THE WARS OF THE ROSES. To 1 July.

Tour

THE WARS OF THE ROSES
by William Shakespeare adapted by Barrie Rutter

Tour to 1 July 2006
Runs Henry VI, Edward IV 2hr 35min Richard III 2hr 55min One interval each
Review: Timothy Ramsden 3 June 2006 at Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough

A fine cycle culminating in a gripping interpretation.
At the curtain-calls the Stephen Joseph’s stage, more used to the smaller numbers of an Ayckbourn play, is crammed with actors – 21 bodies who have somehow created the battles of the later 15th century English civil wars here. Apparently there’s a skeletal set; it was jettisoned for performances in the round. No doubt it brings advantages, but having seen Northern Broadsides’ Roses trilogy here I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The proximity, the sense of being alongside Helen Sheals’ Queen Margaret, her lover and husband both dead, initially unsympathetic herself, now reduced to a life of denunciations, as she curses Richard III from the aisles turns drama into life. The plainness of speech and production might iron out some details. So, of course, does chopping up Shakespeare. Henry VI Part I is reduced to a single 75 minute act. Rightly; though it shows the plucking of roses red and white that lines up the initial sides for ”York and Lancaster’s long jarres” it’s mainly concerned with the war against France.

Director Barrie Rutter’s style takes some getting used to here; creating a battle by Joan of Arc doing a kind of Scotch reel against the sturdy English hero Talbot wheeled on a trolley with a deep drum has its ridiculous edge. By the end, when virtually everyone (but especially Roger Burnett) has had a hand in using the percussion the style, along with other Broadsides devices such as war-leaders on trolleys and clog-danced fights, becomes natural and exciting up to the final conflict at Bosworth where – though it seems impossible it could happen - yet new formations are found for the battery of percussion.

It’s not only drums. Every performer’s musical ability is called on from the medieval-inflected lamentation of the dead Henry V at the start to the jazz-age party greeting pleasure-loving Edward IV’s victory at the end of the second play. This signals a shift from the unspecific, but medieval-suggesting, costume of earlier parts to the modern suits of the final play. The factional red and white appear as neck-pieces until, finally, red and white roses billow on battle-flags.

With the 2nd and 3rd parts of Shakespeare’s Henry VI given slightly more space, Andrew Whitehead’s holy monarch is unable to control the whirlpool of tougher, unscrupulous minds around him, be it the wife he adores who openly flirts with the Duke of Suffolk, or the lords who rear around him deep-voiced and assertive - as the French armies (portrayed by beams of light) surrounded the English hero Talbot.

With Richard III the action reaches more charted waters, but Conrad Nelson shows a mere mortal doesn’t have to be a pale imitation of Sirs like Laurence Olivier or Anthony Sher who have famously played the role. Nelson is far from the comic monster of many interpretations. There’s nothing funny to his self-revelations; this is a bitter man, mentally as well as physically twisted. He has the tyrant and bully’s ability to throw energy into apparent heartiness. This is an ancestor of the Stalin whose many victims appealed to the man behind their persecution.

When he asks Tim Barker’s Bishop for strawberries there’s a real cheer in the air. Then, as Simon Holland Roberts’ Hastings talks, moments before his death sentence, of how no-one is more transparent than Richard, there’s a chill realisation how successfully Richard fools most people just about all the time. His smiles are borne on the false energy of good-cheer, which can change instantly to the concentrated bile of sneers.

Rutter movingly encapsulates this man’s cruelty in the scene where Richard orders that his wife be rumoured terminally ill by having Maeve Larkin’s forlorn Anne present, listening to her effective death sentence.

Seeing Richard as the culmination of the earlier plays points up the contrast between the religious iconography with which the later king temporarily surrounds himself to gain the popular vote with the truly religious Henry. The evil man oppresses the realm, the good one cannot control his court and is killed by his successor, pointing up the amorality of history. And it allows a hinted link between composer Nelson's initial conducting of the opening Henry music and his Richard's conducting the band , as he controls the state, as if the evil times to come were effectively present from the opening of the conflict.

Broadsides’ plain, vigorous style matches the variety of these dramas. Playing over 7 hours’ action on different staging forms, giving the full trilogy each Saturday, makes this a technical and energy-challenging achievement. It’s a fine opportunity to see Shakespeare with this company’s action and verse-sound focus. On any terms, it’s a magnificent feat. And Nelson’s chilling, devastating portrait of a tyrant shouldn’t be missed.

Henry VI Edward IV Richard III

Gloucester Butcher/Father Mayor of London: Dicken Ashworth

Duke of Bedford/ Sir Humphrey Stafford/ Bishop: Tim Barker
Lord Mortimer/ Earl of Salisbury/
Earl of Salisbury King Lewis

Duke of Exeter/ Iden/Exeter/ Lord Stanley: Roy North
Simon Simpcox Lord Stanley

Winchester Old Clifford Brackenbury: Bernard Merrick

Lord Talbot/ Duke of Buckingham Duke of Buckingham: Mark Stratton
Duke of Buckingham

Duke of York Duke of York Murderer/Bishop: Barrie Rutter

Earl of Warwick Earl of Warwick Murderer/Ratcliffe: Phil Corbett

Duke of Suffolk Jack Cade/Oxford Catesby: Andrew Cryer

Duke of Somerset Duke of Somerset Marquis of Dorset/
Scrivener/
Earl of Richmond: Dave Newman

Bassett Young Clifford Lord Hastings: Simon Holland Roberts
Lord Hastings

Charles, Dauphin Duke of Clarence Duke of Clarence/
of France/Lieutenant Tyrrell: John Gully

Vernon/Horner Edward IV Edward IV/
Norfolk: Richard Standing

Henry VI Henry VI Citizen: Andrew Whitehead

Hume/Walter Whitmore Richard Richard III: Conrad Nelson

John Talbot/Peter Prince Edward Edward,
Prince of Wales: Danny Burns

Messenger/ Rutland/Son Richard,
Bolingbroke Duke of York/Page: Matt Connor

Messenger/ Messenger/ Lord Rivers: Roger Burnett
Drummer Lord Rivers

Joan of Arc Rebel Anne: Maeve Larkin

Jordan/ Lady Grey Queen Elizabeth: Kate Williamson
Simpcox’s Wife

Duchess Eleanor Lady Bona Duchess: Jacqueline Redwell

Queen Margaret Queen Margaret Queen Margaret: Helen Sheals

Director: Barrie Rutter
Designer: Jessica Worrall
Lighting: Tim Skelly
Composer/Associate Director: Conrad Nelson
Assistant director: Alan Lane

2006-06-08 07:05:13