'Burnt By The Sun' - National Theatre

Another trip to the theatre tonight, courtesy of Chris, this time to the concrete halls of the National Theatre and 'Burnt By The Sun'.

'Burnt By The Sun' is based on a Russian film set in the mid-'30s and the start of Stalin's purges when even his most loyal allies weren't safe. It's the tale of a middle-aged general who marries a much younger woman from the middle classes and moves into her summer dacha with the rest of her family and friends who have been visiting the dacha for many years. There are tensions between the revolutionary general and his artistic and pampered in-laws and this bubbles to the surface when the young wife's former lover reappears after a 12 year absence. The second half reveals that he was away operating as a spy and the general actually recruited him and sent him abroad all those years ago. And then .... ah, but I won't spoil it for you...

The general is central to the play and the actor was off tonight for some reason so we saw the understudy in the role - I thought he was good, presenting the right level of personal confidence and status for a soldier who's worked his way up the ranks, but it's not the same as having the lead actor and the relationships he's developed with the rest of the cast. I thought all the performances were good but there were a few things in the script that irritated me - the wife pouring vodka with her hand shaking three times (I'd have stopped after the second time), the wife being 100% behind her former lover and then suddenly switching back to loving the general (eh? what happened? did I blink?) and (I'm sorry to say) the over-precocious ten year old daughter.

I enjoyed it. It's a thoughtful play, presented within a nice set of the dacha which swivels to show different rooms and also doubles as a beach. Despite being so 'open' in terms of space it had an odd claustrophobic feel to it, probably right for the times when you don't know who might be a friend or an enemy. Rory Kinnear as the young lover showed his worth in acting, singing, playing piano and even tap dancing, an interesting mix of skills for a spy.