Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss in ‘The Children’s Hour’ (West End): give it a miss

It does not, however, in director Ian Rickson’s The Children’s Hour, which just opened in London’s West End. This 21st-century production might as well have been lifted whole from the 1930s, when suggestions of lesbianism alone were enough to shock and provoke: today, it feels dated and dry, with nothing to say to a 21st-century mindset. At the very least, there should be some passion between the two leads, played here by Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss: as two friends of long standing and partners in a venture that is already struggling, we should be able to appreciate their frustration and the strains on their relationship, as well as the strength of their friendship. But they don’t seem to truly feel the weight of the gossip and the lies, and so neither do we. The entire production feels clipped and stilted, as if, perhaps, Rickson made the conscious decision to replace emotion with a studied old-fashionedness. (Ellen Burstyn and Carol Kane don’t fare any better than their younger castmates, which suggests it is indeed Rickson’s direction that is at fault, and not the work of the talented actresses.) If so, it was a poor choice.