THE HERBAL BED

THE HERBAL BED

English Touring Theatre at the Arts Theatre Cambridge
04.03.16


Peter Whelan's period piece was written 20 years ago for the RSC. It's the very Stratford-on-Avon story of Shakespeare's eldest daughter Susanna, married to respected local physician John Hall.
She is a frustrated, modern woman – unable, despite her skill and knowledge, to practise medicine, she helps as she can with herbal cordials. She is lonely, too, her husband often away for days at a time bringing healing to the well-to-do.
Amongst the speculation, the fact that a cheeky, feckless apprentice to her husband slanders her, is brought to trial in a church court and is excommunicated.
Whelan ingeniously imagines the lives behind the legal record; the tensions of post-Reformation society are credibly explored, the characters are strongly drawn. Emma Lowndes makes Susanna a flawed human being, neither saint nor sinner, but a woman torn between loyalty to her good husband and the excitement of adultery and the new science. Matt Whitchurch is excellent as the laddish accuser, and Michael Mears makes the most of the splendidly named Barnabus Goche, vicar general, somewhere between Obadiah Slope and the Witchfinder General, suavely sliding one sheet of evidence after another from his scrip. Charlotte Wakefield plays the faithful servant, almost a family member, reminiscent of Desdemona's Emilia.
Susanna's poet/playwright father, ailing round the corner in New Place, almost appears at the end, his nameless 'condition' a possible explanation of part of the slander. His little grand-daughter Elizabeth does appear, charmingly. She will inherit New Place in time, and die childless, the last of the Shakespeare line.
The touring set [Jonathan Fensom] is wonderfully realised, a dark timber cube, opening out to reveal the marvellous garden within, and gliding off to reveal the ecclesiastic courtroom, lit from behind by its high window, bereft of its stained glass by the “Purifiers”.

THE HISTORY BOYS

THE HISTORY BOYS

Sell a Door Theatre Company at the Arts Theatre Cambridge

09.07.2015

Hector's trusty Triumph hangs ominously over the Sheffield classroom in Libby Watson's touring set – flanked by two cartoonish signs: You Are Here, and Hold On Tight.

Otherwise the design is unremarkable, stackable furniture, bookshelves shading into kitchen area [for the staffroom], posters collaged over the walls and large double doors witness to the original Edwardian architecture.

The maverick English teacher may lock the doors, but passers-by can still peer in, variously shocked, amused, intrigued by the goings on.

Kate Saxon's production catches the mood of secrecy and complicity. The play itself is an uneasy mix of styles and periods, in an educational landscape where league tables and open scholarships are mentioned in the same breath, foolscap paper is still in the stationery cupboard, Porter and Piaf are on the playlist with the Eurythmics and the Smiths [“our crap”] - the stunningly appropriate “when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat” …

An excellent cast, especially the staff. Richard Hope is a believably extravagant Hector, relishing the opportunities for showing off with Shakespeare, but touching too in his moments of self-doubt.

A pompous, jobsworth Headmaster from Christopher Ettridge, a lovely Lintott from Susan Twist. We even see [rather too much of] the femme fatale Fiona [Melody Brown]. Not so sure about Mark Field's Irwin; a difficult duo to pull off, the young student teacher and the tv historian.

The boys a mixed bag – some, like David Young's “thick sod” Rudge a little mature, even from the circle. But Kedar Williams-Stirling has a compelling presence as the insolent chancer Dakin, Patrick MacNamee is totally convincing as Lockwood, and Steven Roberts, his voice, like the playwright's at that age, still with treble overtones, is a superb Posner, singing the old songs, nervously snubbing the Drummer Hodge hand of friendship, looking longingly on as Dakin lingers with Irwin …

A beautifully crafted production of a great play, with something to say to everyone, whether new bugs in the Cutlers classroom or “those returning”, as the old school hymn, has it “more faithful than before”.

ETERNAL LOVE

ETERNAL LOVE

Shakespeare's Globe and ETT at the Arts Theatre Cambridge

06.02.14

Howard Brenton's 2006 In Extremis – a dazzlingly entertaining blend of poetry, dialectic, sex and laughs, is on the road this Spring, re-badged as Eternal Love, and touring as another joint venture between English Touring Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe.

