The Taming of the Shrew - Globe Theatre (+ mild rant)

Set of The Taming of the Shrew

I'd never been interested in seeing TTotS before due to its misogynistic nature (the wonderful 10 Things I Hate About You notwithstanding), but having recently made the momentous decision to see all of Shakespeare's plays, to the Globe I hied. I thought there was a decent chance that this production would be subversive, given Artistic Director Emma Rice's comment that she wanted it to be a version 'for the 21st century'.

Talking of Emma Rice...much as I would like to be supportive of her as new Artistic Director, I admit I'm not happy about some of the changes she's introduced at the Globe. Lights galore, speakers, amplification and, possibly most shockingly, fewer productions with Elizabethan/Jacobean costumes and music...

Is this the end of the world as we know it?

I'm hardly a traditionalist. I've seen and enjoyed plenty of modern/other era adaptations of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. But isn't the Globe meant to be THE ONE place where you can see these plays performed with more or less the same appearance and feel that they would've had in Shakespeare's day? Isn't that the Globe's whole raison d'être? Other theatres very rarely put on Shakespeare's plays in Elizabethan/Jacobean garb, and one doesn't get many opportunities to hear music from that time, either. If the Globe no longer does this, it just becomes another modern theatre - putting on great plays, sure - but plays that would be equally suited to the National Theatre or anywhere else. I don't understand why Rice would choose to discard the features that make the Globe unique. She might as well encourage members of the public to fire paintballs at the Globe's white exterior walls in order to make it more colorful and friendly and less like a scary, stuffy old theatre.

One innovation of hers with which I do agree, however, is her introduction of gender-balanced casts. This innovation is obviously as unElizabethan as a prominent lighting rig, true. But, unsurprisingly, I favour the balancing of Globe authenticity with modern ideals of equality and diversity. There's nothing that contravenes such ideals in dressing up in Elizabethan garb (especially if women can play men's parts and vice versa) and playing music from that time. Plus, if a character is played well, it's easy to forget the sex of the actor playing him/her. Equality arguments aside, women playing men and vice versa is arguably a less visually obvious departure from Elizabethan ways of doing things than a prominent lighting rig.

Lights, speakers...unauthentically Shakespearean action!

OK, enough about the New Globe Regime. This production of The Taming of the Shrew was set in Ireland in 1916, at the time of the Easter Rising. So...the costumes reflected that era, the music was played by an Irish band, the cast was Irish (or did very convincing accents) and there was the occasional Gaelic phrase thrown in. Katherine (Aoife Duffin) was such a force of nature in the first half it was impossible to imagine her becoming downtrodden. Her face was incredibly mobile and capable of admirable feats of gurning. The first half was extremely funny, involving slow motion wedding slapstick amongst other things. I hadn't expected it to be that funny. My favourite plot line was that involving Vincentio (Louis Dempsey) and his servant, Tranio (Imogen Doel), who pretends to be Vincentio while the real Vincentio pretends to be a teacher in order to get close to and woo Bianca (Genevieve Hulme-Beaman), Katherine's petulant younger sister. Tranio was both very cute and very funny, clearly delighted at assuming the role of master and full of amusing mannerisms.

The second half was predictably depressing as, following her marriage to Petruchio (Edward MacLiam), Katherine immediately became downtrodden; a shadow of her former self. I have to say, I'm impressed at Shakespeare's having created such a believable, cleverly emotionally abusive character at a time when the concept of 'emotional abuse' can't have been well-developed. It seemed pretty clear to me that Katherine went along with Petruchio's demands in this production purely because she knew that unless she did so she would get no food or rest. So...I suppose that's more subversive than Katherine having a complete personality change and genuinely growing to believe that women should be men's doormats. However, even with this interpretation, her final lengthy speech extolling female subordination was a bit much. I would've preferred it if the guests at the party at the end were revealed to be humouring Petruchio, having recognised him for the abuser that he is, and for the police to come and take him away during Katherine's final speech.

There was a lot of spitting in this production. I don't mean ordinary actorly spitting; I mean deliberate spitting as part of the play.

Next: Titus Andronicus

The Mikado - Upstairs at the Gatehouse

LEGO Japan scene

In these turbulent, uncertain, infuriating times, when one's patriotism has been drained to the very dregs, there's nothing like a bit of quintessentially English Gilbert and Sullivan to restore one's battered spirits.

G&S productions are usually done on a grand scale, so it was interesting to see one with only eleven cast members, accompanied by a single pianist rather than a full orchestra. The set was minimal, consisting of a stool and some plants. I would like to say there was a gong, but I think that was a product of my imagination. In the second half a charming Japanese-style love seat entwined with flowers materialised. The costumes were typical Mikado fare - British conceptions of traditional Japanese outfits, with black wigs aplenty. Ko-Ko's headpiece as Lord High Executioner was impressive; it had an axe sticking up out of the top, from which swung a severed doll's head.

