A show that knows optimism is back in the air

The Voice of the Turtle
Jermyn Street Theatre, London, until July 20

John Van Druten’s play The Voice of the Turtle might seem like a museum piece – it first opened on Broadway in 1943 – but its story of a woman who still believes that something better has to be possible after being involved in a long-term exploitative relationship strangely parallels the optimistic mood of the times.

Philip Wilson’s production is stylish, compelling and faithful to the original and boasts a trio of superb performances from Imogen Elliott as the romantic on the rebound, Skye Hallam as her worldly pal and Nathan Ives-Moiba as the dashing army sergeant who wins her heart.

It’s all very chaste as Van Druten got that there is a big difference between lust and love, but it’s this that makes the performances of Elliott and Ives-Moiba so fascinating: two individuals struggling to keep intensely carnal thoughts about each other constantly in check.

Ives-Moiba’s part was, incidentally, played by Ronald Reagan in the 1947 film version, but the future president had only done it reluctantly because he saw it as a slight role in a slight piece (and he’d also admittedly been hoping to be released from his contract to take John Huston up on an offer of a role in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but it was not to be).

Seeing what Ives-Moiba has done with the role here, I realise how much more Reagan could have made of it. It’s a pity its writer couldn’t have lived to see the full potential of what he wrote being realised.