THEATREWORLD

The single, huge image of a sorrowing Christ with crown of thorns dominates Katrina Lindsay’s set for the RSC’s final production this season. It is a powerful presence, and the spirit of suffering goodness which it evokes pervades the whole of Helen Edmundson’s wonderful new play.

It is not clear to me where the idea began in her mind, but the story of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the intellectual prodigy of 17^th century Mexico, might have struck her in 2004, when the RSC made Sor Juana’s delightful play House of Desires part of its Spanish Golden Age season. Wisely, anyway, she has secured the services of the same director, Nancy Meckler, to bring her own work to fruition.

It is a marvellous story. A brilliant illegitimate Mexican girl fights for her own education, and teaches herself so much that she becomes the protégé of the Vicereine of Mexico. But, casting off the opportunities of the court, at the age of twenty she enters a convent – and then transforms it into a literary salon known throughout the country and back in Spain. She writes plays, poems, theological treatises: a free-spirited blend of the spiritual and the secular. But she comes into conflict with the Church and the Inquisition, and is forced to renounce her writings, her library and her secular learning.

Edmundson has chosen a good title; love is the theme being explored here, whether the temptation of Raymond Coulthard’s Bishop Santa Cruz towards women, or the Archbishop’s visceral misogyny, or the sexual awakening of Juana’s niece Angelica (delightfully played by Sarah Ovens). But, centrally, it is the protagonist’s generosity of spirit which informs the play, and Catherine McCormack is wonderful casting for the part. Beautiful, warm, intelligent and loving, she lights up the stage, and the bond between her and Catherine Hamilton’s enlightened Vicereine is movingly developed. Set against this the earthier humanity of her slave Juanita, played with striking naturalism by Dona Croll, and Stephen Boxer’s Archbishop, whose quiet, cruel fanaticism makes the flesh creep, and you have a real feast of human emotional experience. I loved it.

Reviewed by Andrew Whiffin for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

by William Shakespeare

Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Now playing in repertory until 18th February 2012, then on tour

It would be interesting to see a production of The Taming of the Shrew in – or set in – Afghanistan or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, where the successful ‘taming’ of the woman who attempts to assert herself might take on a very different tone. Lucy Bailey, for the RSC’s final production this season in the main house, chooses instead 1940s Italy, as a society in which not to be married makes a woman an outsider, and leads to Kate making her first entrance being paraded around the town with her hands and neck locked into a ‘shrew’s fiddle’.

Ruth Sutcliffe’s ingenious set appears to be a vast bed, whose pillows become the whitened stones of the town square, and under whose vast dust-sheet of a bedspread the drunken tinker Christopher Sly can lie to watch the story, and Petruchio and Kate can consummate their marriage after the wedding feast. It works well, as do the opening doors and windows in the wooden back wall, giving us the church and houses for both Baptista and Lucentio.

The induction scene is played out in full, and more business is added to it later, but more for comic effect than to suggest any sense of a perspective-giving self-discovery. Beyond this, Bailey takes few liberties with the text, and the plot is played out clearly and straightforwardly (though I could not quite see the point being made by having Petruchio and Grumio played with harsh Northern Ireland accents).

There is plenty of fun in the desperation of Baptista (Terence Wilton) to get his daughters married, and in the rampant seduction of pretty, spoilt sister Bianca (Elizabeth Cadwallader) by Gavin Fowler’s Lucentio, as they are glimpsed through the windows of the house in various stages of flagrante delicto. And David Caves is a spirited and youthful Petruchio, powerful enough to sweep Kate literally off her feet, his torso tattooed with marker pen slogans. Simon Gregor, too, makes a real character out of his servant Grumio, who becomes a Joycean comic figure.

But what of the feminist question? And how does Kate deliver her final speech of alarming submissiveness? Well, I’m not entirely sure. Lisa Dillon plays her resentment and aggression very powerfully, and we see her fighting and spitting and mooning at the jeering crowd and urinating in the street, but it is never made entirely clear when or whether she has come to love her ‘tamer’, and the tone of the great submission is neither happy nor ironic. She stops to light another cigarette before she begins, suggesting perhaps some sort of nervousness or defiance, but then leaps enthusiastically into bed with her husband afterwards. You’ll have to judge for yourselves.

Reviewed by Andrew Whiffin for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

by William Shakespeare

Royal Shakespeare Company, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Now playing until 10^th March 2012

The first duty of a director is to make the story clear, and – given that Measure for Measure is one of the less frequently performed plays in the Shakespearean canon – it is to Roxana Silbert’s credit that her new production for the RSC does so very well.

The Duke leaves Vienna in the charge of his deputy Angelo, a rigid disciplinarian who applies the law against fornication to Claudio, who has impregnated his girlfriend. But the Duke is secretly testing Angelo and, disguising himself as a friar, returns to observe his deputy succumbing to human weakness and offering to sign a pardon in return for the sexual favours of Claudio’s virginal sister Isabella. Casting off his disguise, the all-seeing ruler returns and dispenses proper justice.

