BUTLEY Duchess Theatre

Lindsay Posner’s London revival of Simon Gray’s best known play is its first in 40 years. The deeply embittered university lecturer, a mischievous bisexual, outrageously provocative, who no longer bothers to teach his students, is forever identified with Alan Bates; and of all the roles he acted in his long career on stage and screen, it remained his favourite. The play, autobiographical, nasty and funny, is, to all intents and purposes, Butley’s monologue and catches him on a day when everything is going wrong and he ends up, losing his estranged wife to a man he despises and his protégé to a man he loathes. It is a massive, taxing role and, according to Bates, more tiring than Hamlet. He’s on the stage all the time and he never stops talking. Full of self-loathing and bent on self-destruction, he abuses and alienates everybody. Eloquent, literate, witty, Dominic West is totally unsympathetic. His virtuoso performance is impressive; except in those moments when he overdoes the camp.