SPEAKING LIKE MAGPIES. To 25 February.
London
SPEAKING LIKE MAGPIES
by Frank McGuinness
Trafalgar Studios (Studio 1) To 25 February 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 060 6632 (£2.50 booking fee per transaction)
www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 February
Interesting ideas at times, and some lively production ideas, but dramatically neither a sparkler nor a banger.
The Royal Shakespeare Company's ‘Gunpowder’ Season fizzles out with Frank McGuinness’ new play, appendage to the 17th-century revivals that have formed the season’s main work. Rupert Goold’s production throws a battery of theatrical techniques at it; never a good sign. For, though the powerful themes of duality, treachery, secrecy and fear all have their strong moments, they do not add up to a complete whole.
A play can work through images and juxtaposition rather than narrative continuity. But something has to compensate for the loss of story. The images themselves have to add up. Here, it’s not that they are bad or dull (though some rely on stock ‘strong’ language that’s become tiresome dramaturgical machismo). But they clutter each other, as if McGuinness couldn’t bear to part with the best bits of each so kept them all. Repeatedly a point gets made, but the scene goes on, verbiage pouring out to little positive effect.
King, clerics, spymaster Cecil, unwanted queen, supernatural comment-figure (The Equivocator); all are clichés of the modern stage. About the only ones not to come into focus are the gunpowder men themselves, though a flaming fuse is lit not once, but twice, leading to pleasant indoor firework displays. (Goold also uses the horizontal figure in space from his Northampton Faustus). Even William Houston’s steely cruelty wears thin when seen third time in this 5-play season.
The best moments come when McGuinness admits human light into his thematic compartments, however dark the situation. Vinette Robinson’s servant going from innocent happiness to despair when seized for tortuous, torturous questioning. Ishia Bennison’s Catholic Lady grieving for her, in a voice of beautifully contained intensity. Or Fred Ridgeway’s Jesuit tortured near death, his agony contrasting the composed figures of Bennison’s mourning Lady Anne or the finally resplendent James.
Finally, McGuiness states history’s irony, that the terrorism to fear is the sort that can’t be anticipated because it can’t be imagined. It awaits its time, where least suspected while the king’s attention’s turned elsewhere. This makes a fine ending; if only more that had gone before had been so understated.
The Equivocator: Kevin Harvey
Mary Queen of Scots: Michelle Butterly
King James: William Houston
Queen Anne: Teresa Banham
Lady-in-Waiting/Amy: Vinette Robinson
Lady-in-Waiting: Miranda Colchester
Gentleman/Dog/Protestant Divine: Jon Foster
Gentleman/Catholic Aristocrat: Keith Osborn
Pope: Julian Stolzenberg
Dog: Peter Bramhill
Henry Garnet: Fred Ridgeway
Robert Cecil: Nigel Cooke
Lady Anne Vaux: Ishia Bennison
Robert Catesby: Jonjo O’Neill
Tom Wintour: Matt Ryan
Dark Man: Barry Aird
Director: Rupert Goold
Designer: Matthew Wright
Season Design: Robert Jones
Lighting: Wayne Dowdeswell
Video Design: Lorna Heavey
Sound/Music: Adam Cork
Musical Director: Michael Tubbs
Movement: Michael Ashcroft
Company voice work: Jeannette Nelson
Scottish dialect consultant: Carol Ann Crawford
Fights: Terry King
Assistant director: Elizabeth Freestone
2006-02-21 01:03:04