Ruth Wilson in The Human Voice
(Picture: Jan Versweyveld)Not even Ruth Wilson’s limpid talent can breathe life into this dated, 70-minute solo show, in which a woman goes to pieces discussing the end of an affair with her unheard lover over the phone. Jean Cocteau wrote it in 1928 as a simple showcase for an actress’s range, and it’s been done on stage by Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullman, adapted into an opera by Poulenc and a film by Almodovar, among others.
Here, it’s given a tricksy, pretentious production by the fêted but erratic Belgian director Ivo van Hove and his designer partner Jan Versweyveld that exacerbates the flaws of the material. There was a justifiably big buzz about this theatrical event – the Euro-guru and the singular actress, reunited in London for three weeks only after their magnificent 2016 Hedda Gabler at the National - which makes the disappointment seem more crashing.
