David Jonsson has wonderfully expressive hands, his long fingers often outstretched to communicate. His enthusiasm when describing the dishes of food animatedly or his reflecting on his unexpected first journey in a limousine charm. There is humour too, he says, "I have a feeling she may die on my birthday," and gives us a wry look.
Ben Whishaw plays John, the ultimate ambivalent man who mostly lives happily in a homosexual relationship with M (Andrew Scott) until he accidentally meets and has sex with a woman, W (Katherine Parkinson). From then on John vacillates between staying with the man and leaving to be with the woman.
Albion is a slower burn than some of Bartlett's other plays. It is about Englishness and gardens and nostalgia and in that sense a desire, which may or may not be possible, to relive the past. The metaphors will be debated as the themes are many and complex.