Much Ado About Nothing: Oldies at the Old Vic

When: Tuesday 29^th 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

Twelfth Night

When: Tuesday 15th January

Where: Apollo Theatre

Why: My dear @cakespeareuk loves a man in a dress (and got up early to get us £10 day seats)

This all-male production of Twelfth Night totally rocked my socks. We got to the theatre early to watch the actors getting ready on stage – here Mark Rylance slapping his make-up on, there Stephen Fry getting his beard fiddled about with. It was a great start to the play and far from spoiling the magic it added to the feeling of authenticity and kind of emphasised the skill we were about to behold – like, you know full well you’ve just seen a modern man cramming a wig on his head, but as soon as the play starts for real it’s instantly a woman in front of you. Kind of showing off their mastery, really. And this play is such a good one to go all-male on, as it just mixes up the cross-dressing that drives the whole play and makes you understand Shakespeare’s preoccupation with it. It’s quite cool to be seeing a play performed by all men when you know that this is what it was written for and how it was always originally performed. And boy oh BOY did those boys do it well. Even the staging was original, with candle chandeliers dripping all over the actors, traditional (and luxuriant) costumes, and on-stage seating to mimic the Globe.

Sneaky stage photo

I have to go all out there and say that there was not a bad second in this production. I quite often get dozing off moments in Shakespeare (even in my beloved Much Ado, always when the fools are up), but there was none of that here. The silly, for-the-groundlings scenes with Sir Toby and Andrew Aguecheek and Maria were amongst the best, despite the scene where they plot Malvolio’s downfall bringing me violent sixth form speech and drama lesson flashbacks (“Go shake your ears!”). Roger Lloyd-Pack, skinny legged and mournful, stuck in a hedge after eavesdropping on Malvolio had me in hysterics, and Paul Chahidi’s mincing, comedy dame with a frankly astoundingly realistic cleavage was perfect as the catty and clever Maria and provided a great foil to the pompous Malvolio. Stephen Fry’s booming presence was hilarious during the picnic rug scene where he tries to seduce Olivia, but lacked a little bit of subtlety and true malevolence at the end when he swears to get his revenge – more petulant than menacing.

The true star turn was obviously Mark Rylance as Olivia, whom I had never seen but had heard gushing praise for from my flatmate and all other sources. His Olivia was flustered, full of tenderness and hesitance, passion and ridiculousness, gliding about the stage as if on casters. His doleful voice was absolute perfection and his performance seemed to transcend gender, if that doesn’t sound too stupid – you logically know it’s a male actor, and a female character, but almost it didn’t seem to matter what was going on in this performance – it was all about the character of Olivia. It was just masterful and I was suitably impressed.

The whole play was both hilarious and surprisingly romantic – the chemistry between Liam Brennan’s Orsino and Johnny Flynn’s Viola was palpable and engrossing, and their near kiss while Viola was still in her male guise was so convincingly done. Viola and Samuel Barnett’s Sebastian were beautifully played. The music and philosophical fooling provided by Peter Hamilton Dyer’s Feste were expert and moving, and he really tied up the play in its entirety, providing a constant thread in each scene and embodying the spirit of the play.

I’m so thrilled I got to see this production and am seriously crossing my fingers they release a DVD version (as with Much Ado) so that I can relive it.

Verdict: immense.

Brixpig x