Review: The Whale, Ustinov Studio, Bath

As an adult, it is genuinely rare to sit in a theatre and utterly believe. But Shuler Hensley’s performance in The Whale is perhaps the most visceral, convincing, immersive depiction I have ever seen, on any stage. This is one powerful piece of theatre, with award-winning performances from a cast giving their all, in a completely engaging world.

Charlie (Hensley) is not just obese, but morbidly so. The kind of  “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape“ “big” that involves hoists, or windows being taken out. But Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale is not a play about a man being fat. It’s a play about despair, grief and regret; about self-loathing and a suicidal lack of self-worth. It is one of the saddest and most eloquent plays I have ever come across. It’s a play about love.

Charlie is smart and kind. He is defiantly positive about those he loves. He’s not greedy and he’s not mean. But his fatalistic self-loathing will have its way; it is killing him.

Fifteen years ago, Charlie fell in love outside his marriage, and left his family. His boyfriend, Alan, left his Mormon church and so lost his parents. But today, Alan has been dead a while: he slowly starved himself to death after returning to the Church to please his father. To hear his father give a sermon on Jonah. And now, bereft after watching beloved Alan starve himself out of life, Charlie feeds himself to death.

How on earth is this gloomy set-up so watchable? Why do I say it’s so eloquent? Because this is very much a play about the realities of deep, everyday love.

Ellie (Rosie Sheehy) & Elder Thomas (Oscar Batterham)

Charlie is surrounded by love: his best friend and informal nurse is Alan’s sister, Liz (played by the ever-watchable Ruth Gemmell); after a 15-year hiatus, his 17-year old, Ellie (daringly well played by Rosie Sheehy), spends time with him on a promise of payment; the persistent, optimistic Mormon at the door (the so-enjoyable Oscar Batterham) keeps coming back, and even his damaged and exhausted ex-wife, Mary (warmly served by Teresa Banham), shows him great tenderness. And it’s their frustration with Charlie, and their own – beautifully drawn and depicted – flaws are what make his character and this play truly sing.

Elder Thomas (Oscar Batterham) and Charlie (Shuler Hensley). All pics: Simon Annand

Although the plot is sad, light constantly shines through the cracks. When we realise that the seemingly innocent Mormon on his mission – Elder Thomas – is not at all what he’s cracked up to be, we’re glimpsing a delicious example of the binary conflicts that sear through The Whale. Whether our true selves are letting down God, college, parents, lovers or society, their expectations smash against our dreams like the waves on the shore that permeate Laurence Boswell’s production.

Mary (Teresa Banham) and Charlie

The Whale is a rare play because (thanks to a cast of this calibre), we are unflaggingly engaged by so much humanity, while – ostensibly – very little happens. But every movement of Shuler Hensley’s eyeball, every stretch that shows the physical demands of the tiniest task is effortlessly engrossing.

To be able to see The Whale up-close at the Ustinov is something you really shouldn’t miss. Make the journey while you can.

The Whale continues at the Ustinov Studio, Bath until Saturday, June 2. For more info, visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk/event/the-whale

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