The love in question is the legendary affair between Peter Abelard, theologian and composer, and Eloise d'Argenteuil, a rare twelfth century example of an educated young woman.

The original Globe production is faithfully invoked for this touring, proscenium version. As Brenton pointed out in conversation before the show, they are playing by Globe rules. So minimum lighting effects, a back wall with a ghost of Notre Dame just discernible and musicians' gallery, central curtained entrance with a doorway either side. And, in John Dove's production, that fluid Shakespearean scene segue that ensures a dynamic pace.

The energetic young company canter through the familiar tale of “France's favourite lovers”, with seduction hard on the heels of the first encounter, the altar as marriage bed leading straight to the farmers' gelding, and the tragic separation telescoped in the conclusion.

Jo Herbert is a wonderfully engaging Eloise, with her powder blue dress and her indomitable spirit – like Brenton's Anne Boleyn, she is a thoroughly modern young lady. David Sturzaker is her Abelard, an earnest philosopher, but a very human lover, too. Their passion over a copy of St Jerome is very touching.

Sam Crane is a credibly simple fanatic as Bernard, but not gaunt, ascetic or complex enough in his later, political life.

A fine supporting cast, including many familiar figures from the Globe company: William Mannering and John Cummins as a great comedy duo, Edward Peel as a down-to-earth Fulbert, broken by his niece's betrayal, and Julius D'Silva as a suave, substantial Louis VI.

Some superb costumes – the bishops' sumptuous robes – and William Lyons' brilliantly evocative music – those eloquent little bells – for the wedding night, say, or the medieval jig to finish, with a touch of magic the Globe could never emulate, twinkling coloured lights adorning the fingers of the players as they take their bows.

A fascinating play of ideas, books, and human frailty, Eternal Love is on the road nationwide until April.

Photograph of the Globe's 2007 production by Stephen Vaughan

I WAS A RAT

I WAS A RAT

Teatro Kismet at the Arts Theatre Cambridge

01.05.13

Inside a square of light, with no scenery, Teatro Kismet play out their richly imagined version of Pullman's story of 1999.

The fairy tale narrative is preserved – the drama begins, like the book, with a knock at the door of elderly, childless couple Bob and Joan [Tyrone Huggins and Lorna Gayle]. It's a boy in footman's livery, cheerfully claiming that he used to be a rat.

Fox Jackson-Keen is amazing as the rat boy. Puppyish, innocent and vulnerable, his performances lights up the stage. He's a great dancer and gymnast, too; he's been Billy Elliot in his time, and his back flips particularly impressed the Year Fives behind me.

Fox apart, the seven other actors all double up to play all the fairytale characters – the journos in their bottle glasses, the rats with their headlamp eyes. There's lovely Philosopher Royal, and a Dickensian Billy, who "rescues" Roger, our rat monster, just before the interval.

Not surprisingly, Teresa Ludovico's stylised production [originally done in Italian – Ero Un Topo] feels very European – Brecht, Fellini and Commedia all influences – and Tapscrew's grotesque circus is a highlight. Countless delights to cherish: the tap-dancing news vendor, the hand-fanned snowstorm, the wonderful Aurelia puppet – lifesize, but reduced to delicate, eloquent head, hands and feet.

Like the novel, this production is targeted at the younger audience, but its magic is potent enough to cast a spell over anyone, and I would happily have crept back into the auditorium to watch it all over again ...

LADIES IN LAVENDER

LADIES IN LAVENDER

at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

30.06.12

It was only ever a slight piece – an improbable tale made into an old-fashioned film, lifted from mediocrity by music, landscape and two movingly subtle central performances.

Almost all of this is missing in Shaun McKenna's adaptation of Charles Dance's screenplay. Some of Nigel Hess's music survives. Liz Ashcroft's set is a wonder of compact invention: rocky Cornish sea-shore, parlour, bedroom, garden all shoe-horned onto a small stage. But it often seems cramped, with sightlines and blocking occasionally an issue.

