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United Queendom

Kensington Palace

Reviewed – 2nd March 2020

★★★★★

“a fabulous and thoroughly enjoyable journey”

If you are lucky enough to have a ticket for this sold out show you are in for a treat. If you don’t have a ticket try and get a return.

Kensington Palace is the venue and, when you arrive, you will discover that you have been invited to the birthday party of King George the Second. A feast of delights awaits you! Will you meet the King? Or maybe Queen Caroline? You will definitely see them, and you will also see Henrietta Howard, the Queen’s mistress, and a host of characters from the Georgian court. The Necessary Woman, played by the irrepressible Christina Ngoyi, will escort you to the entrance to the palace. She will probably explain that her job is emptying the many chamber pots that are scattered around. She will be shooed away by Deven Modha, as the Lord Chamberlain, the most important of the King’s staff, as he will no doubt inform you. You’ll pick up a glass of wine, and the revels will begin. At the bottom of a grand staircase you will suddenly by surrounded by a flurry of skirts and wigs as courtiers appear and mingle with the crowd. You will be taught how to bow or curtsy, and maybe hear some hints of scandal. Senesino, the renowned court musician and composer will play virtuoso violin and, later, you will hear his beautiful counter tenor as he sings an aria that echoes and floats down the King’s staircase. James Hastings plays him with such sublime talent, and such wonderful theatricality, that you won’t want the music, to stop. Some of you will be given a golden envelope and ushered away to visit the King’s inner apartments. I don’t know what will happen to the rest of you, as there are two ‘tracks’ to the show and two different experiences. One thing is certain; you will have a fabulous time, whichever way you go.

We were treated to some hilarious court mischief, exposed to factions supporting the King or the Queen, and invited to a salon, where the women of the court hosted such great thinkers as Isaac Newton to talk. Deborah Tracey’s vibrant Salonnieres and the fusty old fashioned Duke of Newcastle, brilliantly played by Richard Holt, disagreed about whether the earth is round of flat. On the way round the palace we come across the Countess of Hertford, a supporter of the Queen, who wears men’s clothing and raps up a storm. Lucy Reynolds clearly has fun playing her, and is a joy. We discovered that Lord Harvey is rather a naughty boy, especially when he is with Miss Vane – Stephan Boyce and Nadia Sohawon really are deliciously scandalous in these roles. And yes, we met the King and Queen and, of course, Henrietta Howard. Lavinia Co-Op is archly camp George II, and Miranda Heath and Yasmin Keita, as the two women central to this story clash and face off like two birds of paradise in a sparkle of jewels and a ruffle of feathers. But is it possible that this ‘Queendom’ could be united? is there, perhaps, another way of doing things? You’ll just have to go and see it to find out. If you can get a ticket.

The costumes are glorious, the wigs and make-up a flamboyant delight. And the music is divine. Susan Kulkarni, Victoria Stride and Patrick Neil Doyle respectively are a dream team of creatives. Nadia Sohawon’s choreography adds to the mix, which manages to be both historically accurate and contemporarily relevant, lit with touch of magic by Pablo Fernandez Baz. And all brought together into a fabulous and thoroughly enjoyable journey through one night in the Georgian court by director Christa Harris. Amid all the uproarious glee we learned a lot too. Unmissable.

Reviewed by Katre

Photography by Gail Harland

United Queendom

Kensington Palace until 30th March

Last ten shows reviewed by Katre:

The Legend Of The Holy Drinker | ★★½ | The Vaults | January 2020

Beige | ★★★★ | The Vaults | February 2020

Gypsy Flame | ★★★ | Network Theatre | February 2020

In My Lungs The Ocean Swells | ★★★★ | The Vaults | February 2020

Killing It | ★★★★ | Network Theatre | February 2020

La Cage Aux Folles | ★★★★ | Park Theatre | February 2020

Life And Death Of A Journalist | ★★★ | The Vaults | February 2020

Spree | ★★★★ | The Vaults | February 2020

The Upstart Crow | ★★★★★ | Gielgud Theatre | February 2020

Time And Tide | ★★★ | Park Theatre | February 2020

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★★★★

“a triumph of silliness”

Subtitled ‘A Very Modern Play’, Jack Robertson’s farcical whodunnit is a drawing room comedy with stock characters and familiar devices. A snobbish married couple, a maid with an accent, a posh neighbour with a multi-barrelled name, a murder, a detective, a plot where dramatic chords and power cuts announce repetitive slayings…in theory this is a tired idea for a sketch turned into two hours of torture. In practice, it is a triumph of silliness, starting with casting of the central characters.

Alice Marshall is magnificent as the maliciously haughty Mrs Fox and Jack J Fairley plays the subservient husband with fawning finesse. Together they bicker unhurriedly through surreal arguments such as whether goldfish have teeth and whether ‘letter box’ is an apt description for a rectangular gap in a door. As Rhoda, Grace Hussey-Burd is bright and bird-like as she wrangles feather duster and endless trays of tea. But just as the cliché of the Foxes is elevated by good jokes and timing, the character of Rhoda is elevated by her parodic version of ‘foreigner’ English, with modified words and chaotic grammar delivered deftly as if from a food-blender, effortless and on the edge of recognisability. Hannah Fretwell has limited possibilities as Mrs Pleasingdale-Boshington-Worrell but brought the best out of a neurotic widow who exists only to suffer Mrs Fox’s put downs and Mr Fox’s proper nouns. Eventually, a semblance of plot arrives with Billy Coward (Ken Thomson), a young man purporting to be a reporter, believing Mr Fox to be his father and falling for the maid. These tender storylines are casually swept aside as a murder is announced. The spotlight shifts to Detective Spectrum, who tries to persuade each character in turn that he or she is the killer, only to be wracked by doubts when they either reply in the negative or are themselves dispatched. Ben Lydon’s confidently comic performance as Spectrum is a microcosm of the show in that it is both delightful and inconsequential.

In the main, Butterfly Powder is an unoriginal idea executed supremely well. Director Jacob Lovick has a well-chosen, talented ensemble working smoothly, supported by stylistically spot-on design and sound from Jason Salsbury and Patrick Neil Doyle. However, one scene suggests greater things to come from Jack Robertson, ‘a writer you’ve never heard of’, according to the blurb. In the scene, Clampton, a morbid cameo brilliantly played by Chazz Redhead, has been summoned to the upcoming murder scene, and unloads his misgivings to a silent, soup-eating soul, who turns out to be played by the author himself. Staged in a darkened, purgatorial ante-room with the sound of a lapping shoreline in background it’s a poignant, funny, Stoppard-like theatrical idea, that would be good to see more of.

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Tag Archives: Patrick Neil Doyle

United Queendom

★★★★★

Kensington Palace