Elephants review, Hampstead Downstairs

There are a number of Elephants in Sally and Richard's Christmassy front room, but top of the list is the reputation of their dead son, Christopher, murdered in a dodgy knife attack on the streets of South London. Determined to navigate the first Christmas without him in a positive manner, Sally has created a mantlepiece shrine where Chris's photograph has equal billing with that of their dead cat, Buttons. She's planted a commemorative flowerbed with crocuses and cavorts sillily around the space in a Good Life haze, attempting to polish shit. What she hasn't factored into her fantasy is her husband's slide back into alcoholism, the mental frailty of their daughter Daisy, and the responses of their guests.

Enter stage left friends Dick and Val, and Chris's mixed-race ex-girlfriend Lizzy who has been a part of the family since Sally got involved with an inner city charity helping the poor. Now we not only have a heft of Elephants in the room, we've got some ants for the Elephants to trample into the carpet. And then there's the new kitten... Merry Christmas Everyone!

Rose Heiney's first full length play sets teeth on edge while simultaneously extracting some very English laughs. If it feels, sounds and looks a little familiar and hackneyed, that's because it is. The characters and setting are very Ayckbourn, and while Imogen Stubbs is superb as Sally she is reprising the daffy middle-class do-gooder she always seems to play. This make Elephants a perfect Christmas entertainment: it oozes sentiment and cliche and a recycling of the past. The first thirty minutes are too wordy and didactic but once the piece finds its rhythm there are lovely and lively moments. With an impressive cast and at £12 a ticket it's quality panto for grown ups.

In conclusion: For a play about a murdered boy,  Elephants is a strangely joyful reminder that life goes on. Perhaps based on the writer's untimely loss of a brother, it offers hope. Helen Atkinson-Wood and Jonathan Guy Lewis as Val and Dick provide glorious punctuation and it's great to see Bel Powley for once playing a teen who isn't leching but kvetching.

References
Elephants, Tickets

Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, London NW3 3EU   Run  ends 17 January