But it is difficult to find much coherence otherwise in this reading. The costumes seem randomly conceived, with some jackets, some polo necks and plenty of leather – including, for the Duke, an odd corset, giving him something of a Captain Kirk aura. The set, a curtain of hanging strips, occasionally framed by neon, looks fine for the bondage scenes in Mistress Overdone’s brothel, but contributes little otherwise. The seven-piece band of musicians seems largely redundant until springing into life for the (redundant) dance which accompanies the curtain-call.

And Silbert’s reading of the characters seems to me patchy too. Jamie Ballard’s Angelo is fine: clear, naturalistic, and managing the difficult transition from outward propriety to inner corruption with some success. But Jodie McNee’s Isabella is given none of the erotic charge of the virginal nun, her Yorkshire accent making her sound more of a farmer’s daughter. Bruce Alexander’s Provost and Mark Quartley’s Claudio are standard and sympathetic performances, as is Annette McLaughlin’s Mistress Overdone, but the disturbing loucheness of Lucio’s language and demeanour has been ignored, and Paul Chahidi plays him as just a friendly chap.

Centrally, too, the interpretation of the Duke undermines the sense of the play having something important to say. Raymond Coulthard plays him as slightly camp and waggish, and the Christ-like omniscience of the man who understands us all and can only respond to our weakness with moral authority and compassion, has been transmuted by the director into a penchant for conjuring. This does not do justice to the ‘profoundly serious’ aspect of the play which Professor Stanley Wells expounds in his essay in the programme.

But I did feel the agonising pull of the emotions at the five-star moment of Mariana’s appeal to Isabella to kneel and pray for the life of her abuser. I could only have wished that more of the richness and strangeness of this wonderful play had risen to the surface.

Reviewed by Andrew Whiffin for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

Royal Shakespeare Company, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

WRITTEN ON THE HEART

by David Edgar

Now playing in repertory until 10^th March 2012

David Edgar’s new play is an exploration of the religious conflicts of the 16^th and 17^th centuries out of which was born the King James Bible. In a wonderful irony – and not the first for the RSC this year – current affairs have conspired to illuminate the material which they are addressing, as, on the day of the first performance of Written on the Heart, Giles Fraser, the author of the programme’s learned and sensitive study of the cultural and theological history of the KJB, found himself resigning as Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral in protest at the stance of the church authorities.

And there is a mass of scholarship in the play, not only concerning the nuances of the textual differences between the competing English translations of the Bible, but also reflecting the intricacies of the historical circumstances. At its heart is Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Ely and chairman of one of the KJB translation committees. He tries to distance himself from the infighting amongst his colleagues, and harks back to the spirit of William Tyndale, for whose defiantly vernacular translation he had been burnt 75 years earlier.

It is easy to become lost in the complexities, as Ian Midlane’s comic churchwarden points out, as first Henry VIII, then Edward, then Mary, then Elizabeth impose conflictingly stern injunctions on their people. But Greg Doran’s excellently tight direction brings out the spirit of passionate intellectual debate beset by prejudice and self-interest, and characters are clearly developed by a fine cast.

At the heart of it are two outstanding performances. Stephen Boxer’s Tyndale is scholarly, visionary and human, doing everything possible to vitalise the life-changing significance of his work. And Oliver Ford Davies’ Andrewes is a marvel of measured irony, layered with wisdom and feeling. The sense of focus with which actors of this stature can endow an otherwise intimidatingly complex argument is immensely valuable.

But there are striking vignettes elsewhere. Jodie McNee brings a wonderful vigour to the bishop’s implausibly theologically committed and educated maid, Mary Currer. And the scene of Tyndale’s prison cell in Flanders, on the night before his execution, is much enhanced by the freshness and clarity of Mark Quartley’s performance as the young Catholic priest who is so much struck by the condemned man that he risks his own life to smuggle out his work to the rest of the world.

Francis O’Connor’s design – a carved wooden rood-screen – is simple and effective, and beautifully lit by Tim Mitchell. An extraordinarily powerful five-strong ecclesiastical choir lends rich atmosphere to the links between scenes. Altogether, there is much to enjoy here.

Reviewed by Andrew Whiffin for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

THE GRAND THEATRE

WOLVERHAMPTON

BOX OFFICE: 01902 42 92 12

Website: www.grandtheatre.co.uk

SISTER ACT

Now playing at the Wolverhampton Grand until Saturday 18^th February.

A packed audience filled the auditorium at the Wolverhampton Grand last night for the musical production of Sister Act. Originally a book, and later a film staring Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act the Musical, was born in 2006 at The Pasadena Playhouse. Having toured states in America it came to London’s West End where it was nominated for four Olivier awards and in 2011 it finally reached Broadway.

Having never seen the film, I went in last night with a very open mind and came out having had a mind blowing evening. From the very beginning of the show I knew that I was going to enjoy the production, but I was not prepared for how much I was going to like it.

Cynthia Erivo played the lead role of Deloris Van Cartier, one time cabaret singer who has to be hidden within the walls of a convent until she can appear as a witness to a murder. Her voice range is fantastic and she has great stage presence in the role.

