22 March 2018
The York Realist (a play by Peter Gill)
The Donmar Warehouse
reviewed by Adam McCormack
Star rating ****
Gentle and tender, this is a tale of two young men falling in love. Take a humble farm labourer living in a tied cottage with his mother in Yorkshire and introduce a well-educated assistant theatre director from London and throw in a heap of sexual tension. The standard assumption would be that the latter would seduce the former, but The York Realist is a play that focuses on character, not stereotypes. Put forward by his adoring admirer, the coy mousey Doreen, the young farmer George joins the production company for the York Mystery Plays – medieval plays that represent bible stories. Here he meets John and, seemingly frightened of addressing how his feelings for John develop, stops going to rehearsals. When John travels to George’s cottage to persuade him to return the relationship begins.
Constrained by the laws and social constraints of the sixties, they cannot live together in Yorkshire and, despite his talent as an actor, George argues that his accent and lack of education will leave him isolated in London. The truth is that George has used his ailing mother as an excuse for not developing his talents and, when she dies, finds other reasons to remain in Yorkshire. This makes for a heart-breaking story, but Gill writes with great tenderness and compassion so that we have sympathy with all. Ben Blatt initially displays confidence and bravado as Farmer George, but when the tables are turned and he is pressured to escape his environment, his shuddering determination to resist is exquisitely painful. is similarly strong as John, and we never have any doubts as to why he is repeatedly drawn back to George. Lesley Nichol, as George’s mother, and Katie West as Doreen, display their loyalty and undeviating love for George with great subtlety. These characters have depth – they are not simple foils, being smart enough to be aware of the relationship yet not letting it undermine their loyalty.
While The York Realist describes a time from which we have moved on and was written in 2001, it is not in the least bit dated. Ultimately it is the story of the town mouse and the country mouse, the difficulties of escaping our roots and our environment, and the sad restrictions that society can put upon genuine love.
