THE ISLAND PRINCESS. In rep to 25 January.
RSC
THE ISLAND PRINCESS
by John Fletcher
RSC at the Gielgud Theatre In rep to 25 January 2003 Season extended
Runs 2hr 35min One interval
Tickets 0870 890 1105
Review Timothy Ramsden 28 December
Jacobean Hollywood gets first-class production and performances.If architecture is frozen music, the Gielgud's Edwardian proscenium sings a different tune from the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon where this production, and its four fellows from the Shakespearean age, originated last year. What was spoken there seems announced from the higher-raised, arched-off stage. Characters perform rather than behave. Yet so strong is Gregory Doran's finely-acted production that it scarcely matters. Seen here for the first time, the plays no doubt seem as natural as they did in the Swan itself.
Doran and his admirable crew probably make this seem a better play than it is. The clash of Portuguese adventurers and native Indonesians is hardly multi-ethnic drama: more old-style Hollywood exotic. While there's plenty of play with the unreliability of human behaviour, especially where sex is concerned (Fletcher, like any studio hack, focuses his title on the sex interest), and a complex of danger-point plotting, no-one could accuse the script of wasting time on character depth or detail.
Doran contrasts the business-like black-and-white of the Euro-men and the languorous colour of the Indonesian women, coloured further by the comically wannabe warrior suitors from Bakam and Syana, while Ternata's governor takes rejection by Princess Quisara as his cue to torture her captive brother-king, later faking religious zealotry to divide islanders and visitors.
There's bombast too from Portuguese leader Dias, emphasised in David Rintoul's affected elegance of movement, voice and pose. Contrasting him is Armusia, who frees Quisara's brother while Dias stands around propounding vagueness; Jamie Glover's square-jawed, firm-featured man of action sets to work between the flowing insignificance that makes Dias comic till, near the end he gains self-realisation, and Joe Dixon, face set in thuggish dullness, body heaved unwillingly over the stage while the voice roars unthinking threats.
If Michael Matus' king has a saintly other-worldliness, a thinking deliberation divorcing thought from instinctive reaction, his sister's shown by Sasha Behar as every centimetre worth her suitors' efforts, if vocally somewhat hurried and jagged at times for one so royal.
Among this fine company, Antony Byrne's Euro-lieutenant and Shelley Conn's island attendant, both shrewd characters in their way, are outstanding.
Ruy Dias: David Rintoul
Pymiero: Antony Byrne
Christophero: Keith Osborn
Pedro: James Tucker
Armusia: Jamie Glover
Soza: Billy Carter
Emanuel: Ben Hicks
King of Tidore: Michael Matus
Quisara: Sasha Behar
Quisana: Claire Benedict
Panura: Shelley Conn
Governor of Ternata: Paul Bhattacharjee
King of Bakam: Joe Dixon
King of Syana: Avin Shah
Keeper: Vincent Brimble
Captain: Sean Hannaway
Director: Gregory Doran
Designer: Niki Turner
Lighting: Wayne Dowdeswell
Sound: Martin Slavin
Music: Adrian Lee
Fight director: Terry King
Dialect coach: Jeannette Nelson
Company voice work: Andrew Wade/Jeannette Nelson
2002-12-30 16:05:53