THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO. To 22 June.
Manchester
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
by Beaumarchais, translated by Robert Cogo-Fawcett and Braham Murray
Royal Exchange Theatre To 22 June 2002
Mon-Fri 7.30 Sat 8pm Mats Wed 2.30pm & Sat 4pm
Runs 2hr 45min One interval
TICKETS 0161 833 9833
Review Timothy Ramsden 18 June
A thoughtful, fast-paced comedy carrying its weight of ideas easily in a vividly-acted evening.A shelf carries a row of model heads, bearing wigs. A swishing sound, and one head tips forward into a basket. Figaro's not yet underway and the tumbrils are rolling, the guillotine flashing. Without the balm of Mozart's music, its script undoctored for Da Ponte's libretto, Beaumarchais' play is a harbinger for flags of liberty and equality, as Kaut-Howson's vivid production goes on to show.
No wonder then that, when Count Almaviva revokes his modernising agenda and restores the discredited old droit de seigneur, the lordly 'administration charge' enabling him to spend – or have free – a night with any woman on his estates about to marry, his nocturnal wannabe canoodlings take place in a garden where the ruined statuary includes another lopped-off head, that of free-thinking, freedom-loving 18th century French philosopher Voltaire. His works, set in stone, are also visible in the grounds – though, of course, Beaumarchais cautiously set his action across the Pyrenees.
He was no revolutionary, willingly buying promotion and acting as a royal spy and arms-dealer - besides being more of a womaniser than the Almaviva his servants outwit in this play. Only luck, and a former lover, kept him from death in the revolution his play foresees.
Yet the progressive politics come to a head in Figaro's last-act soliloquy, where the neatly-judged acknowledgments of the audience find their raison d' etre as all the servant's cunning plot tricks ('If I were you, I wouldn't believe a word I say') are set in the context of a society where the poor have to scheme to stay in the game. What did the count have to do to reach the heights? 'Get born, that's all,' while Figaro's survived by plying any trade going – including writing a play which upset the Mullahs, a kind of 18th century theatrical Satanic Verses. No wonder that, alongside Voltaire, the garden statuary includes a toothy, roaring lion.
Until last year's Exchange Shrew and this Figaro, I wouldn't have seen comedy as Kaut-Howson's natural directing territory. Yet several fine performances ensure the necessary light touch amid the thematically-pointed humour. Kulvinder Ghir's Figaro – marred only be a raucous tendency at high volume – is more stylish, or stylised, than his employer: it's his job – both in the story and as the plot's motor. Only John Southworth's excellently wrinkled, stuttering judge, several degrees separated from the rest of the world, challenges him for sartorial splendour.
Other good work includes Carol Ann Crawford as Figaro's ex-lover turned mother, John Cording as the Count's obstinate gardener and Samuel Barnett's gawkily adoring adolescent Cherubino. Simon Robson's Almaviva, later kitted out in a frizzed up wig mocking his pretension almost as much as does the plot, catches the character's authority, jealousy, desire and reasonableness, while Emma Cunningham's countess grows out of his shadow as the action injects confidence and self-awareness into her.
Casting non-white actors as Figaro and Suzanna adds a dimension to the revolutionary bubblings within the play. Nina Sosanya's excellently-judged Suzie is someone whose love for Figaro will clearly never put her in anyone's shadow: a loving, independent, intelligent, resourceful person, she makes clear its her marriage just as much as his.
Count Almaviva: Simon Robson
The Countess: Emma Cunningham
Figaro: Kulvinder Ghir
Suzanna: Nina Sosanya
Marceline: Carol Ann Crawford
Antonio: John Cording
Fanchette: Lydia Baksh
Cherubino: Samuel Barnett
Bartholo: Robert Austin
Bazile: Glyn Pritchard
Don Guzman Gosling: John Southworth
Underhand/Pedrillo: Andrew Grose
Sunburn/Usher: Chris Hannon
Shepherdess/Scrubber: Jo Pridding
Director: Helena Kaut-Howson
Designer: Johanna Bryant
Lighting: Vince Herbert
Sound: Steve Brown
Composer: Richard Blackford
Movement: Jack Murphy
Fights: Renny Krupinski
Sponsor: Bruntwood
2002-06-20 09:42:30