NOTTING Hill's Print Room is fast earning a reputation for unearthing lost classics by the giants of theatre, and The Last Yankee is no exception.


That's if Arthur Miller's pocket masterpiece can fairly be described as 'lost', it being only 20 years since its first and, until now, only major London production.

Either way, Miller's astute look at two couples struggling with mental health problems, in which he takes the pulse of the American Dream, is as tight and compelling a piece of theatre as I've seen this year.

We join the action in the waiting room of a Connecticut hospital, where two middle-aged men are nervously passing the time before seeing their wives.

The older man, Frick, is struggling to come to terms with his wife Karen's newly diagnosed depression - after all, they're a well-to-do couple with no obvious problems.

Leroy, meanwhile, has been here before and after humouring his new acquaintance's attempts at amateur psychology soon grows frustrated.

The wives, by contrast, seem relatively content. Patricia is happy to have a captive audience as she recounts her youth when she had it all - beauty, money and prospects. Karen is just pleased to be getting a bit of attention.

Eventually, we see them all in one room and can turn amateur psychologists ourselves, unravelling the kinks in their highly strained relationships.

Leroy is the last Yankee of the title. A direct descendant of one of America's founding fathers, he is seemingly content, but fed up with people looking down on his profession as a carpenter.

"I hope I'm the last Yankee so people can start living today rather than 100 years ago," he tells his wife at one point.

It's all a question of perspective, he appears to suggest. It's easy to look too far ahead or sideways, always comparing, when it's hard enough to focus and find value in what's right in front of us.

Miller's densely layered script, with flashes of laugh-out-loud humour, is well handled by the strong cast, especially the bemused husbands.


Jamie Vartan's clever set design, in which we enter through the convincing corridors of a slightly frayed at the edges hospital, also deserves a mention.

While the American Dream may be flatlining, this is a timely reminder that the late, great Miller was still at the top of his game in his latter years.