The Lady from the Sea, Rose Theatre, Kingston-on-Thames, February 2012

Moving inland from the sea can create a residual yearning for freedom, the wish to escape from a marriage, and this play by Ibsen has a feeling of impending tragedy. Yet given the freedom you desire, you may decide to stay on land, and tragedy can turn in a moment to a promise of stability and happiness.

Joely Richardson as the lady from the sea

Malcolm Storry as Dr. Wangel

As the husband, Dr. Wangel, Malcolm Storry portrayed an engaging, wise and sensitive man, with Joely Richardson as his troubled wife Ellida, the lady from the sea, tense and charming, yet hiding tides of emotion. They headed a superb cast, including Sam Crane as the irritatingly delusional wannabe Hans Lyngstrand, whose conceited theories of women and matrimony were hilarious. In fact this is really a comedy, and Robert Goodale as the versatile Ballested, who can do many things but always stutters on the same word, was a delight. Madeleine Worrall and Alexandra Moen were perfect as the doctor’s daughters, Richard Dillane was charmingly sincere as the Arnholm, the ex-tutor, and Gudmundur Thorvaldsson with his Icelandic accent was a threatening presence as The Stranger.

“That man is like the sea”, says Ellida at the very end of part I, and then like the tide he returns towards the end of part II saying, “From now on you are nothing more to me than — a ship in the night”. This is all in the new translation by Stephen Unwin, who also created this production, with its wonderful costumes by Mark Bouman, simple yet effective sets by Simon Higlett, beautifully lit by Malcolm Rippeth.

Ballested and Lyngstrand

Stephen Unwin is artistic director of the Rose, and is working through more of Ibsen’s naturalistic plays. His translation and direction make this home-grown production a huge success, and I look forward to more Ibsen at the Rose.

Performances continue until March 17 — for details click here.

All’s Well That Ends Well, Globe Theatre, London, May 2011

A young Count, Bertram is brought up in the same household as Helena, a doctor’s daughter he has neither courted nor encouraged. She loves him, is desperate to marry him, and his mother favours the match, but his adamant refusal is over-ruled by the king, so he leaves home, and we should sympathise with him. Yet we don’t. Shakespeare gives us a most dislikeable character, unnecessarily brutal in his rejection of a fine young woman who has miraculously cured the king’s sickness.

Ellie Piercy as Helena with Sam Cox as the king, all photos by Ellie Kurttz

On the other hand, Helena herself is hard to love. She is no Juliet — I’ll prove more true than those that have more cunning to be strange — for though wedded to him, she is yet a stranger and her cunning hoists him on his own petard. He writes a letter saying, When thou canst get the ring upon my finger which never shall come off, and show me a child begotten of thy body that I am father to, then call me husband: but in such a ‘then’ I write a ‘never’, yet this clever woman, who performed a miracle on the king, produces another on her husband. Using the ‘bed-trick’ she gets another well-born young woman to promise to lie with him at night, acquire his ring, and then substitutes herself.

Colin Hurley as Lavatch with Janie Dee as the Countess

Although Shakespeare’s title yields one of the most well-known aphorisms in English, this play itself is little performed. The young couple are unsympathetic and occlude their meanings in a plethora of prodoses and apodoses, continuing even to the end as Bertram says to the king, If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly/ I’ll love her dearly ever, ever, dearly, to which she responds, If it appear not plain and prove untrue . . . To these quasi-endearments the king finishes by saying, All yet seems well, and if it end so meet,/ The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.

James Garnon as Parolles

The king — the lynch pin of this play — was superbly portrayed by Sam Cox, with noble bearing and fine diction yet still with a subtle comedic touch. In fact the wittiness of this production by John Dove came over well, aided particularly by James Garnon as Bertram’s friend Parolles, a braggart and coward, and with Colin Hurley as Lavatch, the fool in the Countess’s household. She, the mother of Bertram, was vividly played by Janie Dee, exhibiting life and good sense in the same measure as her son lacked it. Her affection for Ellie Pearcy’s well drawn portrayal of Helena helped give us some sympathy for this rather too clever young woman, who was well matched by Naomi Cranston as the shrewd young Diana who apparently seduces Bertram. He of course is not to be favoured by the audience, but Sam Crane portrayed his unlikeability mainly as diffidence, and his speeches were often a string of words generating little sense, with a voice that could not be clearly heard when he turned his back to the audience. But the cast as a whole did a superb job of bringing this strange comedy to life, and their dancing on stage when the play was over allowed all the characters but one to show rhythm and sparkle.

Well worth all the effort of those rehearsals, this production continues until August 21 — for more details click here.

Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Globe Theatre, London, July 2010

With an audience on three sides of the stage, plus the casual openness of the standing area, Roger Allam was well placed to give us a wonderful interpretation of Falstaff. His contact with the audience was inspired, and they loved him, yet there was nothing over the top in his shrewd levity, ever ready to recover from the jibes and rejections of others.

Falstaff with Mistress Quickly and Bardolph, photo by John Haynes

Apart from Falstaff, these plays have no central character given to introspective soliloquies, so it is more the case of one actor playing off another, and many of the cast did this well, performing more than one role. William Gaunt and Christopher Godwin were amusing as the old duo Shallow and Silence in Part 2, while having been far more direct and vigorous as Worcester and Northumberland, and I liked Paul Rider both as Bardolph, and in his vignette as the Archbishop of York. Jade Williams as Doll Tearsheet in Part 2 showed an engaging weakness for Falstaff, throwing up most convincingly on the front corner of the stage and surprising the audience packed around there, a far cry from her refined Lady Mortimer. Barbara Marten played Lady Northumberland, as well as being a suitably indignant tavern hostess as Mistress Quickly, with her husband sitting upstairs smoking a pipe — a nice touch.

Prince Hal with Falstaff, photo by John Haynes

Oliver Cotton played the King as a serious monarch, betrayed by the rebellious vanities of others, but the principal rebel, Harry Hotspur showed a spluttering anger that failed to allow even a half-second pause in the expression of his fury. Sam Crane’s portrayal of this hothead could have used more nuance, and his re-appearance as Pistol in Part 2 had a clownish quality that seemed unsuited to this production. But Jamie Parker as Prince Hal showed nuance aplenty in his fine portrayal of youthful high spirits edged by an understanding of his future as king. Here is an actor — one of the original cast for The History Boys — who can be suitably immature as Prince Hal, yet bring into Part 2 elements of the future Henry V who will inspire and lead his army at the Battle of Agincourt. I look forward to his future portrayal of that role!

Prince Hal replaces the crown, photo by John Haynes

What makes Part 1 work so well is the brilliance of Falstaff and Prince Hal. Of course Hal is not seen much in Part 2, until he takes the crown from his father’s pillow near the end, so there isn’t quite the same energy in the second part, but Roger Allam was gloriously endearing as Falstaff — one could not imagine a better portrayal. These productions by Dominic Dromgoole give a fine understanding of the plays and are a delight to watch. I loved the convincing grubbiness of the costumes for the ordinary folk, as well as of the military vests for the nobles, and the crests hanging round the seating areas add to the authenticity. With the mummers at the beginning, starting outside the auditorium and taking their mime inside, a wonderful sense of occasion is given to these performances, and at £5 for a standing ticket in the pit there is no excuse for missing them. Six hours of Shakespeare with nary a dull moment.

Parts 1 and 2 of Henry IV continue until October 2^nd and October 3^rd respectively — for more details click here.