So second half of May and what a ridiculous (and excellent) month it's proved to be: 22 plays (plus one repeat trip) in 11 different languages, with 11 different Shakespeare plays and 11 people playing Richard of Gloucester (though technically one was in April). Which apparently makes 11 - and its multiples - the number sponsoring this month's theatre.
19 - Brimstone and Treacle - Arcola Theatre (48/54/56) ***
21 - Love, Love, Love - Royal Court (49/55/57) ****
23 - Two Roses For Richard III - RSC at the Roundhouse (50/56/58) ***
23 - Love's Labour's Lost in British Sign Language - Shakespeare's Globe (51/57/59) ****
24 - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - 360° Theatre (52/58/60) ***
25 - The Winter's Tale in Yoruba - Shakespeare's Globe (53/59/61) ****
26 - Children's Children - Almeida Theatre (54/60/62) ***
26 - Titus Andronicus - Etcetera Theatre (55/61/63) ****
29 - King John - Swan Theatre (56/62/64) ****
30 - Richard III - Swan Theatre (57/63/65) ****
30 - Julius Caesar - Royal Shakespeare Theatre (58/64/66) ***
31 - Mercury Fur - Trafalgar Studios (58/64/67) *****
I'll kick off where I left off with the Globe to Globe festival, as I caught two more of the productions at the tail end of the month. First up was the UK's Deafinitely theatre company with Love's Labour's Lost translated into British Sign Language. Between the fact that I love the play and several of my favourite productions over the last few years have used sign language to great effect, I had high expectations for this production and wasn't disappointed. Though it might not have reached the dizzying inventiveness of some of the others in the festival it was a completely charming and warmly joyful production of the play. It was also fascinating seeing the words and emotions translated into the vividness of sign language, particularly effective was the highly emotive closing poem, The Owl and The Cuckoo, in a show stealing performance by Adam Bassett as Don Armado, with other members of the company joining in sharp melancholic bursts. The entire cast were fantastic, with David Sands (Longaville/Custard), Nadia Nadarajah (the Princess) and Brian Duffy (a drink stealing Boyet) all proving favourites. The show was also underscored throughout by beautiful music, often called in to action by the cast themselves, to create a magical evening.
In comparison to Love's Labour's Lost, The Winter's Tale in Yoruba by the Renegade Theatre company was brimming over with inventiveness, completely re-imagining the play. Starting in Bohemia (or Bohimia in this production), with the abandonment of Perdita, it followed her straight through to the decision to flee to Sicilia, when in flashback we got the first three acts, before after a quick interval, closing with the final act. Whilst this made the two halves very unbalanced length wise, it gave the play a gradual darkening of mood, rather than the sudden changes in tone that can plague productions. It also gave strength to a twist ending, which saw Hermione turning back into stone - as we hadn't felt the length of Leontes mourning and Olawale Adebayo's brutal king remained mostly unrepentant. It felt like a fantastic conclusion, particularly with the added touch of making Kehinde Bankole's Hermione become the God of the Whirlwind. Alongside these dramatic changes, there were also lots of more delicate touches, like the doubling of Mamillius and Florizel which provided entertaining undertones to Leontes' jealousy. And my favourite member of the cast, Adekunle Smart Adejumo, providing an excellent gender-bending (of my favourite kind) Autolycus, the trickster of the piece. The best thing of all though was how the cast provided an amazing mix of energy, joy and menace (that had the groundlings occasionally flinching away from the stage), all underscored by a soundtrack of drums and vocals. This enthusiasm was matched by the warm, vocal audience and though I found myself sometimes wishing I understood the linguistic jokes they were roaring at, it was simply a pleasure to be amongst them. Especially as the curtain calls turned into an extended dance party celebration (seriously, every show should end with the director having to drag his actors away from the drums).
I also caught another foreign language Shakespeare this month (as one clearly cannot have enough of such things) at the Roundhouse where the RSC were hosting Brazil's Companhia Bufomecânica with Two Roses for Richard III in Portuguese, French and English. Responsible for at least seven of my Richard portrayals, there was a frequently baffling sequence of character swapping, often in the same scene, which pretty much sums up the productions approach (ideas above clarity). Overall I enjoyed this far more than I probably should have - in some ways it was an absolute mess, with every idea in the book thrown at, plus it was massively pretentious - but I have a high thresh-hold for pretention, especially when, like here it's matched with a strong element of humour. So despite all the ridiculousness, I was thoroughly charmed and I genuinely enjoyed the most glaring examples, two fourth wall breaking scenes where both Edward and Margaret broke character to discuss their acting choices (or lack of them as Edward despaired the need for him to die, preferring to stay in London). I also enjoyed the sixties feel of a lot of the play, particularly an early clothes swapping scene, which had added resonance for me given the Roundhouse's history. I do wish, however, that they'd made less of the use of circus and the mixing with the Henry VI plays in the advertising, neither of which came to much, although Warwick's death suspended on a twisting ladder was impressive. And as much as I enjoyed all the elements it did utterly fail as a consistent, coherent narrative.
