Lawrence After Arabia - Howard Brenton

I saw this last night, and liked it alot.

It's a sedate serene portrait, by Howard Brenton, which presents Lawrence as a mystery to be solved, then doubles back over his history to solve it. It's incredibly faithful to the facts of Lawrence's life, as far as I can tell, except in two speculative instances.

Some spoilers follow. . .

First, Brenton asserts that Lawrence was gay, and that this was a secret he kept in the closet. I buy this assertion, though there is no evidence to prove it bar Lawrence's own descriptions of gay love as a beautiful thing, and Lawrence's complete lack of known sexual partners. Second, Brenton suggests that Lawrence's masochism, which involved soliciting beatings, was less of a sexual taste acquired out of childhood formative experience, as it is for most masochists, and more of a response to his guilty feelings about the War. This I find dubious, but it fits in so perfectly with Brenton's portrait of Lawrence, that I like it anyway.

The plot involves Lawrence (Jack Laskey) hiding from press and public at Bernard Shaw's house, while Mrs Shaw (a gentle and caring Geraldine James) edits his book "Seven Pillars of Wisdom." As Mrs. Shaw attempts to understand Lawrence, Lawrence flashes back to his days in Arabia, where we get to witness his formative experiences.

Brenton creates a mirror for Lawrence in the play that Bernard Shaw (Jeff Rawle) was then writing, "St. Joan."

Like Joan of Arc, Lawrence was a soldier who led people into battles, and while she was a martyr, and Lawrence lived, Brenton opens doors to consider the degree to which something in Lawrence died when he betrayed the Arabs for his British masters. . .

Following "St. Joan," Brenton refuses to demonise any of the players, so there are no real villains in the play. On the extreme left of political thought, a hilarious and affable Jeff Rawles is the most delightful thing in this production, as a twinkly-eyed Bernard Shaw, and on the extreme right, William Chubb is wonderful as the blunt forthright secretly affectionate General Allenby.

The fact that there is no external conflict (his hiding from the reporter, Lowell Thomas, is mostly an irrelevance) in the play means that most scenes involve characters worrying about Tom, ie Lawrence.

All the real conflict is inside Tom, so it is fortunate that Jack Laskey gives such a subtle sensitive interpretation of all of Lawrence's moods, and conjures up a character we care for, despite his secretiveness.

As Brenton completes his final brush strokes of this meticulous and slowly painted portrait, Laskey's Lawrence is metaphorically laid bare before us.

It's not explosive, but it's touching.

3 and a half stars