Newport Playgoers’ latest offering of W. Somerset Maugham’s controversial, For Services Rendered proved a timely and thought-provoking revival.
Apparently badly received by a 1930s audience expecting a witty comedy, the play still has the power to shock.
Maugham sought to expose the failings of Lloyd George’s ‘land fit for heroes’ post First World War, and the dysfunctional Ardsley family certainly had their share of problems.
The cast made a brave attempt to inject credibility into their performances of a family in crisis, but at times, for me, it was difficult to empathise with the era, and I feel that a few opportunities to lighten the mood were lost.
That said, there were, undeniably, some poignant moments.
Ruth Ferguson gave a spell-binding performance as lady of the house, Charlotte Ardsley, successfully conveying the inter-war confusion that Maugham clearly believed the middle-classes were experiencing.
Likewise, James Reynolds as her son, Sydney, left blinded by the war, gave a powerful performance, the insight in his one of his outbursts - ‘ I know that we were the duped of incompetent fools who rule nations’ – highly significant, as just seven years later the nation was again called upon to defend itself.
Indeed, as Maugham suspected, ‘the war to end all wars’ had been far from it.
The play runs until Saturday
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