The Forest
Hampstead Theatre
 

PLAYWRIGHT Florian Zeller finds himself in a charmed position by anyone’s standards, his play The Father having achieved almost iconic status and the film version having won best actor Oscar for Anthony Hopkins. Following this and the other two plays in his family trilogy, Zeller we must believe can do no wrong.

So it feels like a fait accompli that his new play The Forest – in its customary translation by heavyweight Christopher Hampton – will gather accolades galore for its premiere at Hampstead Theatre.

The play – as with Zeller’s earlier work – is based on a single idea in which style and structure ultimately triumph over substance. And the prime fascination for the audience is the absorbing task of working out what the hell is going on.

Toby Stephens plays the man, seemingly known as Pierre. Or at least we think he does until Paul McGann is playing him too. Or is he? At which point any empathy with the character disappears and we don’t really care. All we know is that this is a puzzle. And that the social setting is very familiar: married man with money and a comfortable life is having an affair… oh and his daughter’s partner is having an affair too. Coz that’s what men are like.

Demographically, it’s like a throwback to something in the 1950s; theatrically it’s reminiscent of the early ’80s when plays like Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and Peter Nichols’s Passion Play explored truth and reality, deceit and fidelity as experienced among the fatuous middle classes.

What marks Zeller out is his unique take on the approximation of experience. His repeated scenes with different variations reflect the vagaries of the brain and our own inability to truly know ourselves or truly control our action. While this idea is hugely interesting, it leaves us hanging in the end, with no emotional journey or genuine dramatic catharsis to engage us fully.

Anna Fleischle’s set on different levels with different defined spaces is detailed and impressive and is lit with almost miraculous precision by Hugh Vanstone. Director Jonathan Kent, meanwhile, pulls all together to bring us a sophisticated and flawless – if safely bourgeois – performance.

Gina McKee is gracious and elegant in what is almost a non-part as the wife; Millie Brady makes a confident and poised professional debut as the daughter; and famed Stephens and McGann as the two male leads of course deliver.

But it’s a cerebral play, broaching questions that never quite land.

Runs until March 12 2022. Box Office: 020 7722 9301 and hampsteadtheatre.com