Tag Archives: William Shakespeare

All’s Well That Ends Well

★★★★

Jermyn Street Theatre

All’s Well That Ends Well

All’s Well That Ends Well

Jermyn Street Theatre

Reviewed – 8th November 2019

★★★★

 

“Ceri-Lyn Cissone steals the comedic limelight with her natural gift and assorted accents”

 

“All’s Well That Ends Well” has always been one of Shakespeare’s least performed works. Classified as one of his ‘problem plays’ it shifts between comedy, fantasy and psychological drama. The evidence that Shakespeare intended it to be a comedy is in the happy ending, as the title would suggest. Criticised as being a rather contrived and truncated conclusion, Tom Littler’s inventive production at the Jermyn Street Theatre adds a subtle twist that instils a touch of much needed pathos.

The action is transposed to 1970s London, Paris and Florence. When his Bertram’s father dies, he rejects his friends, abandons his mother, and flees his childhood home. But the orphaned Helena, in love with him since childhood, refuses to give up hope. Following in her father’s footsteps, she becomes a doctor, saves a monarch’s life, and crosses half of Europe in the passionate pursuit of her happiness.

This is an intimate production, scaled down to a cast of six. The setting is evoked more by the soundtrack than Neil Irish and Anett Black’s slightly baffling set design. Predominated by Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ album from the mid seventies, the music is intercut with live piano accompaniment – a leitmotif echoing the iconic riffs of the recorded music. Stefan Bednarczyk and Ceri-Lyn Cissone duet and duel on a pair of upright pianos, seamlessly weaving in and out of the action. Bednarczyk’s arrangements underscore not just the dialogue but the emotional core of the characters that is often lost in the delivery.

The crux is persuading the audience why Helena should be so in love with the outwardly unloveable Bertram. Gavin Fowler shows us a chink in the armour of his roguish indifference to Helena that sheds a ray of hope. We’re not sure that Helena sees this, but her dogged determination to bag her man is matched by Hannah Morrish’s solid performance. Multi-rolling Miranda Foster delivers the most emotional punch as Helena’s newly widowed mother and the ailing Queen (normally a king) of France. Cured from her illness by Helena, Foster is like a starry-eyed convert before reclaiming her steely grasp on the proceedings.

But all in all, much of the musicality of Shakespeare’s language is missing, and the rhythm often fails to ignite the frequent tongue-twisters and tricks of the dialogue. The plot is slight so it’s all in the text which doesn’t always match the magic created by the musical atmosphere.

But what does shine is the comedy, and the torchbearers are the peripheral characters. Robert Mountford’s swaggering Parolles is a gust of fresh air as he relishes his cowardly downfall, while Ceri-Lyn Cissone steals the comedic limelight with her natural gift and assorted accents.

With themes of social mobility, deception and sexual misconduct that are still relevant today, this is a play that mixes dark fairytale with light humour; but, despite moments of magic, the peaks and troughs are never fully reached.

 

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Matt Pereira

 


All’s Well That Ends Well

Jermyn Street Theatre until 30th November 2019

 

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:
Agnes Colander: An Attempt At Life | ★★★★ | February 2019
Mary’s Babies | ★★★ | March 2019
Creditors | ★★★★ | April 2019
Miss Julie | ★★★ | April 2019
Pictures Of Dorian Gray (A) | ★★★ | June 2019
Pictures Of Dorian Gray (B) | ★★★ | June 2019
Pictures Of Dorian Gray (C) | ★★★★ | June 2019
Pictures Of Dorian Gray (D) | ★★ | June 2019
For Services Rendered | ★★★★★ | September 2019
The Ice Cream Boys | ★★★★ | October 2019

 

Click here to see our most recent reviews

 

The Merchant of Venice

★★★★

CLF Art Café

The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice

CLF Art Cafe

Reviewed – 18th September 2019

★★★★

 

“a funny, urgent and intense production, full of action and suspense”

 

I can’t think that there is any play so contentious and yet so regularly performed as The Merchant of Venice. Classed as a comedy and with all the Shakespearian trappings of one, it’s very difficult to understand what message we are meant to take away. Do we sympathise with the Jew (as he is so often affectionally referred to), or do we believe him to be unfeeling and unworthy of our sympathies? In short, do we consider Shylock’s humiliating downfall a happy ending, or a tragedy?

To The Elephant’s production seeks to explore the incredibly difficult conversations around racism, sexism and money as power. But regardless of their intentions, so long as the play is left unabridged (as it is), these questions can only be explored so much from a modern perspective. Instead I’m left feeling very uneasy when at the moment Shylock is stripped of his dignity along with all his worldly possessions, we are tittering at the mocking remarks made by Gratiano (Joseph Samimi) at Shylock’s expense.

The story, for those who didn’t have to study it a billion times at school, is that of Antonio (Chris Royle), an honourable and well-liked merchant, who finds himself in a financial bind and so seeks out Shylock the money lender (Atilla Akinci). Antonio and his Christian friends all share a deep disgust for Jews in general and Shylock in particular, and the feeling is reciprocated. On that basis, they strike a bizarre and bloody deal that should Antonio not come good on his loan repayment, Shylock may quite literally take “a pound of flesh”.

Under Kate Littlewood’s direction, the cast does well to inject pace and bite in to the script – an oft difficult task with ye olde Shakespeare. The subplot of Portia (Molly Moody), for example, seeking a suitor via her late father’s devising is the sort of silly scene, steeped in predictability and seventeenth-century word play, that could easily lull the audience to sleep, but Moody and Leda Douglas (playing Nerissa, her lady-in-waiting) are an excellent comedy duo, sharing knowing looks and eye-rolls whilst playing delightful hosts to the most absurd characters.

Royle’s Antonio is humble but charming; both Samini and Brian Chandrabose play Antonio’s friends, but find their comic footing in their doubled roles as Portia’s potential suitors; Sam Perry’s Lancelot Gobbo is obsequious and untrustworthy; Claire Bowman commands respect as Bassanio, and Susie Kimnell’s Solano is a loyal thug.

But Atilla Akinci’s Shylock steals the show, expressing with painful conviction the uncomfortable truths of his character. Whilst the script appears to conclude that he does indeed get his just desserts, Akinci’s performance does as much to tell us otherwise. He is certainly bitter and petty, but he is made so by his persecutors.

The design (Charlotte Henery) is simple, with no real scenery and few props, but the modern costumes set the scene aplenty, and the change of location to the theatre’s bar for the final courtroom scene gives the impression of the audience as a kind of mob, to great effect. We’re gasping and laughing as a paying chorus.

There is no doubt that Littlewood has succeeded in creating a funny, urgent and intense production, full of action and suspense. The only question lies in whether it’s time to lop off the ‘happy ending’ and allow these characters their complexities – both charming and hateful; honourable and ignoble – instead of holding on to a conclusion that strips them of their moral quandaries and leaves a modern audience feeling uneasy and confused.

 

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Liviu Jipescu

 


The Merchant of Venice

 CLF Art Cafe until 28th September

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Side Show | ★★★½ | October 2018

 

Click here to see our most recent reviews