BELIEVE WHAT YOU WILL. To 11 February.
London
BELIEVE WHAT YOU WILL
by Philip Massinger
Trafalgar Studios (Studio 1) To 11 February 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2pm
Captioned 11 Feb 2pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 060 6632 (£2.50 booking fee per transaction)
www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 February
The fourth Royal Shakespeare Company ‘Gunpowder’ transfer has a cinematic scope.
Shakespeare and his Elizabethan-Jacobean world were long gone by the time of Philip Massinger’s 1631 play. As a toga-tragicomedy it avoided the censorship brought upon its initial version, which had a more recent setting, where the story of a king supposed dead apparently turning up alive years afterwards had awkward contemporary references.
In the opening scene, Antiochus (Peter de Jersey, an outstanding member of the RSC ‘Gunpowder Season’ ensemble) is defeated and apparently killed. On film – and Massinger’s play has the pace, variety and sharply-defined conflict points of Hollywood on good form – this is where the credits would roll, followed by the words “22 years later”.
For the play’s main action consists of de Jersey’s alleged Antiochus trying to prove he never actually died. All the time he’s pursued by Rome’s dirty-tricks emissary Titus Flaminius (William Houston, harsh and single-minded if occasionally too fast spoken for clarity), determined no-one will claim-back an area whose resources are vital for Rome’s expanding empire. Houston’s high-pitched lines contrast de Jersey’s deep vocal richness, a contrast separating yet linking the two. Around them various local powers-that-be give way to Rome, while Massinger exploits sex, lies and trickery in varying the action.
Josie Rourke’s production makes all this immediate and coherent on Stephen Brimson Lewis’s bare stage, blood seeping over its boards, overhung by a curtain as threadbare as the honour of princes. Barry Stanton’s Falstaffian Berecinthius mocks Titus till he goes too far, Michelle Butterly’s Courtesan employed to trick Antiochus into a fake confession moves between honey and asperity, the merchants who signed a statement denying Antiochus’ royalty admit they did so under fear of death, Bithynian king Prusius puts necessity before honour in surrendering the wandering monarch to the Romans, ruthless even with his wife once he’s made his decision.
And the tense ending is expertly handled by Nigel Cooke and Teresa Banham as Roman magnate Marcellus and his wife Cornelia (who can confirm Antiochus’ identity with her own sexual secret) standing for truth against Titus. It’s a theatrical contrast to events so far, while dramatically providing an ending that shows tragicomedy very far from comedy indeed.
Prologue/Amilcar: Mark Springer
Stoic/Marcellus: Nigel Cooke
Antiochus: Peter de Jersey
Chrysalus/Lentulus: Ian Drysdale
Syrus/Prusius: Jonjo O’Neill
Geta/Philoxenus: Peter Bramhill
Berecinthius: Barry Stanton
1st Merchant: Kevin Harvey
2nd Merchant: Barry Aird
3rd Merchant: Ewen Cummins
Titus Flaminius: William Houston
Calistus/Sempronius: Matt Ryan
Demetrius: Julian Stolzenberg
Hanno/Captain: David Hinton
Asdrubal/Jailer: Tim Treloar
Carthalo/Metellus: Fred Ridgeway
Tajah/Queen of Bithynia: Evelyn Duah
Courtesan: Michelle Butterly
Cornelia: Teresa Banham
Director: Josie Rourke
Designer: Stephen Brimson Lewis
Season Staging: Robert Jones
Lighting: Wayne Dowdeswell
Sound: Andy Franks
Music: Mick Sands
Music Director: Michael Tubbs
Movement: Michael Ashcroft
Voice/Dialects: Charmian Gradwell
Fights: Terry King
Assistant director: Elizabeth Freestone
2006-02-07 15:11:07