Originally written by French playwright Pierre Corneillle (1606-84), this freely adapted version by American playwright Tony Kushner, is an exceptionally bold choice for the graduating students of Manchester School of Theatre to present.
Now, bearing in mind Corneille wrote this in the 17th Century and Kushner adapted it in the 20th Century, those unfamiliar with the story could potentially be very wrong-footed by this play. Utilising what was then a new and highly inventive form of storytelling, this ‘play within a play’ takes the theme of ‘love’ and exposes it under the guise of passion, desire, jealousy and even a healthy dose of unrequited love.
Kushner has ably assisted the original text by shaking it up with lyrical speeches akin to that of a modern day Shakespeare. Carefully teasing out humour and pathos with beautifully constructed verse that enters the ear with ease.
The play opens with Pridamant (Sam Black) seeking counsel from the infamous and slightly unorthodox Alcandre (Ellis Konstantina) and her assistant The Amanuensis (Kirsty Johnson) regarding the whereabouts of his estranged prodigal son. Alcandre proceeds to conjure extracts of Pridamant’s son’s life who is portrayed through three characters Calisto, Clinton and Theogenes, all played by Thomas Ghaleb. To Pridamant’s occasional outbursts of surprise or dissatisfaction, we meet three high-born love interests in Meilbea, Isabelle and Hippolyta, ably performed by Dora Davis. Each love interest has a doting/meddlesome lady-in-waiting all hilariously portrayed by Lucy Greenaway. Along the tortuous route of love, we meet a variety of unwanted suitors in the form of Pleribo, Adraste and Prince Florilame (Dylan Brady) and a lunatic (Connor Coen), for good measure!
The performances under the expert direction of Seb Harcombe are detailed, full-bodied and a joy to watch. The characterisation, physicality, stage craft and ensemble understanding of the play is clearly delivered with conviction and vigour.
In order to fully appreciate how detailed a performance this was, I have to reveal a few spoilers to those who have never seen this play. As already mentioned, this is a play within a play that, fundamentally, holds the mirror up to life, love and us, the audience. At the culmination of the story, the scenery is dramatically pulled down to reveal a large mirror upstage. Thus revealing that whilst the real audience had observed the conjurings of Alcandre to us; seemingly opposite us via the mirror, those conjured scenes were played to a reflected and, until then, unseen audience.
I loved this ‘reveal’ because I had watched several scenes during the ‘conjurings’ that jarred with me. I found myself questioning why actors were upstaging themselves and using ‘bad stage craft’. It was not until this final reveal that I realised no upstaging had taken place whatsoever. In fact, the voyeurism of Alcandre’s conjured episodes seemed to become even more isolated to our prying eyes.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this clever performance and recommend the play as a whole. The performance I watched was confident, grounded and emotional in equal measures swinging from comedic triumph to catastrophic tragedy with a professionalism rarely seen in undergraduates.
Overall, an extremely high standard of performance on the prestigious stage of Home’s Theatre 2. Each cast member should be very proud of their performances for this play is no mean feat. Well done!
Reviewer - Alexis Tuttle
on - 23/11/18
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