Just about anyone going to see The Graduate at West Yorkshire Playhouse will enter the Courtyard Theatre with very specific images in their mind – of Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman in the iconic 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols, and especially of that seduction.
The challenge for a theatre producing a stage version 50 years on is to make the story their own, and with a strong cast under the direction of Lucy Bailey the Playhouse achieves that brilliantly. It’s a darkly comic production with many laugh out loud moments and a skillfully created sixties vibe, and a welcome absence of Simon and Garfunkel.
The energetic and charismatic Jack Monaghan in the title role is seldom off stage. Neither, in one form or another, is a bed.
From the opening moments when we first meet the newly-graduated Benjamin, very much out of his depth being asked to face a room full of guests in a diving suit, much of the action takes place on and between the sheets. The bed remains centre stage as Mrs Robinson enters Ben’s life. Catherine McCormack makes the part her own, a contemporary take on a period character. This is a timeless Mrs Robinson you could meet in a bar on Call Lane; frustrated and alcoholic, dominant yet vulnerable, playful but manipulative.
It quickly becomes obvious that Ben is a narcissist, driving his parents up the wall with his lack of direction or ambition despite an expensive education – he embarks on a passionate but loveless affair with Mrs Robinson only after a half-hearted attempt to go travelling and mix with the common people. His parents’ well meaning meddling sets Ben up with a date with Elaine, the Robinsons’ daughter, in a part significantly developed over that familiar from the film. She appears the only grounded character in a world of weirdos and misfits, but Emma Curtis makes it clear Elaine has her own problems as Ben begins wooing her.
This all culminates in a runaway bride scene as good girl Elaine is forced to choose between head and heart, the sensible choice and the risky option. The final moments, again on a bed, give just a hint that despite all the evening’s evidence to the contrary true romance may not be impossible after all.
The Graduate is a fast paced dark comedy with many great lines. Tom Hodgkins and Rebecca Charles as Ben’s parents and especially Richard Clothier as the cuckolded Mr Robinson provide strong support for the leads, with cameos from Elsie Diamond as an outrageous stripper and Daniel Crowder as a worldly-wise hotel desk clerk completing the ensemble.
The design is simple and effective, with just enough brown, beige and G-plan to evoke the period without overwhelming the action. Flimsy curtains give a suggestion of peering through nets into private spaces, and video transitions integrate well – as does the vibrant sixties soundtrack at the start of the show and after the interval.
The show runs in the Courtyard Theatre at the West Yorkshire Playhouse until 27 May