For a change of pace, I also caught some Shakespeare in English, two of which, excitingly were on my never seen before list (I'm doing well at crossing plays off right now). First up was Titus Andronicus at the Etcetera Theatre. With a brutal skinhead setting, speaking both of deep affection and constant tension, the escalating waste of the cycle of violence felt viscerally fresh. The powerful performances were heightened by the claustrophobic heat of the theatre (where more than once the audience looked in danger of being battered during the fights). The entire cast were superb, with David Vaughan Knight as Titus and Stanley J. Browne as Aaron both mesmerising. Though top honours here go to Maya Thomas with a bleak, brittle and haunting performance as Lavinia. The entire production has lingered with me, from the vivid visuals to the beautiful use of 80s music (and I'll forgive the anachronism of Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt as it fitted so powerfully). A truly fantastic production.
My second new Shakespeare of the month, King John, came during one of my, currently far too infrequent, trips to Stratford-Upon-Avon. In some ways, it shared some odd similarities with Titus - a vaguely eighties style setting, a strong use of music and a production that has lingered and grown more powerful in my mind since I first saw it. With the confusion, repetition and deterioration of the final scenes, drifting into a memorable performance to Beggin' by the Four Seasons, playing over and over again in my mind. Though shiny and deceptively simple on the surface, there is a lot bubbling beneath here, with the setting working peculiarly well, drawing out themes of excess, extravagance and everything spinning out of control. Even the fighting (at least the result of it, as we don't see much actual fighting), was extravagant - dripping with blood and severed heads. Alex Waldmann as the chain smoking, capricious king was superb and I loved his initially subtle crumbling following his mother's death. I also thought the chemistry and dynamic he built with Pippa Nixon's spirited Bastard/Hubert was fantastic. Other favourites included the always excellent John Stahl (sans beard alas) and a fascinatingly quirky performance of Blanche by Natalie Klamar. Hopefully I'll be able to catch it again.
I'd also love the chance to see the same ensemble's Richard III again, which was equally excellent. It's difficult to explain what made this production so good, as a lot of it was tied into delicate touches - such as the cross casting of the brothers Edward and Clarence with priests, which added an interesting extra element to Richard's disrespectful behaviour towards the church. Most of all though what made this truly gripping was a tremendous sense of fun. Jonjo O'Neill grabbing the audience and taking them with his eminently likeable, charming and flouncing Richard throughout; and his relationship with the excellent Brian Ferguson's Buckingham providing a framework of playfulness that was hard to resist. Both the fake fight created for the Lord Mayor and the scene of Richard's 'prayers' proving prime examples. I also particularly loved a scene where Richard became carried away during a fight with his tiny nephew, York. The only flaw with the fun of this production, is that it can make it feel a little bloodless (King John seems to have used most of the blood budget for the season), both literally and in a general lack of horror or anger, with the women's grief for once failing to make much of an impact for me. By the time the final battle kicked in, the production was needing it, though thankfully it was worth the wait - being one of the more thrilling battles I've seen in recent years, particularly in the final fight between O'Neill and the exciting Iain Batchelor's Richmond, where a particularly vicious sword blow caused sparks to fly. One final note, just to mention how much I loved the set and lighting design, with a rig of light bulbs reminiscent of Frankenstein dominating the space and a superb use of shadows to transform the stage. Beautiful.
The final play of my Stratford trip, Julius Caesar, worked less well for me, though I suspect this is mostly because I saw it in previews and work was still needed, particularly regarding the pace of the production and occasionally the clarity of the delivery. Despite these minor reservations it was still a strong, vivid production with Africa providing a powerful, effective setting for the play. Crowded with an impressive cast, I particularly enjoyed Joseph Mydell as Casca (I've been blessed with a string of excellent Casca's) and Simon Manyonda as Lucius. Whilst Theo Ogundipe provided a memorable vision as the Soothsayer, returning later as a soldier breaking in to Brutus' tent, stripped of his former power, and I wished they'd returned to him again as the production's final beat. There were also a number of impressive crowd scenes, partly due to the sheer number of people crammed onto the stage; though I think they could have done with adding more of these people to the later battle scenes, which lacked power. But I suspect many of these problems will be ironed out as the run progresses.
