Set simultaneously in 1958 and 2008, The Pride tells the story of Philip, Oliver and Sylvia as they negotiate their entangled emotions with the social conventions of the time.
The 1958 incarnation of Oliver arrives at the home of Sylvia where he meets her husband Philip. They talk, laugh and an attraction is sparked between the two men. Of course, Philip finds this awakening unnerving as his nascent homosexual feelings come to the fore.
In 2008, a different, yet same, Philip and Oliver find their relationship coming to an end. While the names are identical, this is not the Philip and Oliver of ’58. What writer Alexi Kaye Campbell does here is present two stories of love set in two very different worlds, highlighting how the era’s social conventions impact on the personal lives of the people of the time. In 2008, contrary to 1958’s sexually repressed culture, Oliver begs Philip to stay, but Philip cannot handle Oliver’s sexual permissiveness – this is the world of Grindr where sexual interaction comes at the tap of a phone screen.
Harry Hadden-Paton and Al Weaver are equally adept and convincing as the conservative Philip and more flamboyant Oliver. Where Sylvia is the necessary contact between Oliver and Philip in 1958, in 2008 her role is relegated to that of glamorous gal-pal. In any case, actress Hayley Atwell inhabits both characters fully, pulling each scene in which she appears together magnetically.
Meanwhile, Mathew Horne provides the token light relief playing various eccentric characters, although his mannerisms are a little overly enthusiastic and unnecessary in each manifestation for a script that delivers such vivid performances from its three leads, and features such fast-paced and sharply witty dialogue.
The play alludes to the fact that the characters of 1958 and 2008 have a spiritual connection to their counterparts of a different age. But beyond any deeper spiritual undertone that may be construed, perhaps this is simply the writer’s way of relating how we can all envisage a better life for ourselves if it wasn’t for the constraints of whatever societal conventions that may exist around us.
Be it through the deeply repressed world of 1958 England or the seemingly liberated society we live in today, what is at the core of all the stories here is that lies, betrayal and denial of one’s true nature can only lead to loneliness, no matter how much you may love someone else. Indeed, you can have all the equality and freedoms in the world, but happiness is something that can only come through accepting your true nature – and that of those we love, too.
• The Pride: Trafalgar Studios, 14 Whitehall, Westminster, SW1A 2DY. Runs to 9th November.
• Box office: 0844 871 7632
