Tedious
“It must be very worrying to take a face like that out in the rain.”
Dora to Belle
The whole extended family has met for the golden Wedding Anniversary of Dora (Lindsay Duncan) and Charles (Malcolm Sinclair), with their grown up children, and grandchildren. This will culminate in a ball for their neighbours but not a metaphorical ball.
Lindsay Duncan is a most attractive and convincing actor and here as Dora she is playing a woman in her seventies with a waspish sense of humour. Malcolm Sinclair as Charles is really no match for her in this household which seems to be run by women.
The octopus of the title is a metaphor for the tentacles that this family extends to all relations. You could benefit from a family tree of the children and grandchildren, the descendants of Dora and Charles in this sprawling play with a cast of twenty one.
Two of their children have been lost, a son in the First World War and a daughter who has died in Singapore. Another daughter Cynthia (Bethan Cullinane) has been estranged from her family because she was, shamefully for 1938, living with a man married to someone else in Paris.
The opening scenes were hard for me because I could not hear the child actor whom I do not name but who was asking questions about his relatives. Critics in 1938 noted the lack of plot but the two stories I noticed did not raise me from feeling disinterested in the outcomes.
Nicholas (Billy Howle) the son in his mid 30s who hasn’t grown up might have feelings for his mother’s companion Fenny (Bessie Carter) who certainly is in love with him. I am unsure why Dora needs a companion and how the status of a companion is so different from a servant and therefore suitable as a wife to the son and heir of this semi-stately home. Maybe the local chicken farmer is a better prospect.
The other story arc is welcoming Cynthia back into the tentacles of her family. Dora’s sister Belle (Kate Fahy), twice married and now twice widowed is the butt of Dora’s catty humour about her bright red hair and heavy pan stick make up. The rivalry certainly dates back to Belle falling in love with Charles who then married beautiful Dora. Dora may look beautiful but I didn’t warm to her personality and malicious humour. I wonder if she has a spotted fur coat. Dora is always sending people on “little jobs” when she wants them out of the way.
This huge cast could have instead played Laura Wade’s magnificent The Watsons which needs a cast of nineteen, almost impossible in commercial theatre.
Dear Octopus is not so much a slow burn but a damp squib or should that be squid?
Production Notes
Dear Octopus
Written by Dodie Smith
Directed by Emily Burns
Cast
Starring:
Malcolm Sinclair
Amy Morgan
Bessie Carter
Bethan Cullinane
Billy Howle
Dharmesh Patel
Kate Fahy
Lindsay Duncan
Natalie Thomas
Pandora Colin
Celia Nelson
Syakira Moeladi
Kalyani D’Ambra
Ariella Elkins-Green
Asha Sthanakiya
Tom Glenister
Isla Ithier
Molly Jin
Ashwin Sakthivel
Tarun Sivakanesh
Felix Tandon
Creatives
Director: Emily Burns
Designer: Frankie Bradshaw
Lighting Designer: Oliver Fenwick
Sound Designer: Ting Ling Dong
Composer: Nico Muhly
Movement: David Shrubsole
Information
Running Time: Three hours including an interval
Booking to 27th March 2024
Theatre:
Lyttelton Theatre
National Theatre
South Bank
London SE1 9PX
Tube/Rail : Waterloo
Website: nationaltheatre.org.uk
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge at the
Lyttelton Theatre at a matinée performance on
17th February 2024