Lenny Henry’s rebirth as a stage and screen actor is as surprising as it is
admirable. By taking on Othello and Troy Maxson in Fences, roles that have been
played by powerhouse actors he hasn’t chosen the easy route. In these
productions, he played against his strengths as a stand up comic. In Educating
Rita he downshifts, playing towards his strengths.
Willy Russell’s play, later adapted for the screen starring Michael Cain and Julie
Walters, has a familiar plot. Rita is a twenty six year old working class girl with a
strong regional accent who got accepted onto an Open University course. Her
lecturer is Frank a divorced, washed up academic who is now in an apparently
joyless relationship and has a worrying drinking habit. He has devised a hilarious
system of hiding bottles behind books by notable English writers in his office.
Rita is the soul and active agent in the story. She is determined to better herself
by transcending the trappings of her unfulfilling marriage and her working class
background. Professor Frank is stuck in his own rot. Scornful of his published but
uncelebrated collection of poetry, he has stopped writing altogether since his
wife left him. He is now in a working, but apparently joyless, relationship with a
former PhD student.
Tall , slim with a cool reserve, Michael Caine’s portrayal of Frank is that of a
down-and-out man who has allowed himself to be washed away by the tide of bad
luck and bad choices he has made and seems resigned to his fate. In the play,
Henry’s portrayal is quite the same except that he appears to be enjoying his
ruinous state as if the point is to revel in every minute of it. With that rumble in
his timber, his fuzzy afro, bushy beard and his armoury of charm, he easily wins
the crowd over.Lashana Lynch is impressive as Rita. She has a feistiness that shines through even
when she is out of her depth amongst well read and well heeled students. And
when she is racked by self doubt and the breakdown of her marriage, Lynch is
convincingly fragile, so much so that you want to get off your feet and hug her.
Rita may have chosen literature as a way of transcending herself, but you get the
feeling that even if it was IT or scuba diving she chose, her self-belief and
readiness to learn would remain her trump cards.
So what could possibly go wrong? Nothing except that Henry fluffed his lines early
on but instead of carrying on, he apologised to the audience and excused himself
from the stage. It is an experience many actors dread on stage and it took a
moment before I realised that it was actually happening. This is Henry’s first show
since accepting a knighthood and a play with a high laugh-count as this should
present no problems for him. It wasn’t clear if this was a case of nervousness
given that it was a press night. Neither were any reasons given for the mishap. So
graceful was the audience that when, minutes later, he and Lynch returned to the
stage, they were applauded (before then and up until the intermission, every end
of scene was greeted with applause. I, for one, quickly forgot of the incident).
Such a lapse could cripple other actors especially in a run packed with critics. The
stakes were even higher now and another fluffed line and departure from the
stage would have been disastrous. Rather than mar his performance this brought
urgency to it, narrowing the lens on him. All along Lynch kept her calm and even
told an off-script joke in character about doing Henry’s monologues. She was the
emotional core of the play steadying the ship that almost capsized.
Henry was playing a man with serious professional and personal problems who
may have had a serious professional or, perhaps, personal problem that affected
his performance on stage. How very meta. What was unforgivable, though
understandable, was his refusal to bow properly at the end making for another
awkward moment for his co-star and before a rapturous crowd some of whom
stood up in ovation – this critic included. Whatever the problems are, the hope is
that he overcomes them and fulfils his duty to the troves of people who hold himdear and pay to see him on stage. As for Lynch, her talent and professionalism
will deservedly take her to great heights.