Mother Superior of the convent is played by Denise Black, perhaps best known for her role as hairdresser Denise Osbourne in Coronation Street from 1992-1996. She was superb as the solid, religious leader of the convent. When Monsignor O’Hara (Michael Starke) tells her that there will be a new ‘nun’ that needs to stay with them for a time, she is full of compassion and offers a home for the young Deloris but she is less sure that she has done the right thing when she finds two of the other sisters visiting a local bar with her and enjoying it!

The show has a wonderful cast and is an absolute joy to watch. Together with a vibrant musical score it makes for a real feel good show that everyone should see. Don’t miss it at

Reviews by Fran and Steve Onions for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

MALVERN THEATRES

FORUM and FESTIVAL

Grange Road

Malvern

Worcestershire

WR14 3HB

BOX OFFICE: 01684 892277

www.malvern-theatres.co.uk/

Reviews by Rebecca Vines for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

DERBY THEATRE

Theatre Walk

Eagle Centre

Derby

DE1 2NF

Box office: 01332 255 800

Group/Schools Booking Hotline (10+): 01332 255 413

Typetalk Box Office Number: 18001 01332 255 800

Reviews by Mike Wheeler for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

DERBY LIVE

Derby Theatre

Theatre Walk

Eagle Centre

Derby

DE1 2NF

Box Office: 01332 255800

Website: www.derbylive.co.uk

e-mail: boxoffice@derby.gov.uk

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW - by William Shakespeare

adapted and directed by Pete Meakin

Now playing until 25 February

How do you solve a problem like Katherina? I don’t mean subduing one rebellious spirit, but staging the play itself. Is there a way through the apparent misogyny and mental cruelty on show that can make it palatable for modern audiences? Pete Meakin’s production for Derby LIVE grasps a whole series of nettles at the heart of this highly problematic play.

The birdsong that greets the audience on arrival is deceptive. There’s no rural idyll in prospect - the mid-19th century setting is dominated by back-projected images of railways and mining, and by Patrick Connellan’s set of high brick walls and arches. Sibling rivalry turns ugly in Kate’s persecution of her sister Bianca. Lizzie Winkler’s Kate begins as part Hedda Gabler’s wilder country cousin, part Shavian new woman without the poise. Tying Bianca to a tree, she lodges an apple in the bark above her head and threatens to take a shot at it with a rifle (on the word ‘tell’ in the lines “Of all thy suitors, here I charge thee, tell Whom thou lovest best” - nice one!).

Sean O’Callaghan is a dark, dangerous Petrucchio with Alan Rickmanesque overtones (his entry in the wedding scene is electrifying), who also reveals himself to be a sadistic bully. As he and Kate circle warily round each other on their first meeting the air positively crackles with tension.

Perdita Avery’s Bianca is sweet and demure on the surface, but you begin to suspect she is more calculating than she appears. In fact, the whole play comes across as an exercise in what Shakespeare calls “seeming” - not just Bianca’s suitors’ disguises and swapped identities but the constant manoeuvring around questions of money, power and possession.

Then there’s the question of what to do with Kate’s final speech. Is it genuinely submissive or bitterly ironic? As Petruchio and Kate gather up the banknotes resulting from the wager – he stuffing some of them into her bosom, she some of the rest into her mouth, and turning to Bianca in triumph and contempt – we are confronted with another possibility: she is as much of a gold-digger as he is. As the men and Katherina go off, leaving the other women alone with both dismay and a sense of betrayal writ large on their faces, it’s clear that nobody has come out of this smelling of roses.

Perhaps the only way to stage The Taming of the Shrew convincingly today is simply to confront all the problems head-on and let audience members make up their own minds. From that point of view, and given the amount of head-scratching and thinking it provokes, Derby LIVE’s production is a runaway success.

Reviews by Mike Wheeler for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

CURVE THEATRE

Cultural Quarter
Rutland Street
Leicester
LE1 1SB

Box Office: 0116 242 3595
For booking tickets and
other show information

Ticket Enquiries:
tickets@curvetheatre.co.uk

Reviews by Karen McCandless for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

THE LITTLE THEATRE

Dover Street
Leicester

LE1 6PW

Box Office: 0116 255 1302
http://www.thelittletheatre.net

Reviews by Karen McCandless for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

LYCEUM THEATRE

Heath Street

Crewe

Cheshire CW12DA

BOX OFFICE: 01270 537333

www.lyceumtheatre.net

Reviews by Jonnie Woodall for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

NOTTINGHAM PLAYHOUSE

Wellington Circus

Nottingham NG1 5AF

BOX OFFICE: 0115 941 9419

Minicom: 0115 947 6100

The Box Office is open Monday to Saturday from 10.00a.m. - 8 p.m. and Sundays and Bank holidays 2 hours before any performance.

Book Online - www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

Email - enquiry@nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

Reviews by Elaine Peel for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

Lakeside Arts Centre

Lakeside is the University of Nottingham's unique public arts centre presenting an eclectic programme of music, dance, theatre, visual art and family events all year round.

With two excellent cafés and craft cabinets selling original works by leading craftmakers, Lakeside Arts Centre is the ideal place to take time out, unwind and experience the best in visual and performing arts.