Predictable twists in Public Property

10 April 2012

Geoffrey Hammond reads the news. He’s a national institution. And he has a book out. So when he’s caught in a clinch with a 16-year-old boy — snapped by paparazzi as they canoodle in his car — the episode threatens to be deeply embarrassing.

Hammond’s greasy publicist Larry, under pressure from his paymaster, works to swing the incident to his advantage. But does Larry know more than he at first lets on?

Sam Peter Jackson’s play explores the cynical chicanery of the media. Geoffrey, whose reputation has been assiduously developed, strikes one as fey and vulnerable. Yet he’s capable of his own deceptions and aspersions. "There’s nothing new about anything any more," he says, dismissing the very idea of news.

As this fussy and irritable figure, Robert Daws initially wears the look of a man who has discovered that his trousers are transparent. Later he’s simply pathetic. Meanwhile, Steven Webb as the seemingly innocent youth, though fragile and gauche, turns out to be deviously aspirational.

Nigel Harman brings both self-assurance and a curious geekiness to Larry, a master manipulator in a sharp suit and shockingly bad shoes. When he says the words "I created an opportunity", he sounds not so much like Max Clifford as the villain in a Martin Scorsese film. But when he says that "There’s great money in humiliation", he appears pitiable rather than vicious.

There are some tart jokes in Jackson’s play, especially at the expense of the triviality of TV. After Geoffrey is offered a spot on a show called Celebrity Dental Practice, we’re torn between incredulity and wry recognition.

Nevertheless, too much of what happens is predictable. The twists are the expected twists. Hanna Berrigan’s production is tidily spare, but while Public Property is enjoyable, its insights mostly feel familiar, not invigoratingly fresh.

Until 5 December (020 7432 4220).

Public Property
Trafalgar Studios
Whitehall, SW1A 2DY

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