THE SPANISH TRAGEDY To 14 November.
London.
THE SPANISH TRAGEDY
by Thomas Kyd.
Arcola Theatre 27 Arcola Street E8 2DJ To 14 November 2009.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 3pm.
Runs 2hr 5min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7503 1646.
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 October.
Cinematic strengths, dramatic losses.
This was the Look Back in Anger of the 1580s, helping define the drama of its age without being the best of its kind. Many fine writers would follow Thomas Kyd down the increasingly tortuous paths where characters achieved revenge – often as here through putting on a performance where the villains get done in.
And he probably helped eclipse his own contribution to the tradition he was establishing by dramatising the story, in a version long lost but destined for fame from another dramatist, of revenge by a Danish prince.
Mitchell Moreno’s revival emphasises, Tarentino-style, the slithery dark violence. Stripped-down in language and setting, scenes pass at speed, establishing characters only in the service of events. On stage, unlike on screen, they seem sketchy, reducing the impact of motives and making the murders, when they come, pure gore-fest.
The story’s framed by the dead Andrea pestering the figure of Revenge for his killer’s come-uppance. Apart from the need to fill five acts before the denouement it’s hard to think why it takes so long (something Hamlet inherited). This production’s priorities – story over characters, visuals over verbals – are set at the opening with a 10 or 11year old girl playing Revenge. Visually, the mix of innocence and truculence is neat, but it’s cruel to impose this dialogue at such an age. It shows a director more interested in a general picture than specific meaning.
Moreno’s cast mix raw performances with a number of experienced classical actors running on technique. Only the calmly contained Richard Clews surmounts the limitations, giving flavour to the lines both of his Portuguese king grieving over, then rejoicing at being reunited with, his son and in a brief cameo as a father whose bereavement mirrors protagonist Hieronimo.
Otherwise, the best elements include Emma Chapman’s stark lighting, transforming the Arcola from a darkness suiting murder to full lighting for public scenes in a contrastingly safe-seeming world. And there are the plays-within-the-play, one unaccountably changed to a radio broadcast, another revealed behind the kind of roll-up garage door so often used to reveal the darker side of urban existence.
Revenge: Kitty Oliphant/Shannon Williams.
Andrea: Francis Ortega.
King of Spain: Keith Bartlett.
Duke of Castile: Guy Williams.
Lorenzo: Patrick Myles.
Belimperia: Charlie Covell.
Pedringano: Andrew Fallaize.
Hieronimo: Dominic Rowan.
Isabella/Ambassador of Portugal: Penny Layden.
Horatio/Physician: Hasan Dixon.
Pedro/Alexandro/Serberine/Deputy: Richard Shanks.
Viceroy of Portugal/Bazulto: Richard Clews.
Balthazar: Msimisi Dlamini.
Director: Mitchell Moreno.
Designer: Helen Goddard.
Lighting: Emma Chapman.
Sound: Tim Middleton.
Video: Ian William Galloway.
Puppet supervisor: Iestyn Evans.
Fight director: Paul Benzing.
Assistant director: Mel Hillyard.
2009-10-27 14:02:08