In the Vale of Health: Japes, Hampstead Theatre

The Vale of Health - venerated playwright Simon Gray’s quartet of works about two brothers in the aftermath of their parents’ deaths – comes to the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs this Spring for a unique run. This cycle marks the first time all four plays have been staged together, and the world premieres of all but one of them.

The first play in the cycle - and the one that inspired Gray’s long-running love affair with the characters – is Japes, which enjoyed a hugely successful West End run in 2001. 

It tells the story of brothers Michael and Jason (Japes), who grow closer following the accidental death of their parents but soon fall for the same woman, which turns their lives upside down. Gethin Anthony, of HBO’s Game of Thrones, and Jamie Ballard, whom we saw and loved in Macbeth (Trafalgar Studios) last year, take the lead roles. 

To experience fully the impact of all four plays in this season is quite the commitment. The second, third and fourth instalments of this weaving saga of alternate possibilities will be playing concurrently throughout April and May, so die-hards will be able to return night after night to see them all. 

It’s a very worthy challenge. This extensive theatrical exploration of the butterfly effect is a rare look inside the conflicted mind of a playwright who found it very difficult to lay his characters to rest. If you’ve only got time to see one, though, we recommend sticking with Japes; the others, we fear, may make little sense without this frame of reference. 

In her obituary to Gray, Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner described him as ‘a chronicler of what is unsaid’, yet this unique cycle goes to show what happens when he tried to say it. The relationship between a playwright and his or her characters is a notoriously complex and personal one that is largely kept hidden from an audience, but through these productions we are offered the opportunity to see the cogs turning.