And, of course, the company you're in has great comic timing, deserving applause. However, with a soup? of En attendant Godot, this threesome meet in the same spot day after day, going nowhere Henri is supposedly hobbled by a false leg. Stott's diminutive Philippe, caught in the crossfire, tries not to express an opinion yet sparks competitiveness as their shared best pal. Ultimately, the vying develops into a nutty plan to give the nuns, who run the place, the slip and boldly trek to a line of poplars which stand, alluringly flexing in the wind, on a far-off hill. Under a cloud-speckled blue sky and soft golden sunlight, wild flowers have pushed between the flagstones and ivy is climbing over the boundary wall. For a moment, Griffiths, Hurt and Stott sit like sculptures, matching the terrace's quirky statue of a dog - the fourth character, an artwork Then, as the pals start to chat, tensions emerge.
Looking like a huge rosy berry in a cardigan, Griffiths' rotund Henri praises the time of year in mellow tones, only to be interrupted by Hurt's Gustave.Elegantly skeletal in a coppery brown suit, with a face like a hilariously sour tortoise, Hurt is the negative type, eloquently damning every month in the calendar. Though there's no very sharp sense of period, we glean it's 1959, and the setting is an autumnal terrace going to seed in a picturesque fashion (designed by Robert Jones). Plus ?change or, as they say in showbiz, we've got ourselves a formula All right, it's not just a shameless rehash. Besides director Thea Sharrock's admirable cast and lots of droll dialogue, Sibleyras' threesome are World War One veterans stuck in a military hospital-cum-retirement home in the countryside. Et maintenant, presented by Pugh and translated by Tom Stoppard, no less, we have Heroes (or Le Vent Des Peupliers) by Paris's G?ld Sibleyras: another 90-minute entertainment of the tickling yet touching variety with Griffiths, Stott and John Hurt - 'scuse my franglais, mais quelle surprise! - portraying three closely bound but bickering old chums. This is clearly meant to be the West End's new replacement for Art.
Produced by David Pugh, Yasmina Reza's comic three-hander ran for six years at Wyndham's, translated from the French by Christopher Hampton and with many top actors, including Richard Griffiths and Ken Stott, playing the closely bound but bickering old chums. The supporting cast, directed by Kenneth Branagh, are perky too, including Liz Crowther gamely being sucked into a chest of drawers head first. Ducktastic ought to be a popular hit unless, of course, avian flu comes to town and spoils everyone's fun.To July 15, 0870 950 0902. There are lots of genuinely wizard tricks, orchestrated by the aptly named Simon Drake. Foley himself starts off in the front row, with a large, spotlit, potted yukka in his lap.
