Inadmissable Evidence ****

Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London

****

"Douglas Hodge, as lawyer Bill Maitland, achieved quite extraordinary things with the part: despite ranting at the audience for a solid two and a half hours (with only the briefest of interludes from his supporting cast members), we never wearied of hearing his voice."

As one of Osborne's finest, Inadmissable Evidence is further proof that, boy, was that man mucked up. I do feel that 99% of the time this play is produced, it must surely be to create something interminably dull. Without an exceptional actor at its helm, the play must surely lose its way and flounder: the whole piece is basically an exceptionally long monologue, with the receptor of them alternating between secretaries and the telephone. Douglas Hodge, as lawyer Bill Maitland, achieved quite extraordinary things with the part: despite ranting at the audience for a solid two and a half hours (with only the briefest of interludes from his supporting cast members), we never wearied of hearing his voice. Spellbinding and utterly convincing, he gripped us in his claws as the lawyer makes his steady descent into failure. I was only disappointed that, on the way down, he didn’t take our emotions with him. For such a grim subject, and considering my predisposition to over-empathising with characters, I left feeling more than a bit bemused that, despite watching him as he hit middle age and its crises with a vengeance, his demise hadn’t struck a chord at all. I don’t think it was just that I’m thirty years behind him: rather, there is something compelling about Maitland that makes him an object of almost scientific interest.

Having said that, maybe I just didn’t ‘get’ the character, because I certainly didn’t get why any of the very attractive secretaries would go for such a sleaze. (Unfortunately judgements on an aesthetic basis - particularly on the stunning green suit - are the only positive ones that can be drawn from Karen Gillan’s performance, as her acting abilities were quite astonishingly below par - especially for a Donmar performance). As a top lawyer, the argument that power attracts might have held some weight if it wasn’t for the fact Maitland was clearly dying a professional death. Hodge became this pathetic and almost contemptible figure with remarkable ease, so why the lawyer’s many women didn’t respond accordingly was quite beyond me. Perhaps this is a question for the script, but it would have been nice for the production to have answered it. 

Director Jamie Lloyd has done many things right with this production, but unfortunately the credibility of Hodge’s phenomenal performance is belied and undermined by a poor supporting cast and an overly long and predictable second half that makes even Hodge’s light touch seem heavy handed.