Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info
The last of the Ralph Fiennes Theatre Royal, Bath season of plays premiered last week in Bath to mixed reviews in the national media.
We in the local press never heed what the nationals are saying, and Small Hotel starring Ralph Fiennes and Francesca Annis is well worth seeing.
(Fiennes said he fell in love with the stage of the Theatre Royal, Bath when he appeared in T.S Eliot's Four Quartets in 2021 just after Covid).
Small Hotel is a bit crazy at times, it is a challenging play, it is hard to follow the plot line but if you ignore this and enjoy the acting, the special effects, the whirlwind of action and scenes, the music, the dancing, it is storytelling at its best.
It is a new play by Rebecca Lenkiewicz and although things get a little crazy at times, by the end you know pretty much everything inside and out about the main protagonist failed TV chat show host Larry played by Ralph Fiennes.
It is a bit like it goes into karaoke at crucial moments, reminiscent of the TV series The Singing Detective, but as in Dennis Potter's genius writing it works really well in this play to highlight the drama of poor Larry.
Fiennes is immense in the role, at his best, he is gloriously and dryly funny, he tap dances, he whirls around characters and he is at once a lecherous middle aged old crony lusting after a teenager and at other times a failed malcontent with a string of unfulfilled marriages, bullied by his mother and TV executives, when he meet him he is pretty down and out.
But adorable.
And funny, talking straight to the audience at times.
While it is hard to know exactly what is going on it is also really clear, Lenkiewicz' writing leaves much to the imagination and this is great in the play.
So what is going on?
The timeline is not clear but that is the point.
Life is not chronological, Lenkiewicz presents us with a series of memories and it is a brilliant piece of writing, reflecting, thought provoking.
I think the confusion and madness in some parts of the play reflect a deep reality. How can we make sense of the world? And, more importantly, how can love even get a look in?
At the start we meet Larry, he has been stabbed at an ATM in Heuston Station, London.
What follows is a journey, an Odyssey set in a small hotel where we think he is dying.
Death comes in the role of Ava played beautifully by Rachel Tucker as she lures him under her spell and is ever present.
We then get to know about Larry's life, his relationship with his controlling, bitter but glorious mother Athena played by the wonderful Francesca Annis.
She is beautifully toxic in the role, drunken, poisonous, we learn about Larry's relationship with his twin, who Fiennes also plays on camera via a video call.
We get a giant size video screen of Richard (Fiennes) a hippy, drop out type living in America, talking to the suited, agonised and gloriously acerbic TV host Larry.
As Athena spits out her theory that Larry sucked the oxygen out of Richard his twin in the womb, we realize the depth of the control in this Oedipus like mother son relationship.
She is a glorious monster.
Despite the complex storytelling there is a lot of comedy in this play, delivered glibly by Fiennes who seems to be loving every minute, the Bath audience, full to capacity, laughed out loud on Monday night.
Rosalind Eleazar as Larry's young love interest is beautifully sarcastic.
They met in New York when she was just 19, he was married and in his 30's.
20 years later they meet up again and Marianne is a successful Hollywood actor, while Larry is a tired TV presenter.
When he persuades her to come on his failing show to boost the ratings, we the audience get the most entertaining scene of the play complete with an on screen lustful kiss.
Some of the scenes, set on a revolving scene, are pure joy to watch.
When he arrives at his mother's flat in London with a family size packet of Daz, when we witness his zoom calls with his twin brother Richard via a large screen on stage, the backdrop of Hollywood musicals with vintage tap dancing music.
It is all pretty entertaining stuff even if it does seem a bit mad at times.
I found Small Hotel wonderfully refreshing and thoroughly modern with some amazing technical effects by Bob Crowley and innovative direction by Holly Race Roughan.
It is a big cast of actors and directors for Bath and is well worth seeing.
It is so great to see something new and a brave new piece of writing in Bath.
Small Hotel ends the Ralph Fiennes season in Bath which has been a great success judging by the audience numbers.
The first play Grace Pervades is already transferring to the West End, As You Like It is bound to follow as his this latest production Small Hotel.
We have enjoyed them all immensely in Bath and it was a joy to see such truly great acting here on our doorstep.
Small Hotel continues at the Theatre Royal, Bath until Saturday, October 18.