One of the most successful and memorable shows of the Almeida's Gooldilocks era was Rebecca Frecknall's rediscovery of
Summer and Smoke, which took an obscure Tennessee Williams play and revealed it as equal to some of the playwright's most famous works. It came to mind with the penultimate show programmed by Goold, as director Sam Yates has spotted the potential for a striking night at the theatre in a 1937 play by the influential but largely forgotten American playwright Clifford Odets. Where the comparison doesn't hold up is in convincing us that
Golden Boy itself should be reevaluated as some kind of masterpiece. The production marks a return to the stage for Josh O'Connor - when I first saw him in 2013's
Farragut North I called him "one to watch" and he's one of those cases who's proven me right and then some, as people have very much enjoyed watching him in the intervening 13 years.
