A masterclass

Any young actor or actress who wants to attend a masterclass on their chosen profession, should go and see Duet for One by Tom Kempinski at the Vaudeville Theatre on the Strand. But they'll have to hurry, because the show closes in August. The play tells the story of a concert violinist who contracts MS and how her brilliant career is curtailed. She is married to a brilliant conductor/composer, so one can be forgiven for thinking that Mr Kempinski had Jacqueline du Pre and Daniel Baremboim in mind when he wrote the piece. Henry Goodman plays the Freudian like figure of Dr Feldmann, and Juliet Stevenson the violinist, Stephanie Abrahams. I've been told so often by actresses that in England you can have a promising career until the age of 30, and then suddenly there are no parts for you, and only the truly great who do not have to rely on looks alone, can hope to survive. Well Juliet Stevenson certainly falls into that category, as at one point in the play she portrays a dowdy, middle-aged woman, with no interest in how she looks. Henry Goodman gives his usual excellent performance (he was the finest Shylock I've ever seen), playing a man desperately attempting to remain professional and uninvolved, while with only the subtlest turn of the head or a glance down at his highly polished shoes, you realise that the tragedy that has beset his patient is also beginning to affect him. This may sound a dull, almost incomprehensible subject for an evening's entertainment, but don't be fooled, it's quite magnificent from beginning to end, and indeed the last compelling line is both memorable and chilling.