The Dream of a Ridiculous Man - Marylebone Theatre

It feels a bit like a very nice school theatre, to be frank, but it seems to be going from strength to strength. I saw The White Factory there last autumn, a contemporary Russian play about the Lodz ghetto, which was a very powerful evening.

I like it. It is a comfortable space with a decent rake. I suspect most seats are good. I've been there for The White Factory and The Dry House and thought both were good. I've got this and The Government Inspector on my possible list.

I saw it yesterday matinee and felt Greg Hicks was very good, the adaptation perfectly adequate but its Dostoyevsky that didn't really do it for me.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Dostoyevsky's story bears some similarities with Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol:" both are about an unbearable misanthropic grump who goes on a journey of self-discovery and gets the feels. Both are attempts to convince us that humanity is worth it.

But where Dickens does drama (going to war with ghosts and the actual past), Dostoyevsky does dreams: the grump in this story dreams of a utopia which proves the potential of humanity to him, with some surprises along the way.

Anyway, I did not end up with that warm feeling about humanity that would prove to me the play worked. There isn't enough drama in a dream and some of the dream actually works against its own thesis.

By contrast, every year at the Old Vic, as some old grumpy actor starts doing good deeds, actors tinkle beautiful bells, kids shriek as fake snow drops on their heads, I get a brief warm feeling that all is well with humanity despite the endless crappy news bulletins that usually suggest the opposite.

I thought Greg Hicks did mighty work bringing Dostoyevsky's dream (adapted to the London of now) to life, going through myriad mood states of the dream, but I wished he was bringing his skills to the Old Vic this Christmas instead lol.

Probably just me. 3 stars.

He was in Ghosts at the SWP immediately before this. For someone who has played King Lear for the RSC among many other leading roles at RSC and NT he seems to get overlooked for high-profile roles these days, or maybe he prefers smaller venues like you say. A few years ago he was electrifying as Richard III at the Arcola.

Btw - I saw this reduced on Central Tix

Yes, I was trying to remember where that was. He was wonderful. Back in the days when you could park outside the Arcola! Maybe you still can. 

One of the most thrilling performances/productions I've ever seen was at the National in 1983: John Fowles's adaptation of Alfred de Musset's Lorenzaccio, with Greg Hicks in the title role.

And Nicholas Selby. In those days, I felt cheated if I went to the NT and didn't see Selby in some bit part, e.g. coming on as the King of Spain at the end of The Mayor of Zalamea.

I saw this last night and would pretty much echo Steve's review above. Greg Hicks is very good but the story doesn't really draw you in emotionally. Possibly the fact most of it is just a dream - as opposed to A Christmas Carol, where the things Scrooge sees are real (after a fashion) - means it doesn't connect so much. Having said that the applause at the end was very enthusiastic with a couple of people on their feet, so maybe I'm just an old cynic.

I really liked the venue, comfy seats with loads of leg room, and a really good rake.

This is very average. It doesn't really suit Greg Hicks whose forte is austere unsympathetic characters. The main problem though is the adaptation by the director Laurence Boswell. While the plot of the original short story is followed closely the Guardianista updating is trite and the resulting text is full of student politics clichés. The messaging in the play actually seems explicitly Christian but that went entirely unremarked.

I'm not sure why directors think they can dispense with the services of a playwright as if it's not a special skill - Trevor Nunn's version of Uncle Vanya was the weakest thing about that production.

It works the other way round too though, Harold Pinter was an indifferent director (one actor complained that "He only directs the person who is speaking") and Sir David Hare was the worst director of Shakespeare the NT have ever employed.

I liked the venue itself - I hope they succeed.