WITTENBERG

Read not Dead at Shakespeare's Globe

12.02.11

This season of staged readings normally showcases Shakespeare's neglected contemporaries, so a refreshing change to have a British premiere by a playwright not only living but with us in the studio space.

David Davalos imagines those three Wittenberg alumni, Doctors Faustus and Luther, and freshman Hamlet, interacting in tutorial, lecture theatre and tavern; it's a witty piece, very clever [not always in a good way], with plenty of laughs amongst the theology and philosophy, not to mention knowing jokes and jibes about academia.

This performance – co-ordinated by Clive Brill – boasted the excellent Kerry Shale as a wise-cracking New Yorker Faustus, with Nicholas Murchie as a sober Luther. The Prince of Denmark was stylishly done by Alan Cox; he made the most of the often tricky poetry he was given to speak. The devil [aka Faustus] has all the best tunes here, and he led us in a rousing Che Sera finale, as Hamlet and Luther fast forward to their greatest hits. Ross Hughes provided mood music on bass clarinet and Cavaquinho, and the four women were all played by a very versatile Adjoa Andoh.

You do need to know your Hamlet and your Marlowe, and, as the piece prepares for its off-Broadway opening, there's already one study guide out there.

But it is a very enjoyable 90 minutes on all kinds of levels, and deserves to have a wider audience. Radio springs to mind, which still finds air-space for the quirky and the intellectual ...