Ruth Leon Pocket Theatre Review … The Voice of the Turtle – Jermyn Street Theatre

The voice of the turtle – Jermyn Street Theatre

This week’s welcome discovery is a play with a happy ending. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that. Maybe I should have just said that John van Druten’s The voice of the turtle is a funny, clever, well-acted, elegantly directed forgotten play from 1943 and I am personally delighted that it has been revived at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Well, I have said all that now.

Set in New York in the midst of World War II, the film centers on an Army sergeant on leave and his unexpected date with a young actress on the mend. The young couple are played by superb actors Nathan Ives-Moiba and Imogen Elliott (who makes her amazing professional debut here), with a hilarious Skye Hallam as the best friend who makes it all possible.

John van Druten is best known today for his adaptation of Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories which in turn was adapted into the musical cabaretbut he was much more than that: he was one of the most successful playwrights of the 1930s, writing more than 25 plays that were critical and box office successes.

On this happy idea of The voice of the turtleI hope to meet many more.

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