisation. The slight physical awkwardness, the whisper of Bertie’s ever-present but mostly hidden stutter, the sense of someone who really understands the symbolism of the hot dog moment, unlike his wife (Rebecca Night) to whom this has to be carefully explained by Eleanor.

The creative team have chosen to set the play ‘in the round’ with a dark black background into which the figures melt. This enables us to focus on the conversations which are at the core of the work. Scene changes are punctuated by the actors moving brown furniture round. Rather strangely the play opens with all the characters onstage breaking up and then rearranging the set.

But then this is the main action and without it we might find the play a little static. It is a subtle piece important to pay as much attention to what is not being said – and when – as to what is outspoken. Oft-repeated is ‘the walls are very thin’ and somehow this becomes a mantra for the unsaid and the overheard in people’s lives. And there are also many moments of laugh-out-loud humour . Bertie’s outburst when his wife accuses him of being like his brother, when he threatens to shove hot dogs ‘up his nostrils and in his ears’ as well as in his mouth is a comedy gem.

Devotees of Hampstead Theatre will enjoy the wordiness, the history and the focus on what is revealed in conversation. It might not play as well in a less literary world or among people less interested in the history of diplomatic relations between the US and the UK. This is a sturdy bio-drama from a master in connecting the past to the present, which it undoubtedly does

REBUS: A GAME CALLED MALICE at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

★★★

“Gray O’Brien with his languid movement and rugged good looks gives a towering performance”

Co-writers Sir Ian Rankin and Simon Reade bring a new Rebus story to the stage. The deliberately claustrophobic-looking set (Terry Parsons) is a traditional dining room with a large table centre stage and two doors leading out, left and right, which stay almost permanently closed. The walls are crammed with framed oil paintings, all individually lit. A surfeit of table and wall lamps and a suspended chandelier exude a luscious creaminess (lighting Matthew Eagland). We are at the wine and whisky stage of an impressive dinner party and the guests have been playing a murder-mystery game. Clues are discussed and hypotheses shared. We hear mentions of ‘motive, method and means’ and it’s all delightfully intriguing. Director Loveday Ingram skilfully moves her actors around the stage, seating them in different ways to provide some variety within a fundamentally static setting.

I confess to never having read a Rebus novel or seen him on TV so I might have missed expected nuances inherent in his character, but Gray O’Brien with his languid movement and rugged good looks gives a towering performance of the newly retired police detective. Initially, he spends much of the time at a distance from the other guests, prowling in the background, observing. He breaks the fourth wall to speak to the audience of his ability to ‘read the room’, the trilling of his Scottish burr a joy to the ears.

There is a lot of backstory to get through before we can have the thrill of piecing together who might have it in for whom but there is no kitsch, the script is well-written, and there are some genuinely amusing one-liners. But this back story is predominantly concerned with characters we never see and it becomes an effort to follow. Just as in the murder-mystery game the dinner guests play, the initial excitement wears away and the truth, when it comes, is somewhat underwhelming.

The ensemble cast does what it can but all the characters bar Rebus don’t have much to work on and everyone generally underplays. There’s some uncertainty within the ensemble too, particularly at the start of the second act that stuttered in this performance, but it will all gain in fluency once the run (and UK tour) has established.

The party hostess Harriet (Teresa Banham) is almost transparent in the first act but comes to life in the second with a fine burst of nervous energy. Her husband Paul (Neil McKinven) rather goes the other way, showing fine bonhomie at the start before withdrawing from the later affray. Most regrettably, for the role could be a fine one, is Billy Hartman (Jack Fleming), a casino owner with a shady past but the performance lacks the flamboyance that might be expected from such a character. Then there is Billy’s trophy girlfriend Candida (Jade Kennedy) who, as a supposedly superficial ‘social influencer’, shines out above the mediocrity around her; and, lastly, former lawyer Stephanie Jeffries (Abigail Thaw) isn’t given much to say for herself but does a fine look of indignation and disgust.

With Ian Rankin co-writing, this seems like a missed opportunity for creating something better than an average whodunnit but the central role of John Rebus just about saves the play.

Tag Archives: Teresa Banham

SPRINGWOOD

★★★

Hampstead Theatre

SPRINGWOOD

Hampstead Theatre

★★★

“a sturdy bio-drama from a master in connecting the past to the present”

SPRINGWOOD

Hampstead Theatre

Reviewed on 29th June 2026

by Louise Sibley

Photography by Manuel Harlan

SPRINGWOOD

SPRINGWOOD

SPRINGWOOD

REBUS: A GAME CALLED MALICE

★★★

Cambridge Arts Theatre

REBUS: A GAME CALLED MALICE at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

★★★

“Gray O’Brien with his languid movement and rugged good looks gives a towering performance”