Theatre review: The Grass Is Greener

Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009 18:09

THE GRASS IS GREENER *** THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW

BACK in 1960, the film version of The Grass Is Greener – starring Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr – was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic and it's not difficult to see why. On one hand, Hugh and Margaret Williams's successful stage comedy flatters the ridiculous American idea that the average Englishman is a lord, with a vast country house and estate to maintain. And on the other, it pulls off the more sinister trick of persuading British audiences, generation after generation, that earls, countesses and honorables are the kind of ordinary folks with whom we should all identify, while the remaining 99.99 per cent of the population really only exist as comic relief.

So it is that in 2009, the curtain rises on a scene unchanged since the play's first night in 1956: it is the drawing room of a stately home, complete with window to the park, plus butler and resident earl, a likeable chap called Victor. The story involves a tribute to the idea of long-term marriage, regardless of the odd infidelity – when Victor's wife Hilary falls madly in love with a rich American, Charles, the earl leaves no trick untried in the effort to win his beloved wife back again.

Christopher Cazenove as Victor and the lovely Liza Goddard as Hilary both turn in performances of immense charm, intelligence and skill. But whatever point the play is trying to make about marriage is utterly overwhelmed by the absurdly aristocratic setting.

In the case of plays like this, the medium is the message. And the message – lapped up with inexplicable pleasure by a packed house of Glaswegians – is that if you're not a lord or a toff, then you'll never be the hero of any love story, only a servant with a walk-on part, bringing in the drinks tray.