To be Blunt, it's witty but amoral: QUENTIN LETTS' first night review of 選び出す／独身秘かに調査するs?

By Quentin Letts for the Daily Mail

Published: 00:44 BST, 22 February 2016 | Updated: 01:08 BST, 22 February 2016

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Excellent: Nicholas Farrell, left, and David Robb, 権利, in Alan Bennett's 選び出す／独身秘かに調査するs

選び出す／独身秘かに調査するs, by Alan Bennett

Birmingham Rep and 小旅行するing?

率ing:

Almost 30 years ago Alan Bennett paired two 選び出す／独身-行為／法令／行動する plays about members of the Cambridge 秘かに調査する（犯罪の）一味 to make an 表面上は comic evening, 選び出す／独身秘かに調査するs.

The 肩書を与える cleverly 伝えるs the loneliness of the plays’ 支配するs, Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt.

The first half, An Englishman Abroad, is an 延長するd, romanticised vignette: 反逆者 Burgess in Moscow 追放する, entertaining London actress 珊瑚 Browne (Belinda Lang) to a sparse lunch .

Nicholas Farrell’s Burgess is homesick, threadbare, a sorry drunk. He asks his fur-coated 訪問者 to order him a Savile 列／漕ぐ／騒動控訴. He begs her for London gossip. Mr Farrell, blotchy-直面するd, crumpled, swaying in voluminous 捕らえる、獲得するs, is excellent ? にもかかわらず a bad wig.

Mr Bennett’s elegant 令状ing may be dotted with witty aphorisms ? about how in England you only have to live to 90 to 勝利，勝つ the Nobel Prize, etc ? but this Burgess feels incomplete.

Where is his ruthlessness? Did gay Mr Bennett hesitate to be more truthful because he sympathised with the gay Burgess?

A Question Of Attribution, after the interval, is a stronger play. Blunt, art 専門家 to the Queen in the 戦後の years, discusses 偽造の pictures.

He discovers a hidden 人物／姿／数字 in a 絵せいにするd to Titian ? but maybe there are two other 隠すd presences on the canvas.

Blunt’s past as a ロシアの秘かに調査する is known by the 当局 but they have not yet exposed him. Bennett, 令状ing long before The Audience, gives us a fascinating scene when Blunt (David Robb) 会談 to the Queen (行方不明になる Lang). 君主 asks faithless 支配する about 偽のs. He replies with talk of enigmas.

Almost 30 years ago Alan Bennett paired two 選び出す／独身-行為／法令／行動する plays about members of the Cambridge 秘かに調査する（犯罪の）一味 - Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt - to make an 表面上は comic evening, 選び出す／独身秘かに調査するs

Mr Robb’s Blunt has a subtle, uneasy fruitiness. Is there almost a touch of poor Anthony Eden to him?

Mr Farrell 再現するs, again to 罰金影響, as a 探偵，刑事. 行方不明になる Lang could do with broadcasting a little いっそう少なく in both 役割s, although at least she is audible. This is not always the 事例／患者 at the barnlike Birmingham Rep.

Blunt 発言／述べるs that deceit becomes more obvious with time. In a few years’ time we may be struck by the amorality with which the talented but facetious Alan Bennett 扱う／治療するd 反逆者s Burgess and Blunt.