The Sunday Telegraph "Lulu" Review - 25 March 2001

Low sexual voltage

Lulu is the story of a temptress who brings destruction in her wake: all three of her husbands come to a bad end. True, she is also exploited and ultimately destroyed herself, and in the new adaptation by Nicolas Wright we are invited to think of her as a victim from the word go: a damaged child, abused by the man who may or may not have been her father. But a temptress she remains. If the play is to work as it should - the earlier scenes, especially - there must be a constant crackle of sexual electricity.

Reactions in this field are bound to be more than usually subjective, but I can only report that I found the voltage in Jonathan Kent's production (supported by Deutsche Bank) for  the Almeida Theatre, now housed in its temporary residence near King's Cross, disappointingly low. Anna Friel has strikingly attractive looks but - as Lulu, at least - rather less of the essential je ne sais quoi. Her voice is unseductive; when she displays her charms she is all too obviously putting on a show.

There are less than smouldering performances from most of the men too. Alan Howard as Schoning, the newspaper editor who becomes Lulu's third husband, is a notable exception: his world-weary mannerisms suit the part well. So is Peter Sullivan as the lurking figure who eventually turns out to be Jack the Ripper. But elsewhere you hardly ever feel the force of true infatuation, while the periodic irruptions of Lulu's childhood seducer (the usually excellent Tom Georgeson) are unaccountably stagey.

Despite these limitations, Jonathan Kent conjures up a good deal of atmosphere in the first half of the play, in the scenes set in Lulu's native Germany. The glass panels that stand like smeared windows or clouded mirrors at the back of Rob Howell's set make a particularly effective contribution: they allow for spying, concealment and depth.

As soon as the production moves to Paris, however, after Schoning has been shot, it loses its way. The Parisian scene yields one memorable image - a small girl sitting alone as a louche party, but apart from that it is like something out of a cheap novelette.

Then in the final scene, set in a  dark London slum, there is a sudden surge of power. The build-up towards murder is eerily convincing and for the first time the anguish of Lulu's lesbian lover (Johanna ter Steege) touches you to the quick. But it would be too much to say that the production is redeemed by these last few minutes. They also remind you how much more intense the rest of it might have been.

- John Gross (did he actually watch the same play ??)