EDEN END: Priestly's nostalgia touches the heart

By Patrick Marmion for MailOnline
Updated: 18:41 EST, 23 June 2011

Eden End (Royal & Derngate, Northampton and touring)

Rating: 3 Star Rating

You can't beat the smell of tobacco in theatre, especially when it's generously packed into a big old pipe.

But in J.B. Priestley's touching 1934 drama, the smoke evokes memories of a time when motor cars terrorised highways at '30 or 40 miles per hour'.

Definitely BC, Before Clarkson, you might say.

Remorse: Jonathan Firth and Charlotte Emmerson in Eden End

Remorse: Jonathan Firth and Charlotte Emmerson in Eden End

Priestley's drama is an elegy for an age of supposed innocence, before World War I.

The action focuses on a rueful actress in 1912, returning to the Yorkshire home she abandoned after running away to the theatre eight years earlier.

It also, though, gives Priestley a chance to try his hand at playing Chekhov.

There are fine comic scenes, such as when the idealistic young son returns from the pub with his sister's actor husband.

There are marvellous characters, such as the soft but stern housekeeper played indulgently by Carol MacReady like a cross between Jo Brand and Hattie Jacques.

And the aforementioned thesp (Daniel Betts) is a sharp sketch of a cheerful charmer with an eye for the ladies and a weakness for drink.

Although many of the ingredients are right, this isn't Priestley's finest hour and Laurie Sansom's production misses some emotional nuance as it canters through the story.

I wasn't entirely convinced by the rivalry between the sisters, but Daisy Douglas is nicely proud as the stay-at-home spinster and Charlotte Emmerson gives a good account of herself as the prodigal daughter.

Quibbles aside, it's a nicely nostalgic evening.

Verdict: J.B's return to innocences

  • For tour details, visit www.ett.org.uk

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