The Stage

The Winterling

Published Wednesday 15 March 2006 at 15:50 by Gerald Berkowitz

Jez Butterworth’s darkly comic drama is built on more plot twists and turns than a theme park ride, more rapid-fire jokes than a stand-up comic’s convention and more character reversals than a case of multiple personality disorder. If perhaps it indulges itself a bit too far in each of those directions, only a churl would complain about its overabundance.

A hard man evidently hiding out in a Dartmoor farmhouse is visited by an old pal and his young associate. After some verbal sparring, in which the host uses wit and fast talk as assertions of authority in the manner of early Pinter, he announces that he wants to come in out of the cold.

Just as we’ve absorbed that, a flashback completely negates everything, changing our perception of everyone involved. And then a return to the present adds new plot and character twists, leading to a conclusion dark enough to satisfy any film noir fan.

Robert Glenister plays the central character with an understated menace and authority that make the later revelations particularly surprising. Jerome Flynn is strong as the old pal who may not be as deferential as he seems, while Daniel Mays particularly scores as the wide boy, surprisingly willing and able to hold his own in the verbal one-upmanship. Roger Lloyd Pack as a neighbour and Sally Hawkins as a homeless girl both effectively turn what are at first comic characters into something deeper. Ian Rickson’s direction skilfully navigates the play’s twists, reversals and shifts in tone.