Joey Sims

Theater review by Joey Sims In the gripping new British import The Hunt, Tobias Menzies (The Crown) plays a kindergarten teacher in a small Danish town who is falsely accused of sexual abuse. As hysteria grows and his loved ones look at him with new eyes, a mob mentality soon places Lucas’s life in danger—and David Farr’s horror-infused thriller, adapted from Thomas Vinterberg’s 2012 Danish film, gradually reveals itself to be a moving, melancholic character study. The centerpiece of Rupert Goold’s production, which has moved to St. Ann’s Warehouse from London's Almeida Theatre, is a small and suffocating glass house into which a multitude of town scenes—tense homes, cramped offices, packed churches—are discomfitingly stuffed. Scenic designer Es Devlin (The Lehman Trilogy) specializes in glass boxes; here, the tight encasement is smartly used to suggest both individual isolation and the lure of social conformity. Goold’s muscular staging establishes a tight-knit community with violence lurking at its edges: The local hunting group, heavy-drinking and heavily armed, chants and stomps in Kel Matsena’s frightening movement work. Flashing glimpses of a minotaur-like figure suggest the fine line dividing the hunters from their prey.  The Hunt | Photograph: Courtesy Teddy Wolff Menzies is a remote, reserved performer, and Goold plays smartly upon that blankness. Lucas feels disconnected from the other adults, and only seems to come alive with his students—or with his dog, Max, pla