AS YOU LIKE IT

AS YOU LIKE IT

TWAS Theatre at St Martin's Church, Colchester

30.09.2016

Old tyres, the obligatory traffic cone, discarded toys. Could be another part of Butterworth's Jerusalem.

But no, this is the French court, re-imagined as a community of Travellers, where Orlando is “rustically at home”. This bold transposition, though it sits uneasily with talk of noble birth, successfully suggests the passion and violence of the sibling rivalry, and evokes the exotic aristocracy of the Travellers.

Most of the play is set in the Forest of Arden, and this is delightfully transformed into a Folk Festival, allowing scope for the many songs [composer and MD Adam Abo-Henriksen] and for Jacques' open-mic stand-up Seven Ages, compellingly delivered by Thomas Edwards.

Shakespeare's text survives the transition very well, with excellent verse speaking across the company.

Roisin Keogh makes a superb Rosalind, setting off with a bed-roll for the Festival, sharing confidences with her friend Celia [Charlotte Luxford], dressing as Ganymede in baseball cap, bomber jacket and hosiery cod-piece. We can see in her open, honest face how deep she is in love; she has some lovely chemistry with her Orlando [ a youthful, assured Alec Clements] – taking his hand, offering her services, snatching a kiss.

Though we lose Touchstone and Audrey in the forest, there is inevitably some serious doubling. Most bizarrely Charles the red-masked wrestler and Phoebe the Proud Shepherdess, both memorably done by Benjamin Power. Phoebe, a vision in pink, certainly not for all markets, even steals the Epilogue from Rosalind. And milks her Adele moment in the best known number.

A little too long, perhaps, as are some of the other songs. Generally the pace is good, and the cuts bring this touring show in at under two hours, plus interval.

Just eight actors, which seems to be the magic minimum for most of Shakespeare. It's the number that Shakespeare's Globe tours with, and they could do worse than to borrow Tom Foster's lively, contemporary take on the pastoral – it would work wonderfully with a picnic in the open air.

THINGS TO COME – AS YOU LIKE IT

Coming soon to St Martin's Church – the setting last month for the Young Company's beautiful Romeo and Juliet – TWAS Theatre's new production of Shakespeare's sylvan comedy As You Like It.
It's set in the present day, in a travelling community, but still features a cross-dressing Rosalind, Charles the Wrestler, “All the World's a Stage” Jacques and the rest, plus live folk music.
It's playing in the Colchester church on September 29, 30 and 31, at 7:30.

Tickets just £10.

http://twastheatre.co.uk/venues-as-you-like-it-2016/

ROMEO AND JULIET (ABRIDGED)

ROMEO AND JULIET (ABRIDGED)

Mercury Young Company

at St Martin's Church, Colchester

20.08.2016

for The Reviews Hub

A memorable Shakespeare from the Mercury Young Company.

The tragedy of the star-crossed lovers is well suited to these teenage actors, and considerably enhanced by a high-concept production in an historic setting.

These walls were old when Shakespeare penned his play; St Martin's was already standing when those two noble households squabbled in Lombardy. Beneath the lively feet of the players, do real families lie in long-forgotten vaults?

The action begins on Capel's Monument, with lilies and the statue of pure gold. Above the heads of the lovers, a cascade of folio pages hangs suspended. There is music – three band stations around the church – and movement, with running, dancing and fighting all around us. We, the groundlings, must move from one acting area to the next, gently propelled by the company. And there are many striking stage pictures – couples casually draped in window recesses, in the chancel, where we do not venture, Juliet is several times silhouetted against the East Window as she is dressed for the ball by her nurse, or scolded by her father. The warring factions, moving apart as the Prologue ends, confront each other across the Nave. Romeo lingers on the monument as Juliet watches him depart … “...thou look'st pale...” Stained glass dapples the ancient wall with colour. There is downlight through the hanging pages, uplight through grilles, smoke too – no doubt it all looks very different in the “mask of night”.

So the emphasis in Filiz Ozcan's, inspired, imaginative staging is not always on the text. The music – MD Matt Marks – has many company members turning their hand to the multiplicity of instruments. There's an accordion, a triangle, a harp for mourning, and percussion sticks for the fighting – very effectively done with wooden “fiddlesticks”, and tiny red petals for the blood.

Despite the acoustic (the sung words are largely lost), the verse is clearly delivered, with excellent performances from many in the large cast. Ivy Dillon is a convincingly naïve Juliet, the dashing Peregrine Maturin-Baird gives a superbly assured Romeo. Freya Leslie makes a bold Mercutio, Alfie Lawrence a fine Tybalt, shrugging off his tunic as he leaves the stage – the costumes cleverly blend ancient and modern. Tom Campe impresses as an eloquent Paris. The smaller parts, too, are often tellingly done: Flavia Ferretti's Balthasar, say, or Sophie Chivers' Ghostly Father, dropping his herbs in astonishment, or Jess Cuthbert's lovely Nurse, amply rewarded for her pains by a generous Romeo.

Production image: Robert Day