IN EXTREMIS. To 7 October.

London

IN EXTREMIS
by Howard Brenton

Shakespeare’s Globe In rep to 7 October 2006
Various dates 2pm, 7.30pm Sunday: 1pm, 6.30pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7401 9919/020 7850 8590
www.shakespeares-globe.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 5 September

Sharpness and sympathy in an extremely stimulating play.
Howard Brenton’s punchy, powerful play shows medieval France’s famous lovers, theologian Peter Abelard and Heloise, niece of a Notre Dame deacon who brought her up as his own beloved daughter, and, significantly, educated her as far as her high intelligence allowed.

So he gave Abelard (22 years her elder) unrestricted access to Heloise; personal tuition from a leading thinker was too good to miss. Brenton simply shows instant attraction of personalities and bodies then builds round them a picture of intellectual adventure clogged by the silted stream of orthodoxy.

Oliver Boot’s zestful Abelard easily sees off William of Champaux (John Bett, hand then body trembling as he fails to counter his intellectually brilliant opponent). His next opponent, Bernard of Clairvaux (Jack Laskey, gaunt, assured, ever-attacking) remains unshaken. Brenton characterises (or caricatures; Bernard was one of Strindberg’s 2 favourite men in history) him as leading a monastery fevered into faith by sickness and starvation, and standing for church and faith against Abelard’s belief in the individual and reason, beliefs making him a Renaissance man centuries before Europe was ready for him.

Fred Ridgeway’s decent Canon Fulbert is a man whose intelligence is limited to the accepted, unable to accept the shock of what he sees as his niece’s sexual exploitation. Though he’s a moderating influence on his relatives, anger wins out leading to Abelard’s castration.

These lovers were no Romeo and Juliet. Both lived into their 60s, not bad for the 12th century, corresponding from their separate religious houses. As the men age, Sally Bretton’s Heloise stays ever young. Rightly; Heloise’s brilliant mind and firm sense of independence make her seem youthful, up to Brenton’s gloriously anachronistic closing-line.

John Dove marshals this with care for all, though he treats the Globe as an end-on stage, while Sheila Reid’s Abbess is splendid; her slight figure commands the stage alone while her words to Heloise about sex and love sum up the decades ahead with a sense of sharp sympathy that’s central to the play.

Abelard: Oliver Boot
Heloise: Sally Bretton
Bernard of Clairvaux: Jack Laskey
Fulbert: Fred Ridgeway
Denise: Pascale Burgess
William of Champeaux: John Bett
Louis VI: Colin Hurley
Alberic: Patrick Brennan
Lotholf: William Mannering
Helene/1st Woman: Sheila Reid
Berthode/Nun/Woman: Frances Thorburn
Marie/Courtier/Whore/Nun: Niamh McCann
Francine/2nd Woman/Courtier/Nun: Rhiannon Olivere
Fulbert’s Cousins/Students/Courtiers/Monks/Drunken Bishops/Mad Monks: Tas Emiabata, David Hinton, Paul Lloyd, Simon Muller, Tom Stuart

Director: John Dove
Designer: Michael Taylor
Composer: William Lyons
Choreographer: Sian Williams
Movement: Glynn MacDonald
Voice work: Stewart Pearce
Fight director: Terry King
Bullwhip specialist: Alex Laredo

2006-09-11 09:59:23