The Verdict: Margaret May Hobbs’s stage adaptation of Barry Reed’s crime novel
At the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
24th March, 2017
‘There is a time for living and a time for dying……It was not her time to die’
I have fond memories of the 1982 Oscar nominated Sidney Lumet film version of David Mamet’s play, ‘The Verdict’ with my childhood throb, Paul Newman in the lead role of the role of the Frank Galvin. In light of this, the Middle Ground Theatre Company set itself a tough act to follow so I make no apolodgies for this lack-lustre review.
Even before the play starts, the scene is being set with Galvin (Clive Mantle), lying on the stage floor and waking up from a boozy night as the audience fill their seats. Galvin is a Boston lawyer who has had his problems over the years – a lost job, a messy divorce, a disbarment hearing, all of them traceable in one way or another to his alcoholism.
Galvin bravely takes on a malpractice suit against a Catholic hospital in Boston where a young woman was carelessly turned into a vegetable because of a medical oversight. Nuala Walsh is the mother who is looking for reparation for her bereft daughter and grandchildren. It is the ethics of the questionable medical malpractice by the hospital hung over the heads of all involved that creates the emotional weight to the performances as the audience followed the twists and turns of the story began to unravel. Sadly, the plot grinds along and at times accents slip.
From a state of inebriated depression to the rather unlikely sexual liaison with a young waitress (Cassie Bancroft) and on to his commanding presence in court, Clive Mantle nails facets of Galvin’s character. Alongside is Jack Shepherd, as Galvin’s mentor, Moe Katz, adding to the moral crusade for the truth. Continue reading The Verdict