Captured at London’s Bridge Theatre just a few months ago, Nicholas Hytner’s bracingly energetic production of David Hare’s Straight Line Crazy might test your tolerance for ageing white men shouting at each other.

Ralph Fiennes as Robert Moses in Straight Line Crazy. Photo © Manuel Harlan

What may be electrifying in a live theatre environment can seem exhausting in a cinema – even more so when watched from your own couch.

In essence, Straight Line Crazy is a play about urban planning, competing visions, the history of 20th-century New York City and one of the Big Apple’s most influential and divisive figures, Robert Moses (played here by Ralph Fiennes).

What J. Edgar Hoover was to law enforcement, Moses was to public works. His career spanned decades and presidencies, his portfolio of job titles was immense and his instinct for personal control boundless.

Moses died in 1981, having reshaped New York City with nearly 650km of expressways, 13 new bridges and 658 playgrounds. Admirable, you might imagine, but his uncompromising approach to getting the job done and unshakeable belief in the primacy of the private car made him many enemies, and he remains one...