Review: PARENTS' EVENING, Jermyn Street Theatre

Ten-year-old Jessica's behaviour has been troublesome recently, so her parents (Amy Marston and Peter Hamilton Dyer) are called in to discuss the concerns at their daughter's school. After having a row over a game of Cluedo (won by Jessica to her father's utter dismay and horror) the two adults embark on a lateral journey to analyse their marriage and the implications of love.

Jermyn Street Theatre presents the European première of Bathsheba Doran's Parents' Evening, a sensible picture of the trappings of family life directed by Stella Powell-Jones. The script offers a meaningful subtlety that leads Powell-Jones to build the show on multiple levels. From the mere display of a couple who wishes they could delay an imminent crisis, to a larger discussion on parental, societal, and vaguely feminist issues which are however, rather well hidden and brought into question without further investigation.

A lawyer and a novelist, mother and father are deeply flawed people. Internalised resentment and bitterness make them as real as they can get. They profess their love to each other while they bicker but are essentially a product of the 20th Century. She's a career woman who desperately wants to prove to herself and others that she can juggle a high-profile job and a perfect family; he's an insufferable, slacking writer who too often believes to be God's greatest gift to his wife and humanity.

It's his feeling neglected and put in second place by his partner and lack of control on their communal life that kick-start most of their head-to-heads. The twosome become elastic bands in Powell-Jones' staging, they get closer only to snap at each other a moment later, circling the room in a feral manner while they decide whether they're going to jump at each other's throats or embrace passionately. Ultimately, Doran boils it down to a creative mind meeting a rational one and how they meet in the middle to love.

Where Hamilton Dyer's character is clueless and has a penchant for being pedantic and belligerent, Marston's highly intelligent mother hides her full potential. Her awareness of social status, education, and role in society seeps through her words too feebly to have an impact on her pompous husband. From the script, the child comes off as their byproduct and the discussions about their kid's behaviour reveal the inner workings of the marriage.

Charlotte Espiner's static set reflects the two personas on stage: the many sleek, linear, identical closets that surround the perfectly made bed exist with small messy details: just like with files piled up in a drawer and slightly cluttered nightstands, the polished appearance hides what the pair's real life is truly like, their personal space being what an upper-middle class couple is supposed to look like.

Parents' Evening is a layered play and director Powell-Jones gingerly reveals what's concealing behind a façade of money and accomplishment.

Parents' Evening runs at Jermyn Street Theatre until 27th October.

Photo credit: Harry Livingstone

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