The small-scale nature of the production didn't make it any less enjoyable. Being so close to the actors is always a boon. For the most part, the actors were considerably older than the characters they played - Sally-Ann Shepherdson as the schoolgirl Yum-Yum was fifty if she was a day - but it only added to the humour. It was very funny; recent events in British politics made good fodder for Ko-Ko's Little List. The singing was excellent, as befitted former members of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. I particularly enjoyed Yum-Yum and Nanki-Poo (Declan Kelly)'s parts, and the titular Mikado (Bruce Graham) had an incredibly powerful voice. I appreciated the madrigal Brightly dawns our wedding day more than I usually do; it's not one of my favourites. I wonder about the extent to which the production was abridged - unless I'm much mistaken they missed out See how the Fates their gifts allot.

It was just as well the singing was so good, because some of the actors' grasp of their lines wasn't. Pooh-Bah (Graham Stone) forgot his lines twice and Ko-Ko (Trevor Alexander) once. In all my years of theatre-going, until this night I had never actually heard an actor say 'line?'. I've seen a Maori actor tumble, bare-bottom first, into the audience; I've seen a production grind to a halt (literally) because of technical difficulties; I've heard plenty of actors come in at the wrong time and try to cover it up, but never, until this night, had I heard an actor stop and ask to be prompted for a line. And it happened three times in this production! Not to make a big deal out of it or anything...

photo credit: LEGO Culture of Japan - Kyoto Kiyomizu via photopin (license)

Next: The Taming of the Shrew

The Alchemist - Hampstead Parish Church

Atmospheric bubbling flasks & globe

I enjoyed Ben Jonson's comedy The Alchemist when I studied it at university, so was excited to see it performed for the first time. Unlike Shakepeare's plays, which usually involve multiple different settings - sometimes different countries, even - The Alchemist takes place within (and on the doorstep of) a single London house. 

Amoral and inscrutable butler Jeremy takes advantage of his master's absence to use his house as the headquarters for a variety of fraudulent acts. With the help of two other con-people - Subtle (the titular alchemist) and Doll Common - Jeremy aka Face carries out a series of elaborate cons on a number of diverse and gullible characters.

The set contained everything one could wish from a production of The Alchemist: audibly bubbling, lit-up flasks, test tubes containing different coloured liquids, a globe and a board displaying alchemical equations. I was pleased that the set remained traditionally alchemical, given that the production included modern music and dress - which, incidentally, I thought worked well. I particularly enjoyed the music, which really added to the humour. The costumes were good, although I wasn't completely convinced by Drugger's 70s hippy-inspired outfit...I mean, when the drug in question is tobacco, I'm not sure the flower-power imagery works. Or maybe therein lay the joke?

Barney Lyons as Jeremy/Face and Roderick O'Grady as Subtle made an excellent comic pairing. Their swift transformations into different characters for different 'gulls' were impressive and entertaining; some of Subtle's reactions and mannerisms made me laugh out loud. Barney Lyons' Jeremy had a calm and impassive intensity when he wasn't playing 'Captain Face' (apart from during the argument at the beginning), which was almost chilling, especially towards the end, just before he pulled the gun on Subtle and Doll. Margaret Pritchard Houston as Doll was equally funny and engaging in her transformations and in her interactions with Face and Subtle - and, of course, with the ambitious and lecherous Sir Epicure Mammon (Malcolm Stern).

The creative, clever, highly amusing staging of The Alchemist successfully conveyed the bustling, hectic nature of London and captured the audience's interest from the outset. The play opened with all the characters going about their business to the accompaniment of 'London Calling' by The Clash. I loved the bit after the interval when the audience was drawn back into the action with some of the characters crossing the stage, again going about their business in an amusing way. For example, Drugger (Sarah Day) walking by, delightedly clutching her new shop sign, and Kastril (Nicolas Holzapfel) taking an ostentatious drag on a cigar only to dissolve into a coughing fit. 

Other parts of the play that I found particularly entertaining were...:

• Subtle emerging in a blue robe from the pulpit in order to appear religious to Sir Epicure.
• Drugger's shop sign!
• The 'elves' frisking Dapper (Catherine Martin) to ensure she wasn't concealing money.
• The entrance of Doll as the Queen of Fairy, with suitable music, fairy wings and bubbles.
• The very end bit, where Lovewit (Simon Malpas) presents Jeremy with jewels and Subtle and Doll appear - to music - on the run, looking for their next swindle. Very cinematic!

For a completely cynical play in which good in no way overcame evil, The Alchemist made me feel surprisingly uplifted.

Next: The Mikado