SPLENDOUR Donmar Theatre

A brutal dictatorship in Eastern Europe is on the point of collapse. The complex structure of Abi Morgan’s drama does not make it easy to follow. It cannot have been easy to learn and audiences will find they have to listen very hard. The dialogue is fragmentary and liable to go back on itself and repeat what has already been said from a different perspective. Robert Hastie’s handsome production is notable for Sinead Cusack’s superb and utterly convincing performance as the President’s wife, a once-powerful now vulnerable woman, who knows full well she will soon be history, her photograph before-and-after her murder, flashed round the world.