Epitaph for George Dillon
Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Francesca Annis
Directed by: Peter Gill
Written by: John Osbourne & Anthony Creighton
Runs until: January 14th
Theatre: Comedy Theatre, London W1
LTR rating: 
Actor Ralph Fiennes must have been delighted when his less illustrious brother Joesph got the title role in Epitaph for George Dillon. That is, until he realised that little brother Joe would be snogging his girlfriend six nights a week for five months. Ralph’s missus Francesca Annis and Joseph Fiennes star in Peter Gill’s minutely-observed resurrection at London’s Comedy Theatre.
Written in 1955 before Look Back in Anger made his name, Epitaph was penned by John Osborne and his sometime friend and colleague, Anthony Creighton. This neglected play tackles the same themes of creativity versus mediocrity, but it’s a livelier piece than Look Back in Anger and doesn’t leave you wanting to kill yourself quite so much…which is nice.
George Dillon (Joseph Fiennes) is an unsuccessful actor and aspiring playwright taken in by the Elliot family. He becomes a surrogate son for the mother and sponges off the family by exploiting showbiz glamour and seducing the daughter. Mrs Elliot’s divorced sister Ruth (Francesca Annis) sees through Dillon and challenges him to prove himself as a creative artist rather than attacking the world that refuses to recognise him. She and Dillon have a superb scene crackling with sexual energy, as she suggests his contempt for bourgeois values is merely a mask for his own failures.
Gill’s production takes some getting used to. At first the jokes seem flat, the pace lacking and the characters two-dimensional as they revolve around John Gunter’s perfect recreation of 1950s suburbia. Their lives are ‘comforting myths,’ filled with endless rounds of three-minute pop songs and cups of tea. Dillon’s arrival is like Dorothy going into Oz. The play suddenly sparkles into life as Dillon punctuates the Elliot’s lives with passion, just as Osborne and Creighton intended.
Fiennes’ out of work actor is a chameleon-like creature to be pitied. Caught between a performing swagger and gnawing self-doubt, Fiennes is a lithe and cunning Dillon who ricochets from energy to lethargy as the smooth talking snob who can melt women with the touch of his hand or a raised eyebrow.
He has excellent support from the tinnitus-inducing Anne Reid as Mrs Elliot and the smoldering Annis as Ruth, the only person who understands Dillon’s creative sentiment. Geoffrey Hutchings is the perfect grumpy husband as Mr Elliot and newcomer Zoe Tapper is appealingly vapid as daughter Josie. It’s a fine production that picks you up by your lapels and shakes you.
Helen Russell