44 Inch Chest (18)

A fabulously OTT piece of theatre delivered with relish by a great cast of old troupers

Director: Malcolm Venville
Starring: Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Ian McShane
UK, 2009, 1 hour 34 minutes

Sun 28 February 2.00pm, Tue 2 March 6.15pm, Wed 3 8.45pm The Courtyard Hereford

Col's wife has announced she's in love with a younger man. The revenge scenario that this triggers off - in East End gangland territory and from a first-time director - doesn't deliver glossy, gratuitous violence. Instead it delves with dark humour beneath the surface bravado into an exploration of pain, love, suffering and the nature of masculinity. With all the intensity of a carefully scripted chamber piece (from the writers of Sexy Beast) it makes fantastic use of its talented troupe of actors who, with Ray Winstone at their centre, wield bad language with pleasurable poetic precision.