The Other Richard
Location: Orange Tree, 1 Clarence Street, Richmond, Surrey TW9 2S
Dates: 26th October 2018 - 1st December 2018 www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
As the case of missing local estate agent Suzy Lamplugh takes a new twist, Con Crowley reviews an uncannily timed parody of the drama that unfolded 30 years ago...
A disturbing but remarkable coincidence is the only way to describe the current performance of Martin Crimp’s Dealing With Clair, a play about the greed and avarice of the 80s London property market now showing at the Orange Tree Richmond (until December 1st 2018).
@missingpeopleworld
Disappearance. Lamplugh was an estate agent who was reported missing after attending an appointment with someone calling himself "Mr Kipper", to show him around a house in Fulham.
How strange that after years of silence, the case surrounding the grim fate of missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh should be reopened almost simultaneously as a play so remarkably similar to her tragic story, is staged in her hometown.
Indeed, its timing couldn't have been more poignant. Within days of the play's return to the Orange Tree, where it was premiered 30 years ago, it was announced that police were digging up a garden in the West Midlands looking for the remains of the missing estate agent.
Suzy Lamplugh was local. She was brought up in East Sheen. After her disappearance, her parents, stalwarts of the Richmond community, tirelessly campaigned for missing persons and championed the cause of women made vulnerable by the workplace.
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust is still a very strong local charity going into schools and educating children to the dangers of the world. Her sister still runs a café in East Molesey.
So what a twist of fate that the Orange Tree should decide to revive Crimp’s cautionary tale of the excesses of the property market and the unscrupulous practices it encourages.
The play introduces us to Mike and Liz, a professional couple selling their house, who get carried away with its value and are tempted into gazumping their buyers in favour of James an art dealer for whom money appears no object. Clair, the attractive young estate agent, played beautifully by Lizzy Watts is the protagonist. Her unphased catalytic quality, almost innocent in its delivery and without the airs and graces of her clients, acts as a sharp contrast to their oafish blundering behaviour.
Mike and Liz played, by Tom Mothersdale and Hara Yannas, become drunk with greed and, in trying to justify their actions, end up selling their souls to the devil. In one bout of disgusting delivery Mike, now drunk with wine, spews his peanuts across the living room floor - a more vile couple you couldn’t possibly wish to meet! Are these really your average south-west London home sellers?
As detached as she is from their ghastly behaviour, although she is there because of it, Clair cannot escape the beguiling James, played by Michael Gould, who is determined to buy the house and curry favour with the pretty young estate agent who so intrigues him. Unfortunately for her, although not the cause, she becomes the ultimate victim of the couple’s crime of greed.
The Other Richard
In Crimp’s world of post-Thatcher Britain, the property market’s corrupting influence ultimately creates the devil incarnate - a predatory man able to strike because everyone’s moral defences are down.
In reality, it is a highly political play that focuses on one tragic incident to prove that everything about the world of buying and selling property for financial gain, is bad. It becomes a particularly controversial topic when shown in a place where the property market, will have made millions for many of its audience.
Indeed, since it was first written the pursuit of wealth via homeownership has continued unabated and Richmond has proved one of the strongest places in the country to do it. And whilst practices amongst property dealers may be more sophisticated, they are no less cut throat.
So, while the play is not without its entertaining moments - it is, after all, a satire - Crimp’s cruel insight into the double standards of middle class suburban London makes uncomfortable viewing and combined with the current real-life drama playing out around the Suzi Lamplugh case, it does leave you wondering whether you are there to enjoy the performance or to do penance for being a beneficiary of the local property market and property-owning generation!
What do you think? Tell us in the comment section below...