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THE RUBENSTEIN KISS
Written and directed by James Phillips
At Hampstead Theatre
Eton Avenue, London NW3
Call +44 (0) 20 7722 9301 Tickets £13 - £
Tues – Sat 7.30pm; Sat Mat 3pm
Running time 2 hours 40 mins with intermission
Through 17 December 2006
Cold War Spooks and their Kids
It was clear from the start that mercifully, there would be no clumsy action sequences, no tiresome rainfall or other theatrical effects or coups de theatre, just absorbing, intelligent drama. We were to be treated to an intimately crafted study based around the Rosenberg (renamed Rubenstein, to avoid complaint about inaccuracy) spy scandal of the ‘50s. And so it was, maintaining interest through the intensity of the playing and the fascinating frailties of the protagonists.
David Girshfeld, father of Anna, was set free after he gave damning evidence against his brother in law, Jakob Rubenstein and his sister Esther, both of whom went to the electric chair, branded as spies and traitors, and leaving a son Matthew. Playwright/director, James Phillips has not delved too deeply into the merits of the accusations. He concentrates instead, on an examination of the effect on the children of the discovery that their parents were not all they had believed them to be.
The most compelling characterisation came from Will Keen as Jakob Rubinstein, a picture of the Jewish lower middle class activist member of the American communist party. A greater insight into his passionate belief in the Socialist Cause might have explained his motives in passing nuclear secrets to the Soviets in the early years of the cold war, however. Rubenstein’s insistent protestations of innocence seemed to have the writer/director’s interpretive hand, and lacked the emotional shaking of his foundations which might have given the agonies of son, Matthew some solace. As it was, all he had was a belief in his parents’ innocence, then the discovery that he had been ‘abandoned by a lie’ when he found they had opted for their own deaths rather than inform.
On a stage, for some reason billowing with dust all night, the action alternated on different areas of a sparse set designed by Liz Ascroft and lit by Hartley T.A. Kemp. The atmospheric city tenement scene focused fiercely on the intricacies of the performances. The company of British actors showed varying levels of expertise with the American idiom and accent, with generally less than convincing portrayals of the warmth and intense emotional depths of the New York Jewish characters they were playing.
Gary Kemp’s FBI agent, Paul Cranmer, was very effective and very persuasive, but I never felt he ‘liked’ Jakob as he says to Matthew, and maybe he didn’t. If he had sensed Jakob’s honest passion for his cause he might indeed have liked him. Martin Hutson as Matthew Rubinstein showed a plausible student-like, late adolescence, with a very moving revelatory scene. Sadly, neither Samantha Bond, who appeared theatrical and technical as Esther Rubenstein, nor Louisa Clein, equally contrived as Anna, plumbed any depths or touched any raw nerves. Anna’s almost cheerful suicide attempt looked no more serious than a stomach upset. Alan Cox appeared uncomfortable in the role of technically minded, but thick brother in law, David Hirshfeld, who sent his family to the chair because he didn’t know what ‘cognisant’ meant, and anyway he wanted to save himself. Emily Bruni, as Rachel Hirshfeld, after an appealing opening scene, appeared to have dark motivations, possibly her disapproval of the goings on.
Ultimately, as written, the play’s raison d’etre was not fully realised. It could be that an American production, with a more uniform level of performances will drive the white heat of the subject deeper into the senses.
Saul Reichlin
London Correspondent
www.ChicagoCritic.com
Chicago Stage Talk Radio Show
Thursday 24 November 2005
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