Review: Forty Years On ***

I HAVE never really understood the accusation levelled at Alan Bennett that he is “cosy” – but then I have, before this production, never seen Forty Years On.

Bennett the writer has always struck me not so much as an iron fist in a velvet glove, as a rusty steel blade inside a child’s teddy bear. His writing, dressed up in his cords and blazer, is witty, sharp and dangerous.

It is clearly a style that has developed since this, one of Bennett’s earliest works. Were he to be judged solely on this piece, then “cosy” would be enitrely appropriate.

What makes it particularly inoffensive as a production is the surprising direction from Damian Cruden, the theatre’s artistic director. A dyed-in-the-wool socialist, Cruden has ideals that would not necessarily sit comfortably around a middle class dinner party table, yet you would never know if from the safe hand he shows here.

Thanks to the brilliant York traffic system and its well-managed and ample parking, I was a minute late arriving for the show. It was more than a little surreal to walk into a full theatre to find the whole audience standing up singing, as one with the cast on stage, a rendition of Jerusalem – and appearing to do so without irony. It laid down a marker that this production was going to be resolutely, unapologetically, old-fashioned.

Bennett himself has admitted that Forty Years On is not so much a play as a series of sketches strung together. The central conceit is that a group of schoolboys, on their last day of term, are presenting a show.

The bewildered headmaster, played with amusing bemusement by Rob Pickavance, is entertaining as is Martin Barrass as the altogether more popular incoming headmaster.

The show stealers here, however, are the members of York company Belt Up and local community actors who make up the Sixth Form class. They are a huge amount of fun to watch as they mug about the stage. The only issue is that, diverting a couple of hours as it is, it is impossible to escape the fact that it’s all a little – cosy. And Bennett can be so much more.

To October 15.