Man & Boy
04 March 2026
National Theatre
5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Man & Boy, currently running at the National Theatre until 14 March, is Terence Rattigan’s 1963 play about a ruthless businessman’s fall during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Gregor Antonescu is a Romanian-born investor who has built an empire on lies and deception. In a last ditch effort to save his crumbling reputation, he uses his estranged son’s small apartment to negotiate a large merger, manipulating everyone in his vicinity with no regard for other people.
This staging has styled itself after 1930s movies, opening with a classic movie fanfare and displaying a large credit screen at the back of the theatre, which not only lists all the characters and respective actors, but also lights up the names of those currently on stage. The stage itself is dressed in green-screen coloured carpeting and utilises a series of bare, industrial-looking tables to stand in for most furniture. It’s a gorgeous look that works incredibly well, giving a classic and radical look to the story of a callous businessman on the verge of losing everything he has built.
Ben Daniels absolutely dominates the stage as Gregor Antonescu, every movement and word delivered with precision and depth. It’s a stunning display of expert acting, drawing in unrelenting attention from the audience, a masterclass of solid character study and decisive delivery. It is an absolute joy to watch the proceedings on stage, turning a political drama into a fascinating display of malevolence. Antonescu’s manipulation is delivered so skilfully, the 2 and a half hour runtime simply flies by.
The attention of detail by the entire cast, from the smallest gestures to the precisely delivered accents, gives this production the highest quality of stage work, an absolute joy to watch despite the dark themes developing on stage. This is a production not to be missed!
