SEJANUS: HIS FALL. To 28 January.
London
SEJANUS: HIS FALL
by Ben Jonson
Trafalgar Studios (Studio 1) To 28 January 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2pm
Audio-described 28 Jan 7.30pm
Captioned 25 Jan 7.30pm
Runs 2hr 50min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 060 6632 (£2.50fee per transaction)
www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 January
Clear dissection of the cold heart of political ambition and the corruption it brings.
Even among the Royal Shakespeare Company’s fire-powered ‘Gunpowder’ Season, Gregory Doran’s rare revival of rare Ben Jonson’s tragedy strikes an especially bright spark. A chilling script to read, the play is a cold bath of realpolitik in action, as early Roman Empire favourite Sejanus connives and murders his way towards the top, before coming a cropper at wanting to marry into the imperial family (always the danger point: in Henry IV it’s the gossip that Hal’s pal Poins has boasted of marrying the prince’s sister which causes a rare tension between the young men).
William Houston’s rugged-featured Sejanus, with his swept-back bundle of hair variously resembling a power-mad wolf or a capricious toad, has a purposeful energy that mocks at loyalty or religion, even assaulting the goddess Fortune when she turns from him. Sex, with man or woman, is a rough act for him, less about physical pleasure than cutting his way to the top. Enemies are disposed of (there’s a brief, chilling scene added showing the outcome of a complex poison plot), flatterers despised.
It’s intriguing to compare Jonson’s political climber with his near theatrical coeval, Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Jonson doesn’t go inside the head, but his analysis of public and political processes is acute. Doran captures it in the swirl of senators and citizens, and the evasiveness of Sejanus’ toadies and spies, moving secretively away behind pillars, watching over their shoulders.
Emphasising the contrast between these and the honest citizens who speak out direct and plain, Geoffrey Freshwater and James Hayes, whose main characters have been dispatched through Sejanus’ plots, return as false-whiskered buffoons, old men creepily obsequious to the great man. Nigel Betts goes the reverse way, his posing, supercilious self-seeker Eudemus, flattering high-born ladies, bowing and scraping at the great man’s word and ready to use his medical knowledge for murderous ends, being replaced by an honest, indignant member of the anti-camp.
By then almost all Rome’s under Sejanus’ influence, and Doran creates comedy from the senators’ rush to sit closest to him, until the imperial word unseats Sejanus - suddenly there's space all around. A fine production.
Tiberius: Barry Stanton
Drusus: Matt Ryan
Livia: Miranda Colchester
Eudemus: Nigel Betts
Lygdus: Peter Bramhill
Agrippina: Ishia Bennison
Nero: Jonjo O’ Neill
Caligula: Jon Foster
Lady: Vinette Robinson
Silius: Geoffrey Freshwater
Sabinus: James Hayes
Arruntius: Nigel Cooke
Cordus: Keith Osborn
Sejanus: William Houston
Macro: Peteer De Jersey
Laco: Barry Aird
Varro/Regulus: Ewen Cummins
Afer: Kevin Harvey
Latiaris: Ian Drysdale
Satrius: Michael Jenn
Natta: Tim Treloar
Director: Gregory Doran
Designer: Robert Jones
Lighting: Wayne Dowdeswell
Sound: Martin Slavin
Music: Paul Englishby
Movement: Michael Ashcroft
Company voice work: Charmian Gradwell, Alison Bomber
Fights: Terry King
Assistatn director: Richard Twyman
2006-01-23 16:22:56