An Actor Convalescing in Devon – Hampstead Theatre, London

Writer: Richard Nelson

Director: Clarissa Brown

‘What’s the point without an audience?’ For the unnamed actor in Richard Nelson’s new one-man play grief and the purposes of art in life send him to Devon to contemplate what exists beyond the performance space, even beyond love itself. A warm 65-minute exploration of great roles, great writing and how to navigate the theatre after so much life, Nelson’s play written for and performed by Paul Jesson is an often understated but affecting study of loss and life’s meaning.

When his partner Michael dies, an actor boards a train to Devon to spend a weekend with his friend Diane only to find she has invited more people, and the protagonist is forced out of himself. Across the few days, stories, memories and experiences come back to him prompted by books and speeches he carries with him and the new purpose he is struggling to find without either the audience or his lover.

Nelson’s play is structured around seven scenes taking place over a few days but is given a gentle looseness through the almost stream-of-consciousness writing that mashes together Shakespeare quotes, reports of Michael’s words and their life together as they occur to the speaker. In some ways, the tale Nelson has created is lightly constructed, even haphazard, but it has a cumulative effect that sews the pieces together and builds scenario and character which becomes more and more tangible as An Actor Convalescing in Devon unfolds.

Key to any drama of this nature is the absent presence of the character who is only ever described, and Nelson gives a real sense of Michael as the protagonist reports his words and attitudes, building the audience’s sense of the man, the gap his death has left for the speaker and others in the story. The easy affection is there along with an occasional curmudgeonly tone that brings their relationship to life. It could go further in fact, with even more of Michael and more of our narrator, his life, their illnesses that arrived around the same time and the depth of the hole left behind.

Where director Clarissa Brown’s production lets itself down is with the staging designed by Rob Howell, a draped curtain and two chairs. There is opportunity for something more evocative, even more contemporary, to better suggest the train journey, the comfortable country house he visits and the memories that flood back. This show is all in the writing, but the staging deadens rather than enhances Nelson’s writing and Jesson’s performance.

Jesson has provided the inspiration for the central character and much of the story has been built around conversations with the writer. As a result, Jesson is a welcoming presence, very still in the delivery of Nelson’s original content and in the many quotes from Shakespeare and others that filter through this highly literary play. Ultimately it leaves you wondering what an actor’s life is worth and the offers the possibility that performance can save actor and audience alike.

Runs until 11 May 2024