In the terrific Privates on Parade (1977), Steven Flowers was last seen doing song and dance-based military service in South-East Asia.
In this autobiographical new work by the strangely under-rated Peter Nichols, he’s now teaching English in Florence in 1955, in the company of a disparate group of lost souls of varying nationalities who converge on the Lingua Franca school.
Flowers (the superb Chris New, one of the finest of the upcoming generation of actors) starts off enthused by the light and life of Italy, as opposed to the struggling, broken, post-War England he has left behind, but quickly hardens into nihilism.
It becomes apparent that he, like his colleagues and in particular German Heidi (Natalie Walter), is deeply scarred by the fallout from the war.
Nichol’s repeated thesis is that this is the period of the great shift in the centre of geo-political gravity from Europe to America.
Michael Gieleta directs a spirited production but he can’t disguise the fact that the piece, with its unmerited over-sensational finale, doesn’t quite coalesce as great drama. It’s more a series of viewpoints on and snapshots of 1955, and as such it’s enlightening viewing.
Until August 7. Information: 0844 847 1652, finborough theatre.co.uk
Lingua Franca
Finborough Theatre
Finborough Road, SW10 9ED
