The Giant

Published Thursday 8 November 2007 at 12:05 by Alistair Smith

Despite boasting one of the most impressive sets you are likely to see outside the West End, a talented cast and a wonderful premise, The Giant proves a crashing disappointment.

Anthony Sher’s play takes as its starting point the intriguing notion that Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were not only competitors to win the commission to carve Florence’s famous statue of David, but also repressed homosexual love rivals for the affections of the boy whom Michelangelo employed as the model for said work of art.

Unfortunately, Sher’s twisted version of history proves all a bit too ridiculous at times - especially when we are presented with Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli all in the same workshop, espousing their different belief systems.

In fact, the person of Machiavelli seems - like several of the other supporting characters - rather superfluous. It all makes for a sprawling play, which would have been improved focusing more fully on the central rivalry between the two artists.

For it is in the performances of Roger Allam as the detached, vain and pensive Da Vinci and John Light as the pious and agitated Michelangelo that the production reveals its high points.

The pair are dealt some clunky and heavy-handed dialogue, but deal with it admirably. They are also given fine support by the young Stephen Hagan, who bravely spends a large chunk of his time on stage with not a thread on.

This production is clearly angling for a West End transfer. However, it’s going to need more than a little judicious pruning if it wants to succeed.