Men’s Business is a very bleak view of humankind. The Munich-born playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz published it in 1972, later expanding it into a better-known work, Through The Leaves. Critics have described each as “not pleasant” and “absorbing but nearly unbearable in its intimacy“. Kroetz’s first venture into ‘social realism’ follows a lonely butcher, Charlie (Lauren Farrell), and her relationship with steelworker Victor (Rex Ryan) in which the audience discovers the unremarkable relationship in which neither party can relate to the other.
In his new English language version, Simon Stephens brings this stark play closer to the twenty-first century with blasts of loud ‘heavy’ music on the soundtrack and sharp knives displayed on the wall in Andrew Clancy’s white and green butcher’s shop, with violence threatening from the start. Stephens has written that “Kroetz was identifying how poverty can give rise to brutality, to cynicism, despair and fear“. In his writing, Kroetz specialised in looking at the underside of Germany’s affluence through realistic portrayals of the lives of the poor. His later plays contain less violence and sexuality than Men’s Business and became more influenced by Bertolt Brecht.
The two actors work seamlessly together to create the “Theatre of Cruelty” that Kroetz is aiming for, but as so often with Brechtian-influenced pieces, the audience is asked to spectate what is happening rather than feel involved, which seems quite strange. It is not possible to empathise with either protagonist in Ross Gaynor’s striking production. At times it feels as if the pace should ‘move on’ but it is quite deliberately staged and is an exhausting watch which, in the end, one cannot quite believe. What does slow the play down are the frequent changes of clothes and the director’s insistence on having the same two pieces of furniture moved around to slightly different positions between scenes.
Lauren Farrell makes the role of Charlie nearer to thirty than forty and the script says that she should be “a bit ugly”, which she is not! Rex Ryan is equally believable looking ten years older than she is as well as being “normal” and “average” which is what Kroetz asks for.
This is not an easy play to watch – it is certainly not something that you say you “enjoyed” as you exit the theatre, nor does it “entertain” but it has a compulsive edge to it that encourages you to want to keep watching – it is certainly not boring or dull – and is recommended to those who like to be challenged in their theatre-going and to seek out something that bit different. It also makes for some fascinating discussion afterwards.
Review by John Groves
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…
But could he be the one she’s been waiting for?
CAST
Lauren Farrell – Charlie
Rex Ryan – Victor
Cooper – Dog (London)
By Franz Xaver Kroetz
In a new translation by Simon Stephens
Directed by Ross Gaynor
Designed by Andrew Clancy
Lighting by Jess F. Kane
Presented by Glass Mark Theatre in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre
MEN’S BUSINESS
Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
18 March to 12 April 2025
