Delight in 'Shakespeare in Love'
PLUMMY and delectable as an Elizabethan sweetmeat, this artful conflation of fact and fiction, drama and poetry, romance and comedy à la Shakespeare is a delight from start to finish. With a cast that reads like a Who’s
Who of local celebrities in the drama world, and a director of Greg Karvellas’ pedigree, it’s not surprising that this luminous production of the work by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman is a highlight of the 2017 drama season.
Sumptuous costumes sourced by Birrie le Roux from the Royal Shakespeare Company, and a multi-level set of functional majesty designed by Paul Wills, further enhance this staging of Shakespeare in Love, while sprightly baroque music courtesy of Charl-Johan Lingenfelder evokes the Bard’s world.
For good measure, an obliging dog also appears on stage – de rigueur in any play at the court of Elizabeth I, given the queen’s predilection for canine participation in theatre. Apart from this four-footed thespian, every member of the cast, from lead to smallest cameo role, gives an impeccable performance.
Along with the chicanery, back-biting, plagiarism and financial shenanigans of theatre life in the late 16th century, we are privy to the more personal drama of a young playwright struggling to establish his career as he deals with the tragedy of star-crossed love, the latter ultimately providing the inspiration for one of the best-known plays in Shakespeare’s repertoire. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, Will and Viola survive their blighted love affair, but their separation is no less inexorable or permanent.
Presiding over all this is the august figure of Elizabeth I, portrayed with panache by a floridly attired Robyn Scott. Dylan Edy (Shakespeare) and Roxane Hayward (Viola) fill their respective roles with grace, agility and warmth, engaging the hearts and minds of their audience.
Theo Landey’s intermittent appearances as Marlowe have all the casual brilliance associated with that elusive character; and Lucy Tops, as the nurse, shows that her dramatic ability more than equals the vocal proficiency for which she is known. Jason K Ralph is convincing and repellent as the steely Lord Wessex, a suitable foil to the heartmelting Viola.
Comedy – robust, flippant, often bawdy – adds piquancy to the show and, for this, the secondary personae under Karvellas’ tight direction must take credit. Nathan Lynn, as a young and bloodthirsty Webster, hovers around the action like a persistent mosquito; John Maytham is all vanity and bluster, yet oddly vulnerable in the role of Fennyman; Adrian Collins is hilarious as a dogged player in Shakespeare’s company; and Louis Viljoen (Mr Wabash) has a bravura speech that brings the house down. Nicholas Pauling excels as the overweening actor Alleyn, and Mark Elderkin is magisterial, as usual, portraying Richard Burbage – his finest moment being the delivery of a joyous affirmation of the power of theatre.