REVIEW: Forty Years On.

Chichester Festival Theatre

THE problem with history is that, given hindsight, it doesn’t always stand the test of time.

What seemed astute and witty in the late sixties, might just appear, well, a little faded and, dare someone suggest, predictable almost 50-years later.

Certainly, Alan Bennett’s play-within-a-play take on the first half of the last century still has the ability to evoke joy and sorrow in equal dose. But this week’s opening night audience of Forty Years On, Bennett’s first ever drama, seemed a little subdued by the re-telling of old observations.

Not that the cast, including a Community Ensemble of more than fifty boys of varying ages representing the student body of Albion House, a public school set on the South Downs, didn’t ensure a lively pace to proceedings. In groups, en-masse, in twos, threes and solo performances, they were as boisterous and engaging a group of rum chaps that any long-in-the-tooth headmaster has ever had to contend with.

This particular head is played by Richard Wilson, who can be relied on to ensure Bennett’s cutting put-downs are delivered with the world-weary resignation of a principal who is nearing the end of his career. As in deed he is. And as a parting gift the traditional end of term school play is ostensibly a homage to his values and the world of his youth and formative years. Only it isn’t.

As the play unfolds before the boys, their parents and invited guests, it becomes obvious the real aim of the production is to question, probe and poke not a little fun at the very foundations of both the headmaster and Britain’s values since the end of the Victorian era. But where in 1968 British audiences were still coming to terms, maybe just beginning to realise, the nation’s days as a world power were over, today such facts are a given.

Yet none of this takes from what is an adventurous staging of what remains a funny, poignant work. The melding of such a large junior ensemble - many from Chichester’s own Youth Theatre – with a strong professional cast is refreshing and works well. The invasion of the formal proceedings by the school’s victorious rugby squad a hoot.

Bennett’s wit stands the test of time even if the historic perceptions have moved on or become a tad hum-drum.

The staging of Forty Years On is imaginative, rowdy, musical and not a little chaotic – all the things that certainly go to ensure a successful educational establishment.

As the first production of this year’s Chichester Festival, and the first from its new driving team, artistic director Daniel Evans and executive director Rachel Tackley, it bodes well for the rest of the season.

Runs until May 20.

Ian Murray