The inspiration for Sebastian Barry’s new play is a real-life encounter between Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen in 1857. Descending on Dickens’s house at Gad’s Hill in Kent, the Dane ended up staying for five weeks and witnessed the cranky intricacies of his English counterpart’s existence.
Powerfully brought to life by Danny Sapani, Barry’s version of Andersen is an eccentric whose language is a vivid muddle. But the title is misleading, for the main character is David Rintoul’s Dickens, a patriarch who presides over all around him with a mixture of ceremony and impulsiveness.
While Rintoul conveys this arrogant dash, there’s not enough authentic vitality in his performance. And although Out of Joint’s production, directed by Max Stafford-Clark, contains moments of poignancy and dabs of lustrous detail, it never coalesces.
Barry has braided too many ideas in the text. For instance, we are meant to feel for Dickens’s neglected wife Catherine — yet the role, imbued with elegant unhappiness by Niamh Cusack, is underdefined.
When Andersen arrives at Gad’s Hill, his luggage includes a length of rope, in case he has to leave via a window. But it becomes clear that there is nothing to which he can readily secure it. This turns out to be a potent image of a play that is full of interest but lacks a solid emotional and narrative centre.
Andersen's English
Hampstead Theatre
Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, NW3 3EU
