EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR

National Theatre at the Olivier

06.02.09

It's a year since I last saw this inventive revival. I gave it five stars then, and it seems even better now.

There's not a word or a movement wasted.

Julian Bleach gives a superbly physical performance as Ivanov – the one who is actually mad, and has an orchestra in his head – strutting, capering, conducting in a wildly manic parody. Jonathan Aris is the doctor who seems eccentric, to say the least, and Adrian Schiller is the political dissident whose son – played much more convincingly this year, by Shea Davis when we saw it, by Wesley Nelson for other performances – is used as a lever by the brutally repressive authorities.

Orchestra and ensemble are all on top form, and the production continues to gather plaudits from critics and audiences …