Ambassadors, London
Theresa Rebeck’s play follows the relationship between a terminally ill father and a mentally unstable son
Theresa Rebeck’s play opens as a dysfunctional father-son drama with dark laughs. The father is terminally ill, sucking on an oxygen cylinder, though still able to hurl accusations of abuse at his son and carer (“You’re poisoning me”).
It quickly transpires that the ailing Daniel (Bill Pullman) is a tyrant patriarch, now vulnerable but no less mean, and refusing to face up to his imminent death even as his children convene around him. Michael (David Harbour) is the family’s black sheep, looking after the father whose cruelties partly led him to be admitted to a “loony bin”.
At the Ambassadors, London, until 4 September.
