BROADWAY SNAP-SHOT
by Russell Bouthiller

Dateline: 29 October 2003

THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW

The chilly tone of playwright William Nicholson's THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW is well established before the curtain goes up at the Booth Theatre. In fact, the curtain itself--a tremendous reproduction of painter Adolphe Yvon's "Marshall Ney Supporting the Rear Guard During the Retreat from Moscow"--serves this purpose, priming us for a hard road ahead.

Nimbly directed by Tony-winner Daniel Sullivan, who brought us PROOF, THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW examines the effects of a break-up of a 33 year marriage on a contemporary British family. Starring John Lithgow and Eileen Atkins as the fractured couple and Ben Chaplin as Jamie, their caught-in-the-middle son, Nicholson's play provides a broad field for these three very talented actors to do battle.

Edward and Alice conduct their ordinary life in an ordinary London suburb, receiving the occasional monthly visit from their city-dwelling son. It's on one of these weekends that the drama opens. Edward, a history teacher, reads from a book on Napoleon's ill-fated Russian adventures. Wife Alice, a woman with aspirations of completing a poetry anthology, nags her husband about his dull conversation and his crossword puzzles.

All of this seems par for the course in the everyday existence of Alice and Edward, a life in which both harbor intense resentments for each other. He quietly endures his wife's constant needling while she yearns to get something out of her husband that doesn't exist. "I want a reaction. I want a real marriage." So, too, does Edward. And, when he announces that he has found another woman, Alice is devastated.

Life without her husband is tantamount to a death sentence for Alice. Regardless of her disappointments, the fear of being left alone is overwhelming. "When a woman reaches middle age, she becomes invisible." And, just as she used abusive and outrageous measures throughout their marriage, Alice deploys a scorch earth policy to win him back.

Reflecting upon his life, Edward sees his marriage as a tremendous mistake, but one that is not too late to remedy. He recounts how he first met Alice on a train when he was in a particularly melancholy state and she consoled him. Though unhappy, he remained with her while the "real" Edward went into hiding. "All those years ago, I got on the wrong train."

Nicholson arms his characters with heated moments and biting dialogue. Director Sullivan's pacing is skillfully timed. Ben Chaplin gives an able turn as the son who tries to balance his own frustrations with his parents individual needs. Atkins manages to create a sympathetic portrayal of a woman who is not at all easy to like. And, Lithgow is ideal as a dull and complacent man who feels he must change to survive.

That Edward and Alice are so ill-suited for one another, their break-up comes off as the most obvious solution to their troubles. Nicholson's play comes armed with many lofty reflections on Napoleon's calamitous ventures in Russia, used to shade the picture of this pale domestic drama. Set designs by John Lee Beatty reflect a bleak, wintry tone. THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW, now at the Booth Theatre.