When: Tuesday 29th October
Where: Old Vic
Why: Mission to see every version of Much
Ado that is produced – ongoing
I sort of can’t be
bothered to give this production a scathing review, as somehow I feel like that
would be expending energy on something which didn’t give me any energy in the
first place. It doesn’t deserve my strong opinion either way.
The twist on this
oft-performed play was that the ultimate Shakespearean couple Beatrice and
Benedick were played by an older couple – here, the venerable James Earl-Jones
(voice of Mufasa, who knew?) and Vanessa Redgrave. I say twist; I think that
was the plan, but simply hiring older actors to play the parts and leaving them
to it wasn’t really enough, in my opinion. There was much made of this unusual
casting in the press, it was meant to be an intriguing new interpretation and a
new perspective on a classic – but as far as I could see, it made no difference
at all.
Redgrave and JE-J played
the roles so straight that I lost all interest before the interval. Almost all
the humour in the lines was completely lost due to JE-J simply reading his
lines out in a monotone cascade while sat in a chair at the side of the stage
(- for variation, sometimes he stood up at the side of the stage, legs splayed,
and read out his lines in a monotone cascade). I can’t blame the main couple
entirely for the production’s lack of dynamism and humour, but they were an
essential part of it, and greatly contributed to my bitter sense of disappointment
as I’d been expecting a lot from these greats. Not to mention the fact that
this version was directed by the brilliant Mark Rylance, who is unquestionably
an acting genius. I saw Rylance’s talk near the start of the run, and although
generally fairly interesting, he didn’t seem hugely fired up about the
production which I think carried through to the actual performances. It was set
in the second world war for “no particular reason”, other than it allowed
Rylance to incorporate an all-black regiment from the time, which fitted in
nicely with the casting of JE-J. But there was a kind of reserved blankness in
Rylance’s talk which disconcerted me at the time, then made total sense when I
saw the play. Maybe he already knew it was going to flop.
There are some
positives. This was the first version of Much Ado that I’ve seen where the
comedy scenes (Dogberry, Verges, the guard) didn’t annoy me beyond belief – and
yes, that includes the classic Kenneth Branagh film and the beauteous Eve Best
version at the Globe. The guard were played by children which added the only
energy to be found in the play and provided an interesting contrast to the
elderly couple, and they did it admirably. There was also a brilliant moment
with an old gardener doing some epic crazy dancing behind some tedious scene or
other. Redgrave had a couple of nice moments of delivery (her voice is
captivating), particularly during Beatrice’s softer moments, such as “and then
a star danced”. And the music was good.
However. The staging was
totally rubbish and a bit bizarre – a large wooden canopy dominated the stage
and was impossible to use to good effect. It was all but ignored during the
gulling scenes, when it might have been somewhat useful, and it broke up the
stage in an unhelpful way. It was used to good effect only during the funeral
scene where it created a shroud and some dynamism with Claudio stood on top
delivering his eulogy to Hero. The canopy just seemed to always be in the way
and was overly modern for a self-proclaimed old fashioned telling of the story.
When you’re playing it straight and your two main characters don’t do much
other than sit in a chair or stand in one place, maybe a more interesting stage
would have helped to lift the mood.
One review has called this
version of Much Ado a “misdirected oddity” and I think that’s exactly right. It
was baffling because it seemed that no thought or logic had been put into how
or why this couple were older and how they fitted in with the rest of the
characters. There was little attention to detail and it was lacklustre in a way
I haven’t seen since that fateful Lana Del Rey concert.
Disappointed by Rylance,
Redgrave and JE-J, and the Old Vic.
Brixpig
x
This tour was to showcase their sixth album We Were Here which stayed true to their
sound but with a bit of a “psychedelic edge”, which is almost never a bad
thing. The concert was mild mannered but enthusiastic, with some epic jazz
flute action and bass guitar flipping. During pauses between songs, the guys
made sure to charm the crowd to keep them involved – “We tune because we care”
– and it definitely worked, judging by the obvious affection for the band emanating
off the crowd in waves. My favourite song of all is their classic track Painkiller which is a constant on any
playlist I create, and always takes me vividly back to sitting in my tiny
college room in Durham drinking a 50p pint of coke, leaning back on my chair
and casually wasting my time in the most delightful way possible. 
