Showing @ The Studio at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 12 Apr @ 19:30 (plus matinees)
Middle-aged couples reassessing their marital woes doesn’t sound like a gripping night at the theatre. It isn’t. In a village on the Cote d’Azur, Guillaume (with a little help from his manipulative bisexual lover Julian) runs a shabby hotel paid for by his rich sister, the elegant Parisienne Gilbert. Matters are brought to a head by the arrival of repressed English couple Jack (a gruff Yorkshireman who is on loan from Central Casting) and his neurotic wife Connie. But Bonjour Tristesse it ain’t.
It’s not a West End screwball farce either, although there are so many doors it’s as if writer Timothy Jones, is trying to conjure up the ghost of Brian Rix or Feydeau. Sadly, it’s also not the provocative drama it thinks it is; the posters promise “desire, adultery and forbidden love… powerful and deeply shocking” – the Advertising Standards Authority should be informed. The dying mulberry tree of the title – and on stage – is a symbol of the musty relationships between the characters and there is a real whiff of mildew in the writing too, with an assortment of dull cliches dropping to the floor like table forks. Surprisingly it’s a new play and not some 1950s Terence Rattigan-style melodrama lazily translated from the original French. Francophiles, however will love the smoky jazz score, the elegant costumes and evocation of the South of France.
After some lengthy exposition the action comes to life in the second half but sometimes it’s difficult to believe the dialogue. It’s all universally well played and the design and lighting (by Claire Lyth and Simon Wilkinson respectively) can’t be faulted. Hannah Eidinow directs with a sure hand and brings out the best in everything but what she can’t rescue is the desiccated and derivative plot. The writing is neither very insightful nor witty. Three quarters of the way through Connie comes over all Blanche Dubois. If Timothy Jones thinks that his ministrations under the mulberry tree are “deeply shocking” he really needs to get out more.