Cut
to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch
23.04.12
Venice
and Belmont are given an exotic makeover in the Queen's stylish
Merchant, with delicious little domes, and the starry "floor of heaven"
overhead.
Glen
Walford's take on the show is billed as New Romantic early 80s; in
practice this sometimes looks bizarre, with the boys looking like
something from The Student Prince, and Portia and her maid coming on
like nymphets from Carry On Cleo.
Fortunately
Will Shakespeare's words are accorded true respect: the cast, without
exception, speak the verse clearly and meaningfully, and the tale of
"lovers and loan sharks" is passionately and pacily told.
Cut
to the Chase are famed for their versatility, and the music [Carol
Sloman's score, featuring snippets from Death in Venice, and Donna
Summer's Hot Stuff as the jig at the end] was played and sung by the
actors, Nerissa on violin, Shylock on guitar and so on.
Matt
Devitt's genial Shylock effortlessly elicited sympathy in an
impressive performance, with old-fashioned soliloquies and
beautifully crafted set-pieces. He made Stuart Organ's hard-man
Antonio seem unreasonable by contrast. Josie Taylor [keyboard], new
to the Queen's, made a lovely Portia, young, funny but pleasingly
direct as Balthazar, her Mercy speech stripped to the basics.
Two
Queen's regulars made excellent contributions to a strong production:
Simon Jessop was a merry fool as Gobbo, with his clowning and his
air-guitar, and Natasha Moore was predictably engaging as the
"beautiful pagan".
Flaming
torches, carnival masks, spherical caskets containing the three heads
– Damien Hirst skull, ventriloquist's "blinking idiot"
and a cameo of Portia – and a gorgeous set [Rodney Ford] made this
a visually as well as dramatically satisfying Shakespeare.
production photo: Nobby Clark
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