THE RIVAL QUEENS by Nathaniel Lee. Union Theatre to 22 December.

London

THE RIVAL QUEENS
by Nathaniel Lee, adapted Dan Rebellato

I'm A Camera theatre company at the Union Theatre To 22 December 2001
Runs 2hr 10min One interval

TICKETS 020 7261 9876
Review Timothy Ramsden 12 December

Classical passion, poison and back-stabbing from good King Charles' golden days.There's no point in making out this is a great play or production. But neither should be dismissed. Dan Rebellato has shorn Lee's 1677 tragedy of many trimmings but left the sometimes bombastic, occasionally pithy, verse with its grand emotions intact. Not that things are that heroic; the odd bystander aside most of the characters are engaged at some point in killing, being killed or plotting to have someone bumped off.

It was when the anti-Alexander conspirators Cassander and Thessalus stood around sneering at his majesty with goblets in their hands it struck me these were wine-bar know-alls who merely needed to wait for the world to discover wine-bars. Arrogant and destructive, opinionated and devious, only their names and garb separated them from their modern equivalents. Today the weapon's as likely to be a poisoned word-processor or microphone rather than the fatal drug Cassander pours into Alexander's goblet, but if it's the thought that counts there's no substantial difference.

Apparently the RSC considered reviving the play, then didn't. Doubtless they'd have had more fanfares, grander processions and actors with greater command of verse structure and cadences. But I'm A Camera's cast speak with energy, if sometimes raw energy, making meaning and character clear.

Craig Giovanelli's confident Alexander descends into an impetuous drunkard, repeatedly regretting his hasty actions. With no other world left to conquer, he fails to gain mastery over himself. So he veers between the 'fond soul' Statira and the viper-tongued Roxana. Physically and vocally there's a gulf between Georgie Alexander's austerely sacrificial Statira and the scornful fury of Coralie Banks' Roxana, but both are passionately determined to pursue their own course, with fatal results. Jane D. Clarke's production can't help building in the historical Alexander's sexuality. His passionate greeting of his favourite Hephestion suggests neither woman would occupy the imperial heart exclusively, leaving the play slightly lopsided.

But it's a small enough point in a simple, intimate staging in the round which moves swiftly through the action, punching home the complex of emotions and making the point that the Restoration psyche had more to it than the often revived comedies of the time might suggest.

Lysimachus: Matt Rozier
Hephestion: Simon Muller
Clytus: Charles David Anderson
Sysgambis: Belinda Belt
Parisatis: Anna-Marie Wayne
Cassander: Dan Maynard
Thessalus: Matt Broad
Statira: Georgie Alexander
Aristander: Caroline Mudd
Alexander the Great: Craig Giovanelli
Roxana: Coralie Banks

Director: Jane D. Clarke
Designer: Karen Haydon
Lighting: Steve Miller
Fight director: Young Blood – Dramatic Action Specialists

2001-12-13 01:02:30