The National Theatre Returns to the Corn Hall

Posted on 17th June 2022

David Hare’s new play marks a welcome return of the Corn Hall’s programme of National Theatre plays,  broadcast live from London. In this instance, we got a front row seat in the Bridge Theatre, watching Ralph Fiennes’s grand-standing portrayal of Robert Moses, the man largely responsible for shaping metropolitan New York.

The straight lines of the title are a nod to Moses’s obsession with the motor car and his willingness to carve up anything that got in the way of its progress. A play that focuses on planning control, or lack thereof, in New York City may not seem the obvious choice for a night out at the theatre in Diss. It’s a surprising enough subject for David Hare, a man best known for his fearless examination of Britain’s church and state. Yet spearheaded by Fiennes’s extraordinary central performance, this is his most pointedly critical examination of power, hubris and vanity since Absence of War. Focusing on two key points in Robert Moses’s life, Hare’s text plays out like the rise and fall of a Roman emperor, oblivious to the changing times around him.

This is very much Fiennes’s  vehicle, and after a number of recent comedic roles, it’s a welcome reminder of what a powerful presence he can be on stage. He is helped along by an able supporting cast of Alisha Bailey and Siobhán Cullen as his long suffering employees, while Danny Webb as New York governor Al Smith won a round of applause for his set piece contribution. But the real star of the show is Hare’s electric, scabrous writing, as sharp and as telling as anything he’s done in the last twenty years.