My love for the RSC also dragged me across London to see the 360 Degree Theatre's The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, featuring several familiar faces from the company including recent assistant director of the long ensemble, Michael Fentiman, graduating to a lead position. It's an impressively ambitious project for such a new director, combining projections, puppetry, flying, effects, rope work, magic tricks and a dwarf on a bungee rope. In places it was exceedingly spectacular, with several scenes, particularly the riding of Aslan, taking my breath away. However, when we saw it, the production was still suffering from the technical problems you can only expect from such ambitions, with Aslan's voice breaking down more than once and some of the effects not entirely working. It left me wondering if these continuing technical issues, have so far prevented them looking deeply enough at some flaws in the storytelling, which doesn't seem to flow quite right. Partly this is down to the music, which works beautifully in scenes like Tumnus' lullaby and the chanting at the sacrifice of Aslan, but was unintelligible for much of the rest and seemed to stall rather than enhance the action. Unfortunately, as well the need to mic the cast robs the venue of any sense of intimacy; but despite this, when it all comes together, it should be spectacular. Particularly as it is sporting some truly beautiful designs and lovely performances, especially from Forbes Masson and Miltos Yerolemou.
At the other end of the scale from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, was the far less grand and far less family friendly, Brimstone and Treacle at the Arcola. A difficult production for me, as I have found myself torn. On one hand there was lots I loved: it was disturbing, interesting, intensely emotional, claustrophobic and full of strong performances, with several moments that were electrifyingly magic. But I also felt that many aspects were too signposted - Rupert Friend's asides to the audience, whilst entertaining, made Taylor's motives too clear; and I worked out far too soon (in the opening scene in fact) a plot twist that should have provided power to the ending. Instead I would have preferred us to have been left with something more opaque, perhaps the haunting question of how much Patti could understand and experience, which felt central to me. That said, just because it didn't completely work for me, doesn't change that this was a powerful production.
I also found Children's Children at the Almeida similarly flawed, but also with similar moments of brilliance. At its centre there was a strong story, with interesting characters and dynamics (though occasionally treading the edge of stereotypes). The set and set changes were suitably astounding, living up to the Almeida's reputation for such spectaculars. But the play too often succumbed to moralising and each character got a 'shouty' moment, mostly bordering on the ridiculous. Particularly thankless for both actors involved, John MacMillan as Castro and Beth Cordingly as Louisa, was a long twelve minute tirade against the state of the world which seemed rather shoe horned into the story (the set conveniently provided a working clock for us to keep an eye on how long the lecture was taking). Despite this it was enjoyable, but I haven't been able to shake the feeling that the characters were often mouth-pieces and weren't being explored deeply enough by the writing, to make this something truly interesting and memorable.
In contrast, Love, Love, Love, exploring some of the same issues managed them much more elegantly, refusing to come down firmly on either side of the matters explored, whilst still being both challenging and provoking. In fact I've been musing over the play ever since and it certainly provided some lively and opinionated debate in my office the next day. All round an excellent piece of writing, every character felt fully rounded, each having moments that made me completely enamoured with them and moments where I was absolutely repulsed, plus it was wonderful to have characters that continually surprised me. The performances were also all superb, with Claire Foy and Victoria Hamilton both blowing me away with their often uncomfortable interactions. And even if I can't quite shake the suspicion that the play and performances were stronger than the actual production, it hardly detracted from my enjoyment.
To end off, I managed to squeeze in a return visit to Mercury Fur on the last day of the month. It remains easily my favourite production of this year, having lost none of its heart breaking power in the transfer to Trafalgar Studios. In fact it may even have broken my heart more. Now that I'm more familiar with the play, I could pick out the subtle nuances of the performances and the production; and yet remained just as gripped as I had the first time, with at least one moment making me all but leap out of my seat. The entire cast is superb, though both Ciaran Owens as Elliot and Frank C. Keogh as Darren remain favourites. I was also impressed with the ease with which Sam Swann has stepped into the pivotal role of Naz, capturing perfectly the difficult balance between corruption and innocence which is so necessary. It's hard to do justice to the production, and though, as an uncomfortable watch, I can't promise you'll 'enjoy' it, I think everyone should go and see it. Personally, I'm just thankful I'll get to go back at least once more before it closes.
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