Mates in Chelsea – Royal Court Theatre
A fistful of comedy of manners, a pinch of absurdism with a hint of surreal topping and you get Rory Mullakey’s Mates in Chelsea directed by Royal Court Associate Director Sam Pritchard. It follows the story of a vain, leisure-loving, man-child viscount Theodore ‘Tug’ Bungay (Laurie Kynaston) who has been living off inherited wealth in a spacious West London flat with a housekeeper Mrs Hanratty (Amy Booth-Steel) until one day there is none left and her mother Lady Agrippina Bungay (Fenella Woolgar) is forced to sell their Northumberland castle to a Russian Oligarch.
The larger-than-life yet empty-from-within tone is set right from the beginning with clever design (Milla Clarke) and directorial choices- an empty, high-rising, narrow-looking white apartment with steel fittings ...