VAKOMANA VAVIRI VE ZIMBABWE. To 13 December.

London.

VAKOMANA VAVIRI VE ZIMBABWE OR TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
by William Shakespeare.

Oval House (Upstairs Theatre) 52-54 Kennington Oval SE11 5SW To 13 December 2008.
Tue-Sat 8pm.
BSL Signed 9 Dec.
Runs 1hr 25min No interval.

TICKETS: 029 7582 7680.
www.ovalhouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 December.

Lively lads at play in fast-action Shakespeare.
England gave Shakespeare to the world. In return the world’s given itself to Shakespeare. This autumn Two Gentleman of Verona has shown the way, with a large-cast favella version at the Barbican’s Pit, and now this two-hander from African-rooted performers Denton Chikura and Tonderai Munyevi. Both have worked recently at the Oval House. And while Chikura is credited as a Zimbabwean actor/musician, Munyevu trained in London.

Of course two actors can’t give a full account of Shakespeare’s bustling comedy. But this pair, in Arne Pohlmeier’s production, show, like the Pit’s Brazilians, that the higher-paced life encouraged by a sunnier climate and open-air society provides a new angle on the action, while vocal rhythms and tones from outside the English classical tradition give clarity and some piercing moments of human truth.

The different pacing is most obvious in the brief musical or choreographed moments, but reaches deeper into the action: this is less the Two Gents than the Two Lads - rival taxi-drivers, as a brief prologue explains, while Sylvia’s aristocratic father becomes a beret-toting military leader.

It gives more of a street feel too to Proteus’ betrayal of his friend Valentine, and his desertion of his love Julia for Valentine’s Sylvia. Characters not in the scene are kept in the mind by emblems – a scarf, a shawl - distributed to the audience. Audience members are spoken to as characters, until a reply’s called for, when one actor will prompt the other, in a continuation of rivalry.

Then the two stop for a drink of water and muttered discussion, eying various audience members, people they then, aptly, ‘steal’ from their seats to become puppet brigands as the forest gang of noble outlaws who waylay several of the play’s characters.

It’s all good-natured but that doesn’t prevent a real character split between Chikura’s soberly earnest manner as Valentine and Munyevi’s lightly protean manner in characterisations including Julia’s self-consciously stylish maid and Crab, the patiently panting dog of the clown Launce - a role where Chikura relishes using audience shoes to demonstrate his family’s grief at his departure; fun from head to foot.

Valentine etc. Denton Chikura.
Proteus etc: Tonderai Munyevu.

Director: Arne Pohlmeier.
Designer: Alison Drewitt.
Lighting: Frances Watson.
Choreography: Jackson Pinta.
Voice: Jessica Higgs.

2008-12-07 23:58:46