BANK OF SCOTLAND INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S THEATRE FESTIVAL 2004.
KING A
Traverse 1 To 31 May
Runs 1hr 20min No interval
Good ideas made accessible, but too much of a good thing at times.A monarch can be either an Arthur or a Hamlet; a doer or a thinker. In Netherlands company Het Laagland's version of Camelot there's an Arthur who is inclined to be a Hamlet. Give him an emergency and he'll pull a sword from a stone for anyone, but ask him to contemplate the action and he's ridden with self-doubts and reservations.
This is theatre scaled more than one way to its 8+ audience. The set consists of primary-school sized wooden chairs. They're stacked for mounting as the five-strong cast use them to echo descriptions of knightly qualities, then piled in a heap as the stone holding Excalibur, before making the neat rows of Arthur's ordered kingdom and outlining his equal-status round table.
Knights mount or leap over them as they agree or argue with Arthur, till he finally overturns the lot when knightly passions outplay his policy.
Any medievalism is used economically and is generally undercut by modernity - triumphal music for banner-waving segues into modern beats, the hooded priest throws off hood and deep voice - while Arthur's magical adviser Merlin is self-confessedly no crystal-ball gazer, though a good juggler.
Different mindsets clash as Arthur turns out a prototype bureaucrat, wanting each knight to take responsibility for himself but contribute also to a democratic council. His red ringbinders don't please the like of Kay, who wants action - now and always.
Both action and ideas abound in this vigorous, athletic production, which also does its bit for equal-opportunities as the sole female outguns (or swords) a dismissive Kay. She turns out to be Guinevere and the story of her love for Lancelot introduces some beautiful images - tender closeness ripening to rumbustious play and the sight of Arthur, Vanya-like, walking in to find his wife palm-paddling with his best mate.
It reaches a height at the royal wedding dance, Guinevere changing partners between Arthur and Lanbcelot, till her husband finally has to pull her back to him.
This shows a new side to Arthur, made childlike again in love then finding the maturity to put aside jealousy in a final attempt to hold the community, and society, together. Yet it's an extended sequence that in exploring private feelings re-aligns an already substantial piece of drama, making for a lot to take in.
Both the flow of this production and its method of storytelling denies the easy opportunity of an interval. Yet, without one, the concentration span, and the range of ideas it encompasses, risks becoming over-rich. Better wised-up than dumbed-down, I know, but there is an optimum point which this ambitious, wide-ranging and energetic show risks going beyond. Still, King A's ideas and theatrical flair offer more than enough for any theatregoer. This is a show where the plus-sign really could apply up to any age.
2004-05-31 14:51:00