Relative Values, Harold Pinter Theatre - review

The indefatigable Sir Trevor Nunn strikes again. No sooner has his production of Fatal Attraction opened in the West End than he returns with yet another show.

Relative Values (1951) is Noël Coward’s sometimes leaden examination of the English class system via the goings-on in a stately home in Kent, a place that Nunn stocks with familiar faces from the world of comedy. These include impressionist Rory Bremner making his theatrical debut and Patricia Hodge, currently best known as Miranda Hart’s onscreen mother.

The post-war years weren’t kind to the writing of Coward, deeming it brittle and unfashionable in the new Welfare State era. It’s not hard to see why, as this play seems rather adrift from comfortable moorings.

Clips of Pathé newsreels between scenes awkwardly serve to flag up how disconnected from the real world these characters are, as everyone gets into a tizzy at the fact that the young Earl is “marrying beneath him” by getting hitched to Hollywood actress Miranda Frayle (Leigh Zimmerman). To add to the confusion, it transpires that Moxie (Caroline Quentin), maid to the Countess of Marshwood (Hodge), is the actress’s long-estranged sister.

For reasons that remain obscurely stuck in 1951, this necessitates disguise and fabrication all round. At times I struggled to care about these silly people, but it’s impossible not to be amused by Hodge’s silkily imperious tone as she tries to ensure the upper classes remain unsullied by such an arriviste.

Quentin excels in a silent comedy of manners and embarrassment and Bremner has fun with an accent that slides up and down the social scale in the course of a single sentence. So, relatively enjoyable.

Until June 21 (0844 871 7622, )