9th – 27th July
A summer of Shakespearean delights begins!
The Bristol Shakespeare Festival gets under way with an all male production of this Bard favourite from The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. A few murmurs of concern recently from highly respected actresses regarding all male casts have left a feeling that any such productions had best have something special to justify the gender bias. Last night’s performance certainly fulfils that criteria with an interpretation by director, Andrew Normington, that sparkles with wit and insight.
Now, we know that at Shakespeare’s Globe, boy actors would have taken the girls parts, so to see such a production gives us some little insight into how the plays would have come across to a contemporary audience. There is still of course a certain added frisson when two men kiss on stage, but there is a lot of fun to be had in, for example, the girl to girl exchanges between Juliet and the Nurse. David O’Connor’s expansive and jolly Nurse adds the facet of not merely being a woman, but revealing, in a comical way, what men think women are like. Whatever insights Shakespeare may have had into the female psyche, he was never above having a laugh, understanding the nuances of gender stereotypes and using his considerable stagecraft in making a virtue of necessity. Again in the exchange between the Nurse and poetry loving Mercutio, played with much vigour by John Sandeman, there are new insights to be had and new comic possibilities, which the director makes the most of.
Similarly, Jonathan Bullock’s freshly unwrapped Juliet nudges us gently into a new perspective on the world’s most famous teenage, lovelorn girl. There is nothing soppy about Bullock’s character: bashful yet eager, coy yet coquettish, full of bounce and grace – helped by a perfect swirling dress – it is an accurate and convincing portrait, yet for all that, still that of a girl by a boy but – and here’s the thing – all the more enjoyable for that.
Will Haddington’s Romeo, a love subject looking for a love object, who finds the real thing with the wrong name, brings all the teenage angst that rails against arranged marriage, duty, convention and pointless feud that rounds out literature’s most famous lover. Any risk of descent into melodrama in the final death scene is avoided by the intensity and power of human emotion which both protagonists handle with sensitivity and honesty – amor vincit omnia.
The production is seasoned with music and flows around Morgan Brind’s clever set, unobtrusively compressing time and space. Polly Laurence’s costume designs add colour, period and for the women’s parts, just the right amount of femininity to help the characterizations. The decision not to put the boys into girls’ wigs with the inherent distracting risk of them looking like drag queens, is a brave one, but thoroughly justified.
If you were looking to take a young person to see a Shakespeare for the first time and want them to be hooked or if you’ve seen the play half a dozen times before and want something that rekindles the love, this version undoubtedly delivers. ★★★★☆ Graham Wyles
For further information and to see the entire programme, visit the Festival website:
