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ROBERT GORE-LANGTON

In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI resigned, which no Pope had done in 700 years. This play gives us a version of what happened. Apparently, the Bavarian Pontiff desperately craved a more contemplative life. Hence his wooing of a successor he dislikes, the populist Cardinal Bergoglio, who dances the tango and loves ABBA, football and hanging out with the poor. He will become Pope Francis.

The two men could not be more unalike, a difference fully exploited in this old-fashioned but very enjoyable play by Anthony McCarten that became a film with Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins.

I saw it with two actors – both excellent old pros – reviving their former roles from the original production a few years ago. Anton Lesser is the astringent, chilly German Pope and Nicholas Woodeson is the feisty, ebullient cardinal – a twinkly bruiser with a big head. As he says himself, when an Argentinian man wants to commit suicide he climbs to the top of his ego and jumps off.

Director James Dacre keeps up the pace even when the wry, intelligent script isn’t terribly dramatic. The play airs the respective guilty consciences of the two men: Benedict, who shielded child-abusing priests, and the cardinal, who appeased the Argentinian military junta.

Watching this now, it is almost funny to see these two male eminences groaning under the burden of their duty to God. Compare and contrast with our beaming late Queen who was so energised by her faith

The Snail House is written by Sir Richard Eyre who has, by his own admission, turned into

Ernie Wise. This is the play wot he wrote during lockdown.

It is about a birthday bash held for Sir Neil (Vincent Franklin), a smug doctor newly knighted for services during the pandemic. The cast features his brassy wife, their son, a bitchy special adviser to a government Minister, and Sarah, his Greta Thunberg-worshipping 18-yearold activist daughter (Grace Hogg-Robinson, pitch-perfect).

I found myself absorbed by this father-and-daughter ding-dong. Like a dispatch from the culture war, the showdown between pompous patriarchy and grumpy, insufferably woke youth strikes sparks – but not enough for the evening to really catch fire.

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2022-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://mailonline.pressreader.com/article/282797835243813

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