Hayley Mills and Belinda Lang are charming and convincing as the spinster sisters, living in the shadow of war, whose sibling rivalry is a key element of the drama. But they lack charisma, Mills in particular delivers her lines beautifully but with little subtlety. Compared, say, with Abigail Thaw's rounded character as the bohemian artist Olga.

Good character support from Robert Duncan, a country doctor in the Robert Hardy mould, and Carol Mcready, wringing every ounce of rustic comedy from Dorcas, the housekeeper. Robert Rees was the young Polish violinist, shipwrecked on his way to the New World. Perfectly acceptable, but in the age of actor/musicians it seems a shame not to cast someone who could actually play the instrument.

Production values elsewhere were high, and Robin Lefevre's production had some lovely, poignant moments – opening and closing with concerts on the wireless, though I suspect that had I been able to see the fiddler above the roof I should have found it a little cheesy …

MATTHEW BOURNE'S EARLY ADVENTURES

MATTHEW BOURNE'S EARLY ADVENTURES

New Adventures at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge

14.06.12

Retrieved from the back of the choreographer's drawers, three early pieces from the distant 90s, before Bourne became mainstream.

They make a very entertaining evening, packed with knowing wit, beautifully designed by Lez Brotherstone, though in Cambridge we had only the basic back-projection, and the art nouveau arch throughout.

First up, Spitfire, from 1988. Most of us older aficionados could recognise the cheesy, preening catalogue poses here, with Persil-white undies in various styles. You'd have to be a bit of a balletomane to see the reference to Perrot's original pas de quatre. And I'm still not sure why it was called Spitfire. But it was beautifully performed, with archly camp callisthenics and hilarious facial expressions.

From the year after, Galop Infernal, which closed the programme. A cheeky glance across the channel, with a rampant colonne Wallace and a vespasienne dominating the stage. Nicely dressed in shades of grey, like a Doisneau photo, and lashings of popular song – three matelots for La Mer, an OTT treatment of Piaf. Lots of floor-work here as elsewhere in the evening, making me glad I'd gone for the balcony.

Either side of a rather awkward interval, the two companion pieces Town and Country, from 1991. Town featured ukuleles, little red scooters, ironic embroidery, a camp Carnforth for very Brief Encounters, assisted bathing and Sailing By. Country, against an idyll of the kind featured in petrol posters, had ridiculous rusticity, a clog dance, and a cuddly hedgehog puppet whose funeral provided an oddly moving moment.

Very nostalgic, full of the unexpected; wonderfully uplifting stuff from a young man whose work was cutting edge and dangerous way back then ...

ANNE BOLEYN

ANNE BOLEYN

Shakespeare's Globe tour at the Arts Theatre Cambridge

17.03.12

A huge touring company – fruitful collaboration between English Touring Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe – begins its travels at the Arts in Cambridge.

John Dove's première production of Howard Brenton's fascinating and intriguing piece survives very successfully the transfer to what must be one of the smallest stages of the tour. The Globe setting is evoked rather than replicated, with a single tree and a tiny musician's gallery.

One of the few scenes actually to benefit from the claustrophobic intimacy this allows was the moment when Anne is arrested, and is left alone amid an uncaring court.

Jo Herbert is a magnetic Anne, charming the audience, and her Henry, with her direct, flirtatious manner. Difficult to achieve the rapport with the house when darkness makes us invisible, but she succeeds, especially in her final farewell. Survivors from 2010 included Colin Hurley's woolly Wolsey, Michael Bertenshaw's solid Cecil, and James Garnon's amazing King James. And another chance to shudder at Julius d'Silva's Cromwell, career politician and ruthless schemer. A new Villiers in Michael Camp: an impressively honest performance, though the comic timing needs a few more previews to perfect.

It was good to chat with the players beforehand [another relic of the Globe original] – we learned that Lady Celia graduated from Fitzwilliam in 1997, and that "Steamy", though daunted by the old hands who arrived word perfect at the first rehearsal, was made welcome by a friendly company, and is hoping to see the show garner some five star reviews when it plays to the national critics in Brighton …