Romans

This won’t be the year’s easiest watch but for anyone looking for a drama that playfully bends and twists the hoary principles of modern theatre, Romans: A Novel is a fascinating watch.

Whether it says anything new about its chosen topic of toxic masculinity is debatable but the ride is enjoyable none the less. The Romans of the title refers to the brothers Jack, Edmund and Marlow as well as (in a less direct manner) their father. The latter’s journey – from owning a printing press to his descent into widowerhood and alcoholism – presages the fate of his sons as we watch their progress from the Victorian era through to the modern day.

Quite why writer Alice Birch decided to show us these characters over such an unrealistic stretch of time is never explained within the context of the play but we’re in safe hands here otherwise. Her TV credits (including Succession and Normal People) speak to her ability to create engaging characters animated through realistic dialogue, just as her theatrical ones (not least The House Of Bernarda Alba staged at the NT) point to an experimental nature seeking to go beyond the confines of screen dramas.

Each sibling find their own path. Eldest brother Jack (Andor’s Kyle Soller) and Marlow (Oliver Johnstone) are seen being emotionally and physically abused by their boarding school headmaster before going in very different directions. The first explores the natural world, climbing mountains and travelling the seas; the second goes all King Leopold II and brutalises African villagers for personal profit and as much rubber as they can bring him. Edmund, meanwhile, turns his trauma inward and drops out of society.

Directed by Birch’s partner Sam Pritchard, there is a deliberate division between what we see before and after the interval. The early stages are all presented in an almost Dickensian novelistic way, more concerned with what happens to who rather than why or even when (time is a slippery beast here). Aboard a horizontally revolving plank, all three Romans take turns to spill their recent history in a torrent of words and alternating viewpoints.

In contrast, the second part follows the conventions of theatre much more closely (at least to begin with) and we see the brothers in the modern era: Jack becomes a Sixties cult leader and established novelist, decades later Marlow is a testosterone-powered tech bro with 18 children and Edmund teaches others at a local community centre how to discover their inner animals. Birch can’t help herself towards the end and interleaves all three narratives, whipping them into a frenetic frappé.

The female characters (played by Yanexi Enriquez, Adelle Leonce and Agnes O’Casey), even when allowed the luxury of a monologue, rarely impose themselves on the story in the way their male counterparts do. O’Casey’s fantastically moving speech as Jack’s wife (who gains a husband but then loses her career and her mind) is a notable exception.

Stylistically, this is a tour de force that creatively attempts to stretch the boundaries of the dramatic art form into territory occupied by literature.

Romans. A Novel continues until 11 October.


Photo credit: Marc Brenner