UK Theatre Network

Does she still drink? - She stopped when I began.

Washed up actor Frank Elgin is asked to audition for a leading role in a Broadway play. Bernie Dodd, the director, remembers Elgin in his prime and now intends to cast him in his new production – overriding the objections of the producer who is sceptical at best. To him, Frank is an uncalculable risk – an alcoholic and a has-been. Under the pressure of reviving his career, Frank seeks solace in alcohol, thus forcing his wife Georgie to try and keep him focused on his career. Dodd, believing that Georgie is the reason for Elgin’s career decline, strikes up a stormy relationship with the actor’s wife.

The Country Girl, the most famous of Clifford Odets’ late plays, is considered an authentic „backstage piece“ of the American theatre. The filmed version with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly has become a classic. This is Odets’s witty dialogue at its best; „Stop minimizing what I say by agreeing with it!“ Unfortunately, this production does not do the play justice. Directed by Rufus Norris, Martin Shaw paints Frank Elgin with rather broad strokes. There is little room for subtlety. Jenny Seagrove plays Frank’s downtrodden wife Georgie who sees herself as a liasion officer between Frank and Bernie. Almost catatonic in her resignation she becomes alive in the second half of the play. There is a very moving scene with the sympathetic playwright Paul Unger (Luke Shaw) and a young actress who plays Frank’s grand-daughter (Nancy Stoddard). Peter Harding is excellent as Larry, the stage manager, who truly cares about his actors.

The show still runs until 14 August 2010 at the Richmond Theatre.