Anyone who has watched Ruben Östlund’s magnificent 2014 Alpine misadventure can see how tough it might be to transpose from display to stage, particularly a modestly sized one. In spite of everything, its MacGuffin is a thunderous avalanche throughout the French Alps that sparks marital mistrust and meltdown throughout a household snowboarding journey.
Michael Longhurst has taken on the precipitous problem however for all of the comedian additions in Tim Value’s adaptation, quirky downsizing in Jon Bausor’s set design and heroic performances all spherical, this feels just like the realisation of an inconceivable dare.
The set is dazzling white and angled to appear like a slope; correctly, it doesn't search to emulate the visible vastness of Östlund’s movie however nonetheless feels just a little too confined. The manufacturing amps up the kooky and comedian inflections that the movie mixed so masterfully with household pressure, trauma and prices of selfishness and betrayal that the avalanche triggers.
Harried mom Ebba (Lyndsey Marshal) rushes to guard her youngsters (Florence Hunt and Henry Hunt on this evening, each excellently stroppy) whereas high-earning father Tomas (Rory Kinnear) rushes to save lots of himself – or so the argument goes. However the total result's much less spikily ambiguous comedy drama than foolish sitcom. The larger questions round human survival and the likelihood that women and men might behave in numerous, Darwinian methods feels largely misplaced.
Possibly it's as a result of these questions and their emotional ripples grasp on the consequences triggered by the avalanche which, on this manufacturing, is just not terrifying sufficient, although there's a courageous try with blasts of dry ice and a vibrating crescendo of sound. The place Touching the Void, one other mountain-bound adaptation, managed to conjure excessive stakes on stage, this drama by no means fairly emanates sufficient bodily hazard.
The kooky humour appears overegged, too: skiers who look as if they've strolled off a Pepsi Max advert glide previous this awkwardly British-looking household (although they keep on with the unique model and say they're from Sweden). A person with a vacuum cleaner who pops up in any respect the flawed moments looks like an overplayed joke. Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons is used as an arch accompaniment, as within the movie, however there may be additionally excessive power membership music that conjures a sure Eurobeat vibe however feels barely thrown in for good measure.
There's a nifty ski path throughout the stage and minor characters sweep down it. However the central household gestures comically at snowboarding, whereas staying static, and thumping music offers them the looks of performing strikes at a dry ski-slope centre simulator.
The script is weakest when it strays from the unique screenplay. One added scene options an argument between Tomas and the resort supervisor over a misplaced doorkey swab that's underpowered in its humour. Kinnear is watchable sufficient, as he at all times is, however each his and Marshal’s characters appear flattened and we marvel if the completely misplaced look is Tomas’s or Kinnear’s personal for having so little room to manoeuvre within the half. He's additionally, maybe, just a little too hapless to cross off as an alpha male who is not going to come clean with his worry, cowardice or rank selfishness.
The story’s penultimate scene, wherein he rescues Ebba on the slopes – so ambiguous within the movie that it feels nearly surreal – spells out its that means right here and feels extremely clumsy for it. The finale takes place round a jammed raise reasonably than the aborted coach journey of the movie and it simply doesn't really feel passable sufficient, giving the manufacturing a way of limping to its finish.
On the Donmar Warehouse, London, till 5 February
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