My Night with Reg – Turbine Theatre

Extended until September 11th

I didn't have a problem with the accents. Eric is from Birmingham and it was an interesting choice to have Bernie as Irish.

I quite enjoyed this production, without loving it. It's clearly inferior to the Donmar production a few years ago, and I felt it lacked subtlety and subtext. John was morose throughout and it was rather a one-note performance. His looks and his body aside, it was hard to discern the charisma that inspired Guy's decades-long infatuation. Paul Keating held the show together pretty well and - spoiler alert - his absence from Act 3 was felt. But again, for me it was a performance rather lacking in subtext. It would have been more interesting - and I venture more realistic - if Guy had tried harder to conceal some of his emotions - the neuroticism, the fussiness and the longing for John were all very obviously there on the surface, and it didn't really give him anywhere to go.

By far the strongest performance came from Stephen K Amos, who has a naturalness, a charm and considerable comic timing rather lacking elsewhere. I'd been a bit wary as obviously he's better known as a stand-up, but I found him easily the most watchable on stage.

I've seen criticism that some of the parts are miscast: I'm not sure Alan Turkington entirely convinced as the dull and uptight Bernie, and Gerard McCarthy doesn't really have the charisma to carry off Daniel. But I have to admit I found the casting of Eric particularly egregious.Eric's faux naive, head-cocking performance left me rather cold, unfortunately, with the eroticism of that final scene pretty much absent.

So a bit of a mixed bag. It's a great play which nevertheless shines through, but it's not exactly at its best here. The final act is rather ponderous, and the interval at the end of Act 1 is abrupt and comes far too soon. Would probably have been better to have it after Act 2 if at all.

Seriously! What clever clogs thought that it would be a good idea to build a theatre there? Charing Cross is just about bareable. But the Turbine is something else.

Just got a email that this will be available via stream.theatre from this week at fixed showing times and then on demand from the 26th for another three weeks.
Know it got mixed reviews on here but worth the chance on a £13 stream and the shows I have seen via stream.theatre the filming production quality has been high and they have been showing some limited run shows which otherwise us non London based people would not get a chance to see.