Welcome to Elizabethan England. The country is in turmoil, on the brink of economic collapse, and the plague is at its peak; the theatre however, continues to perform, and friends and struggling playwrights / actors Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare vie for supremacy. Of course, there are stringent laws pertaining to what the theatre troupes may or may not do, and the government and the Crown, have to have their final say. oh, and of course, there must be no women on the stage either... all the female roles being performed by boys and men.
'Shakespeare In Love' isn't really a stage play - at least not yet. This stage adaptation from the absolutely excellent screenplay by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, is still rather cinematic in its writing and is in need of tweeking, with many characters, offering little or no time for character development or for the audience to hone in on those who will carry the story forward and those who are unessential to the main plot. I had the absolute privilege and pleasure of directing a version of the screenplay in Austria as a piece of promenade theatre around the centre of Graz years ago, and so am fully aware of the pitfalls in a stage adaptation. But it is a wonderful play, and fully deserves to work.
The storyline is the fictionalised account of how Shakespeare came to write his most famous work, 'Romeo And Juliet'. Many of the characters on stage are real historical personages who interact freely with those of the writer's invention. It may well be of an advantage to the audience member to have seen the film (that is questionable), however, those audience members who have no knowledge of the works (and famous quotes) of Shakespeare's works, might well find that they do not understand much of the humour within the text.
The stage is set... an Elizabethan theatre cut in half, so that we are presented with the stage part of the wooden O. This simply and cleverly becomes the bed chamber of Viola De Lesseps, other locations, and of course the theatres in which the action is set. Just the changing of a banner or the moving of a flat made this possible with ease and this worked superbly.
The story moves at a pace, and director Joseph Meighan made full use of the stage, and the areas created by the set, to ensure the smooth and swift transfer between scenes. Some Elizabethan style harmony singing from cast members also worked nicely to introduce a new mood or add, Greek-chorus-like, a comment or two on the action. The audience this evening happily were with the play right from the start, laughing in all the right places, and Meighan showed considerable skill with large crowd scenes and the chaotic comedy these scenes conveyed. The long scene in the second act which is ostensibly 'backstage', with the sword fights and brawl over the manuscript was deftly choreographed and worked excellently.
With such a large cast, it would make this review extremely long if I were to comment on all - 28 actors / actresses.. and a dog (which was a masterstroke, as Ness (Spot) performed on cue and delighted the audience this evening). However, I would like to make a special mention to a couple or so...
First, and possibly, most obviously Loui Quelcutti as the Bard himself. It's a very difficult role to play - especially since we all have our own ideas as to how he should be performed (all 'luvvies' think they know him personally!). Sometimes, for me at least, Quelcutti was overegging the custard a little, but generally keeping himself in check as emotions come and go with a speed of knots and inspiration for his writing flashes across his consciousness. It's hard to make him a real and relatable character, and Quelcutti did well to make him as sympathetic as he did.
Ciara-Alexandra Booker was Shakespeare's muse, Viola De Lesseps, and not only does she have the most costume changes in the show, she also has to switch between two distinct characterisations, as she pretends to be Thomas Kemp (Will Kemp was a real actor and part of Shakespeare's company). Much comedy and indeed realism was found throughout, although I think perhaps trying a somewhat lower, more masculine voice for Kemp (even if comedic) would have worked better than speaking in the same voice as her natural Viola voice.
Meg Brassington was a lovely characterful maid to Viola, and I enjoyed her interpretation and performance greatly; whilst Fiona Primrose completely embodied Queen Elizabeth - no acting here, she WAS Elizabeth I, and with a superb costume to aid her, this was a stunning cameo.
Of course, much credit to all the others on stage this evening - all created interesting and (mostly) believable characters, helping the story along its way. And with the help of some creative but not overfussy lighting, music (credit to Mark Goggins), and some tight and clever directing (Joseph Meighan), this was a highly entertaining and engaging production, which is fully deserving of full houses every night, full of theatre folk and theatre-lovers. It's possibly a chance-in-a-lifetime production too, as I have never seen this on stage before [other than my aforementioned production in Graz circa 2006!] - so grab your tickets while you can!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 6.2.23
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 6.2.23
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