Liolà review, Lyttelton Theatre

It's summer and the South Bank is jumping. The benches in Jubilee Gardens groan with tourists, and the lights on Hungerford Bridge are like a Tinkerbell convention. There are pop-up everythings along the river front: pop-up bars, pop-up fairground rides, pop-up stalls; even a pop-up theatre, the National's red 'Shed'. Inevitably during candy floss season, the Lyttelton is putting on a summer show that meets all the markers for keeping our visitors happy.

Summer loving

The home audience may not be as easily charmed by Tanya Ronder's workaday translation of Pirandello's Liolà, however. It's a simple enough story: Liolà is a lusty Sicilan peasant who impregnates every woman he seduces. His three bonny sons are cared for by his mother, and shortly after the start of the play he's also put the cousin of the childless local landowner, old Simone, in the family way. With a little bit of sweet talking, the old man - who has failed to sire an heir despite decades of marriage to successive wives - decides to pretend the child is his. At last, he'll have a boy to inherit his furniture and his almond trees. What he hasn't factored in is the jealous outrage of his young wife, Mita. It's not hard to guess what she does next...

After a visit to the only man in the village not firing blanks, Mita too is pregnant. That's it.  There's nothing in the script to intrigue or inspire deeper thought, and you can guess the ending. That said,  Richard Eyre directs a beautiful production with singing and dancing and a gypsy band. Anthony Ward's set is simple - a massive rough plastered wall, a CGI sky, and a well used wooden square with a tree filled with the cutest little boys. Neil Austin's mood lighting is just lovely.

In conclusion: The London Eye takes thirty minutes to perform a revolution. By the end, the ride feels worthwhile even though there's sod all to see. So it is with Liolà: it takes 100 minutes. It looks and feels expensive, the hard working cast is as big as the story is small,  and at the end though you didn't get the rush you hoped for, you don't begrudge the spend.

References
Lyttelton Theatre, tickets

Royal National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 9PX.   Run ends 6 November