THROUGH A CLOUD till 27 November
Midlands
THROUGH A CLOUD: Jack Shepherd
Drum Theatre, Plymouth/ Birmingham Rep Theatre
Runs: 2h 30m, one interval, till 27 November at Birmingham Rep
Review: Rod Dungate, Birmingham Rep, 22 November
Stimulating and satisfying but watch out for flying debate.This is a small play with a big a huge debate at its centre. Shepherd's engrossing dialogue makes no compromises granite chunks of debate fly around so quickly sometimes you feel you have to duck. Shepherd may be writing about a wild time in England's history, but there's nothing scatter-gun about his approach. Debate is carefully crafted and thrillingly portrayed by the actors.
The Commonwealth was a strange time for Britain England really. The country had done an unheard of thing and executed their king who many thought ruled by Divine Right. Cromwell's army fought for amazingly modern ideas like universal education and something akin to health care for all. On the other hand there were remarkable developments in religious thought taken forward by highly charismatic leaders. Ranters believed, for instance, that once you had received the light of God in you, you couldn't sin. They believed in eating, drinking and liberal amounts of sex. (Ranterism was popular among the serving classes I understand.)
Shepherd offers us a Cromwell some time into his Governorship, trying to hold the country together. He meets Milton, now blind, in the grounds of Hampton Court. Milton has his young wife-to-be with him; she has brought a picnic.
Milton, quiet and thoughtful, in Shepherd's performance, is critical of Cromwell for compromising and losing sight of 'the new Jerusalem.' In Shepherd's hands Milton is terribly human, totally in love with his future wife and, somehow, open and vulnerable because of this. Yet his passion is tangible especially when he warms to his argument . . . 'I thought we'd got rid of the whole idea of monarchy. I thought that was why we cut off the King's head. Not out of any sense of vindictiveness, but to put an end to that unfair, undemocratic, utterly outdated and altogether anomalous way of running the country.' - Any appearance to debate about 21st Century UK is entirely unaccidental.
I very much like the Cromwell Shepherd draws for us and the character David Peart creates. He is a tortured person indeed, marvellously at ease but only in flashes 'Good food. Good wine. The company of good friends. I'm at one with God and all his creation. What more could a man want in this life?' Milton's passion is more than matched by Cromwell's as he explains the difficulty of actually running the country rather than having a vision of how to do it.
Jody Watson (Katherine Woodstock, Milton's young woman), is no light-weight addition. Watson ensures her presence is always felt and her own contributions to the debate gain from the simplicity with which they're made and the honesty with which Watson imbues them. I suspect she has some Ranter sympathy in her past . . .
Oliver Cromwell: David Peart
John Milton: Jack Shepherd
Katherine Woodstock: Jody Watson
George Green: Peter Kelly
The Guard: Darren Lake
Director: Simon Stokes
Designer: Robin Don
Lighting Designer: Jason Taylor
Sound Designer: Richard Price
2004-11-23 21:28:28