The Play: Men’s Business by Franz Xaver Kroetz – in a new translation by Simon Stephens. On until 12th April

A love story set in the back room of a butcher’s shop with a brutal bastard of a dog howling in the yard next door. Charlie’s faith in the possibility of love can’t be dimmed. No matter what deranged brutalities life throws at her.

Victor doesn’t take his builder’s boots off for dinner, has a rule to never go to a woman’s flat in case she gets ‘ideas ‘ and doesn’t like secrets…or dogs…Is he the one she’s been waiting for?

Men’s Business is the world premiere of Tony and Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens’ new version of Franz Xavier Kroetz rarely performed masterpiece Mannersache, and the London debut of acclaimed new company Glass Mask Theatre from Dublin.

The Venue: Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. To book visit HERE

The Playwrights

Simon Stephens is one of the UK’s most prolific contemporary playwrights and his work is produced across the world. The author of more than twenty stage plays, he is a former tutor on the Royal Court Young Writers Programme. His many awards include the Pearson Award for Best New Play, 2001, for Port; Olivier Award for Best New Play for On the Shore of the Wide World, 2005; and for Motortown German critics in Theater Heute’s annual poll voted him Best Foreign Playwright, 2007. His adaptation of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play.

Franz Xaver Kroetz, writer, actor, and film director, was born in Munich in 1946. One of Germany’s most popular contemporary dramatists, he rose to fame as a playwright in the early 1970s when the premiere of his plays Heimarbeit (Houseworker) and Hartnäckig (Persistent) was disrupted by neo-fascists. His work has been translated and performed internationally. UK productions include Through The Leaves, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001 and at the Southwark Playhouse in 2002, The Nest, staged at The Young Vic in 2016, and Tom Fool, seen at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in 2022. He is also well known to international audiences for his plays Farmyard (Stallerhof) and Request Concert (Wunschkonzert). In addition to playwriting, Kroetz has written for numerous television series and has acted in several films and TV series. He has received many awards including the Deutscher Kritikerpreis, Bertolt-Brecht-Literaturpreis and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The Players

Lauren Farrell is Charlie: Trained at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and Bow Street Academy. Theatre includes Dancing at Lughnasa (Gate Theatre, Dublin, and National Theatre), Stuck on a Puzzle and A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (New Theatre, Dublin). Television includes The Dry, Smother and The Doll Factory.

Rex Ryan is Victor: Trained at the Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin. Rex has received multiple nominations for Best Actor awards, including being nominated twice by Broadway World for his roles in Tonight with Donny Stixx (Abbey Theatre, Dublin) and Quicksand (New Theatre, Dublin), at the Manchester Theatre Awards for Pilgrim, and at the Dublin Fringe for The Birthday Man. Theatre includes Bullfight on Third Avenue (Bewleys Theatre, Dublin), Quicksand, Hamlet (New Theatre, Dublin), Port Authority, The Memory Stick, BUG and Made In China (Viking Theatre, Dublin), Hollow Ground (Theatre Upstairs, Dublin), The Motherfucker With The Hat (New Theatre, Dublin),The Circus Of Perseverance (Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin), Celebrity, One Hour to Ron Montana, Summerhill, Pop Tart Lipstick, and Our Shaman of Dublin One (Glass Mask Theatre, Dublin). Television includes Quantico, Harry Wild, Borderline, That Dirty Black Bag and El Cazador. Film includes Monged and the award-winning short Solitaire.

Cooper is Wolfie: Cooper is a 10 year old male German Shepherd living in Chelsea. He was one of 5 puppies bred by a family living just outside of London. His canine mother was a long-haired German Shepherd bred in Poland; and his father was a short-hair German Shepherd bred in England. Cooper is a Certified Assistance Dog, having passed his final test with flying colours. Being an Assistance Dog means he can accompany his owner wherever she goes. He enjoys going to the cinema, the theatre – and, in particular, going on shopping trips to Whole Foods in Kensington. His favourite sport is playing ball; and he loves riding the tube where he likes to go up and down the car saying hello to passengers.

The Set: The work area in the back of a butchers shop, which doubles as various rooms in Charlie’s humble home. A few chunks of dead meat hang from hooks. A small bench serves as a bed. The room feels grim, creepy, and is laden with a sense of foreboding. You just know that nothing good will come of this place…

The Review: Good art should leave its mark and Men’s Business cuts deep

There is one word to sum up this play – raw. It gets under the skin and bleeds emotion. Remarkable performances by both Ryan and Farrell. They work the tiny set with effortless precision, moving the basic, pared-back props with calm skill. One minute, a butcher’s block is the table for a romantic dinner of caviar and wine, the next it is used for its primary purpose – to rip apart meat.

Both actors dig deep to convey the turmoil of their characters. Farrell makes your heart ache for Charlie as she lays bare her desperation for love – no matter the demeaning cost or humiliation. And Ryan manages to bring Victor’s simmering rage and callousness to boiling point, so much so that you cannot help but loathe him.

Disappointingly, Cooper only makes a fleeting appearance as Wolfie, which seemed to make little sense. Why have such a stunning dog in the wings and not use him? I felt that his presence could have been exploited with at least one more walk on. When he did appear, it brought a few coos of joy and surprise from the audience (of 26).

Farrell and Ryan devote the entire 90 minutes of the production to stripping their characters down emotionally – and physically. A good deal of time is spent in underwear – with Farrell even going topless in one scene. Incredibly brave when you consider that the audience is just a few feet away. The near-nakedness of the actors brings an even greater sense of intensity and vulnerability to the performances as this tragic, thankless “love” story reaches a darkly comedic bloody end, one that is worthy of a Quentin Tarantino denouement.

This is most definitely not happy play, so I came away feeling suitably troubled and miserable. Good art should leave its mark and Men’s Business cuts deep.

FOUR Starz. Rob McGibbon