Sandra Oh in The Misanthrope [Marc Brenner]

MARTIN Crimp’s bold reworking of Molière’s The Misanthrope stars Sandra Oh as Alice, a Booker-winning novelist who speaks her mind and despises dishonesty.

As the play opens, she is berating her best friend John (Paul Chahidi), a playwright, for insincerely returning the hug of a woman he couldn’t remember meeting. John argues that everyone deserves respect.

Alice is in trouble with a prize committee in Berlin who are threatening to withdraw her award nomination because of a comment she made in a newspaper interview. She’s also lambasted a literary editor for holding “two informal categories for fiction – diverse and normal,” and accused tech companies of degrading women and promoting femicide.

When Esmée (Imogen Elliott) arrives at their hotel reception room and reads Alice the opening of her poorly written novel, she gives a scathing critique of the young writer’s debut. Unfortunately, there are repercussions – Esmée’s an influencer with over a million followers, and Alice is at risk of being cancelled.

It’s a brilliant opening, and the actors are pitch-perfect, but as more characters are introduced – Alice’s narcissistic, damaged actor boyfriend Stefan (Tom Mison), his agent Claire (Abigail Cruttenden), a reputation management consultant Indira (Rina Fatania) and her assistant, social media guru Allen (Freddie MacBruce) – the play loses its way among competing themes.

A gripping scene between Stefan and his former wife Elaine (Jemima Rooper) feels like it belongs to another drama entirely, and the spectacular climactic ending, uniting all the characters, doesn’t quite feel credible.

It’s briskly directed by Indhu Rubasingham, Robert Jones’s set and costumes are beautifully lavish, and Tim Lutkin’s lighting, particularly at the close, is sublime.

Until August 1
nationaltheatre.org.uk