NOT SO ENTERTAINING

After all those raves from the critics, how could I not enjoy myself last night at the Old Vic revival of The Entertainer? Well, somehow I managed to spend the evening in a state of mildly irritated boredom; by the time the second interval arrived I had to admit defeat. The much-discussed parallel between Iraq and Suez is pretty thin, the dimensions of the venue seem to take all the bite out of the family quarrels (I can imagine things may have been very different at the tiny Royal Court fifty years ago.) And, sorry, Archie Rice just didn't seem a remotely plausible character. Maybe it would have been different if Olivier had still been around to do his song-and-dance routines and the rest of it, but I have my doubts.