Straight Line Crazy review: David Hare’s new historical drama is unsubtle and sluggish

Ralph Fiennes stars as Robert Moses, the man who once unofficially ran New York – but his story just isn’t that interesting

Ralph Fiennes as Robert Moses in ‘Straight Line Crazy' (Manuel Harlan)

Think of the men from US history who should have their stories told and chances are Robert Moses’s name doesn’t spring to mind. Realistically, you’ve probably never heard of the civil planner who, despite never being elected, was one of the biggest names in 1920s New York. David Hare’s latest collaboration with Ralph Fiennes and director Nicholas Hytner attempts to write that perceived wrong, with a story about the political power of roads – lots and lots of roads. Sadly, you’d probably have more fun rereading the Highway Code.

With his parks and expressways, Moses was responsible for opening NYC to the outside world. From the moment the show starts, it’s made clear that this was no fluke. Moses is a strict, often obnoxious boss, Fiennes striding around the stage and intimidating his employees with a single look. Moses is unwilling to bend to the will of others, whether they’re powerful New York families or the city’s poorest residents. It’s where the eponymous straight lines come in – after all, why should he change his roads when he knows what’s best? But at least initially, his aims to get the “masses” to the countryside seem noble, even when it’s not-so-subtly suggested that the masses he’s talking about are the kind who don’t need public transport.

The fundamental problem with Straight Line Crazy is that while Moses is an interesting enough man, we’re talking about roads. It’s not the most fascinating of backdrops anyway, but Hare feels determined to make the topic even harder to engage with. Every scene could be a fair chunk shorter, while the dialogue is a weird mix of broad platitudes and very specific jargon, which isn’t easy to keep track of. In general, it’s a slog to get through.

As the second act opens, Bob Crowley’s set has changed to a board emblazoned with the words “Save Washington Square Park”, providing hope that a new direction may liven things up. Fast-forward three decades and Moses’s plans have become a reality,  to the detriment of the poor Black communities he’s forced out of the city. It’s interesting subject matter, clearly meant to draw links to modern discussions about gentrification, but the play still feels flat even with new characters brought in.

Alana Maria (Shirley Hayes) and the protesters (Manuel Harlan)

Credit should be given to Samuel Barnett and Siobhán Cullen, who as Moses’s plucky young employees Ariel and Finnuala wring as much as they can out of the script and hold their own opposite Fiennes. They’re the disapproving outsiders, a proxy for the audience, but by act two it’s unclear why they’ve given the entirety of their adult lives to an unlikeable man they fundamentally disagree with. “You made your name creating parks. Now you want to destroy one,” Ariel warns Moses. If this was an action film, that’d be the (rather obvious) tagline.

As the play progresses, we see Moses the antihero replaced by a one-note, cartoonish villain. By the end, he’s mostly just storming around and bellowing. The late admission that his wife is in a psychiatric institute due to alcoholism is meant to provide some sense of why he is the way he is, but it’s tacked on too late, a clunky addition from a Wikipedia “Personal Life” section. For a play with so many words, very little is actually said.

‘Straight Line Crazy’ runs at the Bridge Theatre until 18 June