Theatre review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Jethro Compton’s love of Americana really seems to have translated into stories audiences want to see: According to the programme notes his work is regularly staged in the USA and South Korea, he himself works steadily as a director in Vienna, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance has been licensed for fifty productions worldwide. But while his first venture into musical theatre (book and lyrics, with Darren Clark providing music and lyrics,) once again takes an American classic as its inspiration, this time he brings the story closer to home. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is transplanted to North Cornwall between 1918 and 1988, with a cast of five actor-musicians telling the story of a man who’s born a fully-grown seventy-year-old, and ages backwards. James Marlowe plays Benjamin, whose birth as a frail old man is such a horror to his mother (Rosalind Ford) that she soon kills herself, while his father (Joey Hickman) locks him away in an attic room so that people don’t see him and start to ask questions.

But by 1928 Benjamin is to all intents and purposes 60 and can’t be hidden away against his will anymore; he starts sneaking out to the pub where he meets Elowen (Philippa Hogg,) who’ll become the love of his life.

His tumultuous relationship with Elowen is the backbone of the story; as the narrators say, a stopped clock is right twice a day but this couple are only ever the same age on one day when they’re forty - it’s a pattern that will eventually repeat itself with his own son Locryn (Matthew Burns) when they synchronise at 21. But it’s not the fantastical element of Benjamin’s life that puts difficulties in the couple’s way: The story is about the cyclical nature of life and how the beginning and end of a long one will tend to mirror each other, so Benjamin aims for something resembling normality (“A Little Life” is a recurring number,) and it’s the same things that affect everyone – the Second World war, random day-to-day coincidences, their own strengths and failings – that variously throw them together and pull them apart.

Cornwall isn’t just a setting, the show is described as “A Celtic Musical” and Clark’s songs are a folksy mix that feels a natural fit to the story, easily taking it from jigs to soaring emotion and back again; “Home” even incorporates Cornish language into its choruses. It’s a delicate balancing act that could easily fall into twee but Compton as director manages it perfectly – the emotion is offset by wit and inventiveness, and there’s a genuine eccentricity to the staging. Like the satisfying variety of ways a pair of wooden planks gets turned into doors that Benjamin gets slammed in his face, or In The Bellows’ puppet design that takes inspiration from things found in the sea: The aged Benjamin is made of ropes and fishing baskets, then as the decades roll on the children are made of plastic bottles.

I’m not convinced there was any need to swap the role of Elowen over to Ford as she gets older; she looks only slightly older than Hogg and by the time she takes over her character’s age has already long overtaken hers anyway. Besides, puppets notwithstanding, Marlowe plays Benjamin from grave to cradle without it being a problem. But most of the creative decisions are inventive and work well, and it all adds up to something that really feels authentic – it’s what Come From Away would be if it had charm. Or maybe the more apt comparison is The Clockmaker’s Daughter, not just for the Celtic influence in the music but also for the feeling of seeing something really special (and potentially with a much longer life ahead of it) first and in an intimate space.

The cast are what Ian described as “disgustingly talented” for their juggling of multiple roles and multiple musical instruments, with Burns and Ford the standouts vocally. Schönlatern’s set and lighting design complements the atmospheric feel – this is actually a very slickly produced show that maintains the illusion of having been thrown together, and it’s the simplest things that have the biggest impact. The casual way Benjamin’s descent into infancy mirrors old age is a real emotional gut-punch. From songs that kept my toes tapping most of the evening to emotion that never tips over into saccharine this is a show that barely puts a foot wrong. As he clearly has a lot of international contacts, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will no doubt follow Compton’s earlier work in getting revived in various forms over the next couple of years, but it’d be a crying shame if this original production and cast don’t get a further run beyond three-and-a-half weeks in a 120-seat theatre.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by Jethro Compton and Darren Clark, based on the story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is booking until the 8th of June at Southwark Playhouse’s Little Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Jethro Compton Productions.