Theatre Review: The Hairy Ape 4th Nov 2015 2:14pm | By Louise Kingsley He’s sported an enormous bosom as the child-hating Miss Trunchbull in the musical Matilda, played a promiscuous gay journalist in The Pride upstairs at the Royal Court and, most recently, been seen on TV as an unfaithful husband in the miniseries Doctor Foster. Now the chameleon-like Bertie Carvel is taking on the central role in Eugene O’Neill’s 1922 anti-capitalistic expressionistic drama which, in 90 minutes and eight scenes, travels from the testosterone-filled boiler room of an ocean liner to New York’s swanky 5 th Avenue and beyond. Carvel plays Yank, a muscular stoker who is king below deck. When confronted by the horrified reaction of the pristine daughter of a steel magnate, though, he finds himself questioning his place – and worth - in society.