| UNION |
| DOUBLE FALSEHOOD by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE/JOHN FLETCHER |
| *** |
| director PHILIP WILLMOTT set JAVIER DE FRUTOS casting DANIELLE TARRENTO lights JASON MEININGER with RICHARD FRANKLIN duke, SAM HOARE roderick elder son, ADAM REDMORE henrique younger son, GABRIEL VICK julio, STEPHEN BOSWELL his father, EMILY PLUMTREE leonora, SU DOUGLAS her mother, JESSIE LILLEY violante their servant, WILLIAM REY henrique’s servant, RICHARD MORSE friar |
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| Are we really in the midst of an historical moment? Is this an undiscovered play that Shakespeare wrote with Fletcher (in 1616 or maybe 1613) as he had done with Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen? Is it the lost version of Cardenio, the highly sexual pastoral Spanish drama, based on a narrative episode from Don Quixote? The play has been added to Methuen’s Arden Shakespeare series which gives it some credibility. Only in 1727 did Lewis Theobald revise this play as a lost Shakespeare piece and discredited the play plus himself as a result. There are reminiscent scenes of other Shakespeare plays such as the duke’s disguise as a friar in Measure for Measure. But here we have so many friars disguised in the dénouement that it’s like counting sheep in order to sleep. It becomes almost farcical and a confusion for poor Richard Morse who is a friar and a good one at that. Shakespeare is surely more subtle even in jest. Yet there are some lyrical lines of imagery and articulated characters such as the fathers played so brilliantly by Richard Franklin and Stephen Boswell, a villainous character in the young son Henrique as accurately performed by Adam Redmore, a carefully drawn portrait of Leonora in love with Julio so enchantedly enacted by Emily Plumtree and Gabriel Vick, plus Jessie Lilley’s beautifully balanced portrait of the raped Violante, who have all the touch of Shakespeare. Curiosity is satisfied with this interpretation before the RSC revamp it for their production. Sparsely staged with overhead lanterns and only a coffin settled on one side of a flagstone-painted floor, it feels like a concert version in tempered modern dress allowing the story to unfold. Cast with such a talented company in every part, the subtle hand of the director has emphasised the characters and the quality of the acting. The text is intelligently expressed with clear enunciation and diction. There isn’t much of the iambic pentameter to versify.
The duke’s evil son Henrique manages to promote his friend Julio (Cardenio in Cervantes) to court in order to clear his way into forcing his marriage upon Leonora, Julio’s fiancée. Leonora’s mother (a cogent performance from Su Douglas) breaks her promise to Julio on her avaricious ambition to have Leonora marry a prince. Leonora goes through with the wedding in all readiness to commit suicide. But before his courtship with Leonora, Henrique has raped her servant Violante and abandoned her. The good son of the Duke, Roderick, has caught up with a disguised friar in Violante (a supposed shepherdess) and is determined to put things right. He proves to the Duke the wicked ways of Henrique, who is forced to marry Violante while the lovers Leonora and Julio are reunited and all the friars throw off their disguises. It is a unique experience to witness such a production which probably will keep the play dormant after this and the RSC’s exposure. But congratulations to the Union and Phil Willmott for being so quick on the trigger. Import but no export. |
| January 18-February 13/11 |
| 1080 |