Theatre Review - Giant
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| John Lithgow in Giant [Manuel Harlan] |
Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Dahl, Lithgow is treading the Royal Court’s boards for the first time in his long illustrious career, while this is Nicholas Hytner’s directorial debut at the Sloane Square venue.
Giant is set over a summer’s day in 1983 in Dahl’s family home in Bucks. Much to Dahl’s chagrin his fiancée, Felicity (Rachael Stirling), is renovating the house (the resultant mayhem cleverly evoked by designer Bob Crowley).
It is just before publication of The Witches. Dahl’s UK publisher Tom Maschler (Elliot Levey) is visiting, en route to a game of tennis with Ian McEwan, and they are joined by Jessie Stone (Romola Garai), the sales director of Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Dahl’s US publisher).
Maschler and Stone are there to try and persuade Dahl to apologise for an article he wrote for the Literary Review magazine about Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Dahl had used his book review to criticise Israel for killing 22,000 civilians, including children, when they bombed Beirut.
Maschler and Stone are both Jewish. Incensed by Dahl’s lack of remorse, Stone argues that “an entire race of people is being blamed for the actions of the Israeli army”. Maschler is more concerned about the impact on book sales.
Dahl’s review and the subsequent comments he made to a New Statesman journalist are real. The lunch and Ms Stone are imagined by Rosenblatt. It’s a masterful exploration of several timely debates regarding the power of language, censorship and dangerous rhetoric.
Beautifully acted, Giant is a compelling, intelligent drama that sheds a light on Dahl’s darker side.
Until November 16