GORBODUC
Read
Not Dead at Inner Temple
28.04.13
"Gorboduc,
king of Britain, divided his Realm in his lifetime to his Sons,
Ferrex and Porrex. The Sons fell to division and dissention. The
younger killed the elder. The Mother that more dearly loved the
elder, for revenge killed the younger. The people moved with the
Cruelty of the fact, rose in Rebellion and slew both father and
mother. The Nobility assembled and most terribly destroyed the
Rebels. And afterwards for want of Issue of the Prince whereby the
Succession of the Crown became uncertain. They fell to Civil war in
which both they and many of their Issues were slain, and the Land for
a long time almost desolate and miserably wasted."
A
unique event.
Norton
and Sackville, both members Inner Temple, wrote their play for law
students to perform, in their Great Hall, at Christmas 1561, in the
presence of the Virgin Queen.
It
was the first play in blank verse; it predates Shakespeare and his
famous Globe.
Now,
when almost nothing remains of London's playhouses, and the Inner
Temple Hall, and its Victorian successor, are no more, the lawyers of
today have revived the play, under the direction of Oliver Senton
[Shakespeare's Globe].
The
play itself is wordy, with most of the violent conflict safely
offstage. Not unlike the courtroom rhetoric for which it was perhaps
considered a ludic apprenticeship. The spirit of misrule which
probably enlivened the original was best captured in the dumbshows,
with actors and musicians, sometimes masked, charging around,
snapping twigs and illustrating the action.
Some
excellent performances, though, from Rebecca Todd, on loan from the
Globe, as Philander, Nigel Pascoe, QC and playwright, as old
Gorboduc, Iain Christie, barrister and professional actor, as Eubulus
and Chorus, and Luka Krsljanin, Cambridge actor, as the younger son,
Porrex.
