Shakespeare Shorts
Review by Martin Woodruff
In this lively production, following their 2021 exploration of the supernatural in The Tempest, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bawds gave us two more Shakespeare plays in cut-down form. The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night are well-suited to presentation in tandem in this way given the many features they share – cross dressing and consequent mistaken identity, lending of money, exchanging of rings, the presence of motives for revenge, and an ending involving in each case a character named Antonio who misses out on romantic fulfilment. The Merchant nearly always feels the darker of the two pieces, as it did here, and if we want to understand why, it makes good sense to offer them together for comparison.
Director, Madeleine Forrester, undertook the adaptation of the plays, playwright Nick Warburton, created deft links and narrative to convey necessary information from what had been left out, and parts of the stories were presented through mime, choreography, and some delightful music composed and directed by Ian Favell. The combined result was a skilful and inventive piece of theatre. Twelfth Night perhaps lends itself to the reduced treatment more readily than The Merchant, in which some of the plot details seemed to pass rather hurriedly. The Director’s Note stressed the importance for this Merchant of representing prejudice as a key theme, and that is fair enough, but by relegating the Portia/Bassanio story so firmly to the role of sub-plot, and especially by omitting the scenes with the first two caskets, Bassanio’s success in wooing his lady felt a little underwhelming. Those scenes are long and no doubt had to go, but although the inserted narrative fully explained the rules of the contest and that Bassanio is only one of a succession of suitors who have tried their luck, his winning of the prize by choosing lead had a sense of rush and therefore anti-climax to it. The problem may not lie with the adaptation; when you think about it the contest itself is pretty silly, and perhaps it needs the fuller exposition to come closer to appearing plausible.
The outstanding performance of the first half was Richard Brown’s Shylock – totally believable because despite the unreasonableness of his insistence on revenge even when offered much more than the amount he lent, one still had sympathy for him. His “Shall I not have barely my principal?” when it all goes wrong for him in the trial was genuinely moving. This was an ensemble production, however, and there was much else of merit. Philippa Watts was an engaging Portia, particularly when playing the disguised doctor of law, and David Gresham was convincing as her successful suitor, Bassanio. Dan Aspel was suitably melancholic as the ultimately neglected Antonio, and Guy Marshall, Emily Packer, Lucy Woodcock, Christopher Jeffery, Mark Tunstall and Alex Crockford all gave sound performances in their various supporting roles. The crowd were excellent in the masked revellers’ dance sequence; their face-pulling and “rhubarb, rhubarb-ing” in the background of some of the other scenes could perhaps have been reined in a little, but that may be to carp unfairly.
In Twelfth Night too we saw some fine company acting. The central love triangle worked well. Poppy Saunders made an energetic and attractive Viola, with a natural sense of timing to bring out the underlying humour, though the gesture when she made her body go limp in response to adverse twists as the story developed was perhaps repeated once too often. Izzy Rees was a fine, statuesque Olivia, and her emotional journey from being in total control when Cesario first arrives to something rather less as she begins to fall for him was convincing. Dan Aspel was also good as the self-indulgent, lovesick Orsino, enjoying his own misery. The music accompanying his opening soliloquy was played live by David Gresham on a guitar, and there was some amusing repetition and interplay between musician and Count on the words “That strain again”. This was a creative way of using an extra accomplishment possessed by one of the cast, but it was a very brief moment and one wonders whether more could not have been made of his musical ability elsewhere.
Mandy Jeffery was a formidable Maria and she, Mark Tunstall as Sir Toby, and Alex Crockford as Aguecheek made another effective triangle, this time an unruly one. Guy Marshall as Malvolio, the target of their malicious practical joke, created some delicious ambiguity; should we dislike him for his presumption and pomposity or pity him for the notorious abuse he suffers? The announcement towards the end that Sir Toby and Maria have married can feel uncomfortable, for two reasons. First, modern sensibilities resist the paternalistic suggestion that he married her “in recompense” for her role in the gulling; and secondly, the news often comes as a total surprise. Both applied in this case, but they could perhaps have been mitigated if the opportunity had been taken earlier to find a couple of places at which the two characters might flirt, so priming the audience for the later revelation.
Christopher McNamara and Richard Brown were believable friends, and likely more, as Sebastian and Antonio, and Sebastian was well-matched with Viola, both in appearance and manner. The recognition scene between the twins sometimes requires a hefty suspension of disbelief, but not here. There was also a satisfying parallel in the casting of the same actor to lend money to his enemy in The Merchant and make his purse available to his friend in Twelfth Night, particularly as Richard Brown succeeded in making the two characterisations entirely different. Abid Shamim had a long wait for his moment in the sun, but made the most of it when called upon to attest to his priestly part in the wedding of Olivia and Sebastian. Again, the supporting roles played by him and Emily Packer, Lucy Woodcock, Philippa Watts and Christopher Jeffery were all pleasing to watch.
A word needs to be said for the narrators of the inserted explanatory pieces of text. Narration can be difficult, particularly when, as here, the actor is required to switch between explaining details of the plot at one moment and playing a character in the action the next. Guy Marshall and Lucy Woodcock between them in The Merchant, and Lucy Woodcock on her own in Twelfth Night, handled the task well, throwing out well-timed and often cheeky asides to the audience, and seamlessly reverting to their roles as Salarino, Nerissa and Fabia when the script required it.
The set, provided by Barry Brown, Rob Barton, Luke Smith and the Lolworth Workshop Team, was visually charming. Its convincing Italian look included a bridge complete with a shimmering water effect, courtesy of Leah Ward’s imaginative lighting, strongly evoked the canals and walkways of Venice. A nice contrast to the gentle scene in Belmont at the end of The Merchant of Venice came after the interval with the storm effect which opened Twelfth Night. The addition of the box hedges necessary to the plot together with a number of subtle lighting effects went some way towards the transition from Venice to Illyria, but increased use of the bridge area would have allowed the actors more variety in terms of movement.
Kimberley Tongish’s costumes were excellent, with colours displayed to dazzling effect, aided again by skilful lighting, in the group scenes and notably the dance in The Merchant. Malvolio’s gull outfit was particularly impressive – not only yellow stockings, but yellow everything! Kate Crofts and Hannah Curtis between them provided props, masks, and false beards and moustaches for the learned doctor and Cesario, which were all of a high standard. This audience member would have preferred the flagons in the drinking scenes to have contained real liquid, and for some of it perhaps (not too much – it would need not to be overdone) to have been spilt as Sir Toby and Aguecheek staggered around singing their catches, but maybe there were health and safety or other practical reasons for not doing that.
There is darkness in Twelfth Night, notably in the cruel treatment of Malvolio, but it differs from that in The Merchant because it originates in what is intended as a joke, albeit an unkind one, against a character who is essentially a self-important ass; the Christians on the other hand are simply prejudiced against Shylock (as no doubt he is against them), and that feels worse. In this production the fact that the dark-house scene was omitted from Twelfth Night in the process of abridgement, whilst the theme of tribalism was foregrounded in The Merchant, added to the feeling that the two halves of this thoroughly entertaining evening of theatre were different in tone. That is an observation, not a complaint. One had the impression that this was a comfortable company of actors who were very much enjoying their work, and Madeleine Forrester is to be congratulated on conceiving and realising a fine show. Which plays next for the same treatment?