In the Vale of Health: Japes review, Hampstead Downstairs

There's an interminable rant in the second half of In the Vale of Health:Japes. Successful Hampstead writer, Michael, is talking to the daughter he hasn't seen for seven years, and suddenly launches into a condemnation of a new play. The actors had no inner lives, he says, and there was a conflation of sex and love, with empty declarations and no emotional or moral compass. Aha, I thought, this is the playwright, Simon Gray, explaining what he was trying to achieve in the first half. But then the scene went on, and on - the play runs nearly three hours - and it was clear the speech was not ironic.

In the Vale of Health: Japes was originally a one-off drama. It is now one of four, each from the viewpoint of a different character. Japes is Michael's brother, hobbled by a childhood accident at the swimming baths. Looking at his imperfect, baby-faced, sibling, Michael suffers survivor guilt. He blames himself for his brother's mishap, and is further hampered by being highly successful at everything he does, unlike Japes whose clear brilliance is never quite enough to turn his luck. It's not surprising then, though it's sad, that Michael turns a blind eye to his beloved wife Anita's affair with Japes. She's the sacrificial offering. When Anita's baby arrives, both men assume paternity.

So far so good, but then this play loses its way. It's set up for comedy, but it's effectively a tragedy with complex characters who should be interesting but fail to engage. The acting is fine, and Jamie Ballard as Michael is often very moving, but there's no narrative cohesion and Tamara Harvey's production fails to draw out sufficient characterisation to fill the gaps. The second half is an exercise in clever and meaningless verbosity with no reining in of dialogue or performance. There's a loss of control. The ending is a million miles away from where we started, without clear reason.

In conclusion: The Vale of Health is a top Hampstead address, and it's clever marketing for Hampstead Theatre to stage the In the Vale of Health quartet. Perhaps Gray created a series to better explore the set-up, and it may be that he succeeds mightily, but unless you have already bought tickets for all four shows, there is little incentive here to go back for more.


References
Hampstead Theatre, Tickets

Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, London NW3.  The In the Vale of Health series ends May 17