THE THREE MUSKETEERS: adapted Gray, touring till 6 September

Touring.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS
by Alexandser Dumas adapted by Oliver Gray.
Illyria, Tour Information www.illyria.uk.com
Runs: 2h 30m: one interval :till 6 September.
Review: Alan Geary: Newstead Abbey: 22 August 2009.

Gutsy action, skulduggery and comedy – Illyria are back near their best.
Illyria are back near their best with this one. This new adaptation of The Three Musketeers, with its combination of gutsy action, skulduggery and comedy, offers excellent entertainment.

Adaptor Oliver Gray, who also directs, has remained faithful to the Dumas original. So there’s an outrageous helping of super swordplay, brilliantly choreographed by Toby Gaffney, some sharply drawn characters and plenty of slapstick fun; at one point people are being hit with a frying pan and a string of sausages. A beheading scene gets a laugh.

We’re also treated to a lot of those scenes where someone writes a wordy missive with one brief swish of a giant feather produced from thin air, and without ink.

A host of characters, not just D’Artagnan (Tom Hackney) and his three friends - Porthos (Toby Gaffney), Aramis (William Finkenrath) and Athos (Adrian Clargo) - are played well. We get a comically foppish King Louis XIII, grovelling Gallic waiters, scheming courtiers, worldly clerics, etc, done by just six actors; the others are Theresa Brockway and Annie Lees Jones.

It even seems to work when Brockway and Lees Jones appear from the back of the audience to represent a whole army of Englishmen - who get soundly beaten, mainly because, as is the convention in swashbuckling yarns, they queue up to be hit.

And it’s mostly down to the acting, partly the helpful colour-coding of uniforms, but, in a potentially confusing play, you’re never left wondering who’s who.

Cast: Theresa Brockway, Adrian Clargo, William Finkenrath, Toby Gaffney, Tom Hackney, Annie Lees Jones.

Director: Oliver Gray.
Fight director: Toby Gaffney.

2009-08-25 15:09:07