“The lyrics are so cringeworthy and bad that they are good, and they set the comedic tone of this caper perfectly”
If you wind your way down country lanes just outside Newbury, then run a gauntlet of ducks, you will discover tucked away in the Berkshire countryside is a quirky little theatre called The Watermill. Sitting alongside the River Lambourn it retains many of its original architectural features – some of which are very visible in the theatre itself. It is a unique and charming set-up.
This year’s Christmas production is a modern take on Robin Hood. If you thought you knew the story, then you are likely to be very confused. Written by children’s poet and novelist, Laura Dockrill, the plot is both simple and bizarre. The six-strong troupe of actor-musicians gamely bring us this bonkers romp. Robin (Georgia Bruce) is reimagined as a punky girl, and she is joined by her band of Merry Many, who are dressed as Boy Scouts. Little John (Daniel Copeland) has an in-depth knowledge of baked beans, and Alan-a-Dale (Leander Deeny) is permanently sloshed.
The original songs come from Hugo White, of The Maccabees, and have a rocky edge. The music is performed by the actors on stage, and is weaved into the storyline to great effect. Largely driven by guitar and drums, the use of squeaky kazoos and a descant recorder serve to remind us that this is definitely a show for children. The lyrics are so cringeworthy and bad that they are good, and they set the comedic tone of this caper perfectly.
Maid Marion (Stephanie Hockley) is a hippy chick who likes to knit, and it turns out she doesn’t really like Robin Hood – although she is even less keen on The Sheriff of Nottingham (Leander Deeny). If Alan Partridge and Rik Mayall had a love-child, then Deeny’s Sheriff would be him: an outstanding performance that had the audience in stitches. He cuts a ridiculous villain, whose insults are strange compliments – and his most heinous of crimes is being a terrible musician.
It’s absurd and rambling, but at the same time hugely enjoyable. My young companion had a lovely time, wanting to go again and take his brother, which is a strong recommendation. Its originality makes it appealing, and while the tale might be a familiar one, this take has given it something new.
“The air is also blue with some magnificently filthy language, imbuing the evening with an irresistibly sinuous rawness”
Jez Butterworth’s ‘Jerusalem’ is a great swaggering blast of a play, set in the fictional Wiltshire village of Flintock on St George’s Day. Taking its title as much from William Blake’s ironic poem (‘was Jerusalem builded here among those dark, Satanic mills?’) as from its use by Parry as a patriotic hymn, Butterworth tackles head-on the idea of Englishness. He comes up with some answers that may surprise more than one regular theatregoer at Newbury’s dreamy Watermill theatre, which is nestled in bucolic woods and fields not far from those the play depicts.
At the heart of the play is the larger than life character of Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron, (Jasper Britton, ex-RSC) an exuberantly crowing cock-of-the-walk who has lived for decades in a semi-derelict caravan deep in the woods. He’s a spinner of the most fantastic yarns. Born by immaculate conception with a full set of teeth, a daredevil with magic blood in his veins, he’s a man made of rock who has heard the trees sing.
But this is no enchanted forest from a Midsummer Night. Byron is also a drug pusher and a drunk who has been banned from every pub for his brawling. His life is a ‘Bucolic, Alcoholic Frolic.’ Around him cluster half a dozen or so wasted, washed-up kids, half-believing his wild stories, but quick to turn on him when he’s down. A kind of mythic haze hangs over the grimy clearing where Byron’s caravan is slowly mouldering into the ground in Frankie Bradshaw’s compelling set. The air is also blue with some magnificently filthy language, imbuing the evening with an irresistibly sinuous rawness. This is an inspired production that thanks to Lisa Blair’s excellent direction seems to grow out of the very earth the Watermill theatre stands on.
As Byron, Britton has made the part his own in a way that stands apart from Mark Rylance’s much-praised interpretation at the play’s Royal Court premiere. Britton is a colossal figure, bursting with fierce energy, mired in filth but brilliant with quick wit that lights up the theatre. The same quick-fire vitality marks the performances of several of Rooster Byron’s acolytes. Peter Caulfield as Ginger is one of the ‘Lost Boys’ – gawky and wasted, never growing up, always hoping for a break that he knows in his heart will never come. As Lee, Sam Swann has a touching innocence that’s just right for the part of the kid who thinks he’s heading to a better life tomorrow. Santino Smith is funny and compelling as Davey who has never seen the point of other counties. ‘I leave Wiltshire, my ears pop.’ Richard Evans makes the professor ethereal and vulnerable, making a vivid connection with the language of enchantment in the literature and lyrics he quotes. Robert Fitch gives a raw and edgy performance as Wesley, the hopeless morris-dancing publican who’ll take a line from Rooster and then ban him from his pub. Adam Burton, Rebecca Lee, Natalie Walter and an alternating trio of child actors as Marky all make excellent contributions to this brilliant show. Dialect coach Elspeth Morrison deserves a special mention for keeping the cast (mostly) on track in a broad Wiltshire accent.
This wonderfully involving three-act play opens with Nenda Neurer as Phaedra singing ‘Jerusalem’ with a kind of sweetly knowing innocence. What follows is both a compelling story but also a brilliantly crafted meditation on what it is to be of an ancient land where continuity and chaos, truth and fiction, hope and despair are all wrapped up into an enthralling mixture.
The Watermill Theatre’s ‘Jerusalem’ continues to Saturday 21 July. Lighting by Christopher Nairne, Sound and music, Tom Attwood, Paul Benzing, fight director.
