Review of Loft Theatre Company production of The Philanthropist (2016)

To the optimist, a half-full glass is a measure of contentment. It negates any need for effort or improvement.

But cosy acceptance has its drawbacks and laid-back honesty can cause extensive damage to relationships.

Christopher Hampton’s wry and witty play examines the plight of a person whose overall indecisive nature and reliance on literal meaning drive others in the more complex real world to distraction.

Sue Moore’s engaging production cleverly captures the ambivalence of the piece – the subtle path it treads between humour and pathos. Both are embodied in the character of bachelor university don Philip and ideally defined in the performance of Richard Marshall. He savours the character’s basic dullness and irritations, tentatively offset by his likeability, and delivers a glorious line about lacking the courage of his own lack of convictions.

Philip’s nerdy qualities are superbly underscored in his subsequent scenes with the women who push his lifestyle into perspective – a man-eating prostitute played with great comic style by Cathryn Bowler and his more conventional fiancée delivered with crisp, attractive efficiency by Ruth Herd.

These follow a somewhat static dinner sequence which reduces the impact of the play in its earlier stages and is not helped by Mark Crossley’s off-key portrayal of a patronising author. But what follows more than compensates with its display of fine timing and delightful interplay.

The author has rather mischievously turned Molière’s Le Misanthrope on its head by emphasising niceness over misery, but this play also puts a sharp focus on the pitfalls of loneliness and how it can sometimes be equated with uselessness. Philip is essentially a loner, as is a fellow don portrayed with a hearty gruffness and insight by Matthew Salisbury.

The two react in different ways to the unexpected fate of a young would-be writer – the play’s splendidly effective opening scene – yet both, like him, are seen to be outcasts from their own environment.

It’s richly emotive, poignant and funny. As presented here, a well-rounded and provocative theatrical experience.

To return to the page from which you came, click the button below.

Peter McGarry is an experienced, independent professional theatre critic who has agreed to review Loft Theatre Company productions.

The agreement with the Loft is that Peter is free to express his opinions for good or ill. The Loft Theatre Company has no control whatsoever over the content of these reviews and will never comment publicly on what he writes.