Published as SATG review: ‘An evening of true delights’, The Hunts Post, June 2021.
There were various challenges with this. Originally I coupled it with a review of a London production, but the editor only wanted Cambridgeshire material. I’ve included the original version for the benefit of future scholars. A 350 word limit sharpens the editing skills (this introduction alone is 85 words long), and reviewing an amateur show (this was Shakespeare at the George’s post-lockdown comeback) is fraught with danger. My view is that if you’re charging ten or fifteen pounds a ticket, it had better be good.
There are two schools of thought regarding staging Shakespeare. You can stick rigidly and reverently to the text, wringing meaning, subtext and nuance from every word. Or you can just cut out the boring bits. Writer / director Richard Brown’s Shakespeare in Love and War opts for the latter, and it’s a smart move. After last year’s upheavals a 90-minute medley of favourite scenes (and a few from less-familiar plays) is just what was needed.
The talented cast perform over forty of the Bard’s best-loved characters (and some of the fools as well), being kept more or less in line by Reuben Milne’s amusingly enthusiastic director and Maggie Redgrave’s stoic stage manager. Brown’s script contains some suitably dreadful wordplay, and the intelligently-structured selections prevent this from becoming just another greatest hits package. That said, it is slightly too long. The Much Ado About Nothing vignette could have been cut, and the sections from King Lear suffer from their lack of context. And we really do need a moratorium on actors saying “darling” at the end of every line.
The standard of acting is uniformly high throughout. James Barwise’s St Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V is beautifully delivered, likewise his wooing scene with Rebecca Gilbert’s Katherine. Lynne Livingstone’s gender-swapped Malvolio (from 2020’s cancelled Twelfth Night) is outstanding, making the speech wonderfully accessible whatever your familiarity with the rather mean-spirited plot. Charlotte and Simon Maylor provide a brisk reading of The Taming of the Shrew’s often tiresome Kate and Petruchio, the commentary sagely noting that this play is unlikely to be staged any time soon without major revisions.
Romeo and Juliet is represented by the balcony and death scenes, both played lightly by Georgie Bickerdike and Jordan White. Shakespearean musical interludes can provide variable entertainment, but Ryan Coetsee’s rendition of Feste’s “The rain it raineth every day” proves to be toe-tappingly enjoyable. And in various roles Ashton Cull demonstrates sublime comic timing and delivery.
With the sun setting and swifts wheeling over The George Hotel’s charming courtyard, this was indeed an evening of true delights.
And here’s the original.
Hampstead Theatre reopens – hopefully for good this time – with Alfred Fagon’s The Death of a Black Man. While not written about recent events, it’s unsurprising that this 1973 play was chosen to launch the new season. The programme notes express bewilderment at why this tale of Africans in London hasn’t been staged since its debut at Hampstead. The simple answer is that it’s not very good.
While Nickcolia King-N’Da and Toyin Omari-Kinch are excellent as businessmen Shakie and Stumpie, their characters are unsympathetic, racist, anti-semitic and misogynist, the last repeatedly demonstrated by their treatment of Jackie (Natalie Simpson, giving a flat rendition of an underwritten part).
Fagon’s meandering plot is ill-served by Dawn Walton’s tricksy direction, making the second half both dull and irritating. Let’s hope Hampstead’s season picks up after this misfire.
There are two schools of thought regarding staging Shakespeare. You can stick rigidly and reverently to the text, or you can cut out the boring bits. Director and writer Richard Brown’s Shakespeare in Love and War opts for the latter, and it’s a smart move. After last year’s upheavals a 90-minute medley of favourite and less-familiar scenes is just what was needed.
The talented cast perform over forty of the Bard’s best-loved characters (and some of the fools as well), being kept more or less in line by Reuben Milne’s director. Brown’s script contains some suitably dreadful wordplay, and the intelligently-structured scene selection prevents this from becoming just another greatest hits package. That said, it is slightly too long, and could happily lose the Much Ado About Nothing vignette.
Since the standard of acting is so high it feels invidious to single anyone out, but James Barwise’s St Crispin’s Day speech (Henry V) and Lynne Livingstone’s gender-swapped Malvolio (from last 2020’s cancelled Twelfth Night) really stood out, as did the farcically condensed As You Like It. With swifts wheeling over The George Hotel’s charming courtyard, this was indeed an evening of true delights.