CYMBELINE

CYMBELINE

RSC Open Stages Project - Artisans Drama Society at Brentwood Theatre

Mary Redman was in the audience ...

Artisans' Designer and Director Nicola Stacey has a long and distinguished record of re-imagining classic plays such as this rarely produced or academically studied late Shakespearean romance, Cymbeline.

Yet once again audiences were not disappointed with her comic silent film, highly melodramatic approach. Even if, in the interval, many of them were studying foyer cast photographs to try and work out who was who and which gender they were. An apparent shortage of male actors led to some confusing casting but all was well that ended well since there was no deficiency of comedy and laughs.

Despite a three-page,small-print summary of the plot in the programme it was easy to get led up a garden path (probably ending in the renowned yet rather unlikely Shakespearean romantic trysting place of Milford Haven).

The basic story is Snow White complete with wicked stepmother and her camp son, plus a vanished royal daughter combined with the misadventures of lost or banished sons of the king. Basically Shakespeare was doing a John Godber or Ray Cooney by reusing and churning up previous successful plays.

The prequel to the play was done as a silent film to fill in the background to the play. Plus all through the production MD Darren Matthews gave us a marvellous piano solo accompaniment to match the action.

Barry Howlett looked sufficiently regal as a King Cymbeline rather more than somewhat prone to displays of temper. His gleefully wicked Queen played by Shealagh White with great relish and beautiful clarity of speech. (She later reappeared very successfully as an extremely Welsh Soothsayer). Almost glued to his mother's side when he wasn't attempting rather unsuccessfully to be a naughty villain, was Gary Catlin's hilariously camp and OTT son Cloten.

The lovers in the shape of Neil Gray's not-what-you-would-expect-from-a-hero Posthumus partnered by Romy Brooks the delightfully lively, lovely young thing as Imogen. Together or apart they went through numerous trials and tribulations to get their morganatic marriage recognised.

The faithful servant Pisanio was played strongly by a dragged-up Emily Catlin complete with false moustache and beard matched in stage masculinity by Wendi Sheard's brave Roman Captain. Tim Tilbury was an extremely nasty villain Iachimo who got booed by the audience and his just deserts in the end.

There was a very strong supporting cast and things looked very good thanks to Chris Wilkes's lighting and the director's choice to go for minimalist staging. This made choreographed use of the human arch “supports” and a grey flannel “cave” responding to people going in and out.

The colourful costumes were extremely effective. Apparently it took Nicola hours on the internet gathering them all together, the only thing lacking being corsets. One of the many wonders of this show was the hilariously choreographed stroboscopic battle between locals and invading Romans.  

KING LEAR

Artisans Drama Society at Brentwood Theatre

01.03.11

Nicola Stacey's bold interpretation of Shakespeare's tragedy tried very hard to be interesting. The programme – an excellent guide to the play and the production – explains the style and the focus on dementia and decline.

I liked the bare stage, the armorial banners, the original music [Mike Coy]. The grey costumes worked well, and the opening scene, with the ten actors ceremonially donning the details that define their characters, was impressive.

Doubling Fool and Cordelia is strongly suggested in the text, and Alice Stacey brought a youthful freshness to both, though her performances needed to be bigger to match the style of the rest. Her sisters [Bernadette Rodgers and Emma Feeney] were suitably evil, but a little more steel and stillness would have made them stronger. I was less sure about the three Lears. The idea was to show the descent into madness, but all three men [Matt Jones, who had the lion's share, Neil Gray and Darren Matthews] were powerful actors who were better at the king's rage than his weakness. But the moments when all three shared the role – the storm, the death of Cordelia – were chillingly moving.

Some things should have been axed during rehearsal. The eyeballs – although I was genuinely shocked by the red stiletto – and the heartbeats in the background.

But there was much to admire in this flawed exploration of the infirmity of age, and I would always support innovation and risk, as we strive to “take upon us the mystery of things” …

ANIMAL FARM

Artisans Drama Society at Brentwood Theatre

20.10.10

Orwell's cautionary tale still seems painfully accurate sixty years on – even the fall of communism seems foreshadowed in this story of an idealistic workers' cooperative.

To Ian Wooldridge's adaptation, Graham Poulteney has added some more of Orwell's own words, delivered with some style by Vernon Keeble-Watson, especially when he wanders on hesitantly sketching the opening of the novella in his notebook. After that he was reading from a lectern, and sometimes amplified, both of which distanced us from the narrative. The animals too were strangely static; I would have expected at least some of them to be moved by events. The freezes, with slides of real revolution behind, were effective, and more of that kind of staging would have made for a more exciting evening. And adding undiluted Orwell shows up the less Orwellian amendments. The final sole commandment ends “... some animals are more equal than others.”, the informal abbreviation “vet” sits awkwardly with “horse-slaughterer”, Pilkington would never have said “the invite”, and there was disconcerting dissent over the pronunciation of “comrade” ...

There was some good animal characterization – Richard Spong as the raven and the dove, Nicola Stacey as an Eeyore-ish donkey.

And I liked the farewell to Boxer [Andrew Spong], nuzzled by his equine comrades.

The pigs have the meatiest roles, of course, always strutting above the lower animals. Neil Gray was a pompous Napoleon with a nice line in oratory, and Matt Jones a smooth-talking Squealer.

Shostakovich's music, the chalked commandments and Alice Stacey's artwork added to the atmosphere of this familiar fable.