Review: CLOSER, Lyric Hammersmith

It has been a quarter-century since Patrick Marber's Closer debuted, but this play, in which everyone screws everyone in every sense of the word, has lost absolutely none of its epic brutality.

We first meet Dan after Alice is hit by a taxi he was travelling in. He takes her to the hospital and, despite already being in a relationship, he quickly falls for the stripper's charms. Dan catfishes Larry online and unwittingly sets him up with Anna, a photographer whom Dan has become obsessed with. A year later, Anna leaves her now-husband Larry for Dan who has cruelly ditched Alice beginning the cycle of hookups and breakups that frame this classic work. Those considering Closer for a romantic date night theatre trip would be advised to look elsewhere.

Marber was 32 when this play opened to critical acclaim. It transferred to the West End and Broadway before becoming an award-winning film in 2004 featuring Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman. Since then, Closer has been translated into thirty languages.

The Nineties-set play examines the changing relationships between two men and two women. The twisty plot driven at pace by director Clare Lizzimore sees the foursome come together and spectacularly fall apart over and over again with mature language throughout; Larry's memorable parting words to Anna when she is about to leave him are "thank you for your honesty, now f**k off and die you f**ked-up slag." The swearing pervades but doesn't shock as much as the dark cynicism ("What's so great about the truth? Try lying for a change, it's the currency of the world," says Dan at one point) or the barrage of verbal precision bombing these characters aim at each other.

Jack Farthing plays Dan, an obituarist and aspiring writer, as a cocksure young man with sexual morals as floppy as his long hair. His early scenes with Ella Hunt as Alice set the tone for what is to come: much of their to-and-fro consists of rat-a-tat-tat, quickfire back and forth questions. Marber generally keeps the lines short, giving the script a telegrammatic feel. Alice, an early-twenties waif who is decidedly no naïf, is superbly played by Hunt. Backed by a small band at the back of the stage, Hunt also intermittently provides vocals to several Nineties hits like Portishead's "Glory Box".

Sam Troughton's dermatologist and self-professed caveman Larry is ostensibly the simplest soul in this love rhombus and makes no apologies for what brings him joy: women, rough sex and his job. Being dumped by Anna sends him into a tailspin which deeply impacts the others. He hunts down Alice to a strip club and starts sleeping with her then, before signing the divorce papers, he persuades Anna to have sex with him one last time ("be my whore and I will pay you with your liberty" he urges). Troughton doesn't mince his words or his body language, effortlessly conveying the fury and determination of a man who feels wronged to his core and seeks an unholy vengeance on his love rival.

And then we have what is perhaps the finest performance: Nina Toussaint-White's Anna spits fire when she leaves Larry and is no less barbed when putting Dan in his place or opining on the failings of men. Marber gifts most of the wittier bon mots and exchanges to the others but Toussaint-White digs deep to brilliantly express the anguish of a woman who spurns one man and then the other.

Closer doesn't provide any easy answers or moralising. None of the members of this ménage-a-quatre come out in a better place and, even after a Bacchanalian orgy's worth of sex, none seem happier for having ridden this caustic carousel. As a playwright, Marber never again had a hit like this one but the emotional power of this work, even after twenty-five years, shows that his legacy is intact.

Closer continues at the Lyric Hammersmith until 13 August.

Photo Credit: Marc Brenner

To post a comment, you must register and login.