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A comedy of manners
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Arcola theatre
THE 1849 Russian revival at the Arcola Theatre brings us a comedy of manners, which satirises the Russian merchant class of the 19th century.
Alexander Ostrovsky drew from his own experience as an office clerk where he witnessed petty merchant squabbles over money and goods.
Drawing from this fertile ground, he presents the Bolshov family. The father is a boorish merchant (Jonathan Coyne), the mother a hysterical crone (Rosemary McHale) and Olympiada (Sally Leonard), their spoilt daughter who has all the charm and graces of Nikki from Big Brother.
Ostrovsky paints the merchant class in all its consumerist glory. Bolshov and his lawyer scheme their way out of financial difficulties, only to be tricked by his assistant Lazar (Phillip Arditti). In the end, Lazar sells Bolshov out for a lavish lifestyle.
Even though Ostrovksy was writing 150 years ago, the character types are recognisable. Greedy, shallow, wishing to belong to a higher social circle but falling desperately short.
“It will be his first soiree at our gaff,” guffaws Bolshov’s wife about a potential suitor for their daughter.
Olympiada squeals that no one but a nobleman will do, but in the end she settles for her father’s ambitious and materialistic assistant. They are grotesque in their consumerist joy and their greed is their moral demise.
At times, Ostrovsky stretches the point and the pace stumbles but this takes little away from this highly enjoyable farce of loose morals and lost manners.
Until Jan 13
020 7503 1646 |
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