Shakespeare’s Globe and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse are known for their innovative and unusual productions, and this is certainly true in the case of their current production of Shakespeare’s earliest play, Two Gentlemen of Verona. The youthful exuberance of the play is showcased in the company’s modern interpretation as they lift it from its traditional setting and place it down in 1966. This allows the artistic director to have a lot of fun playing with costumes, set, and music, and the energy and excitement for this aspect of the play translates into the actors’ enjoyment of performing, which again translates into the audience’s enjoyment of the viewing experience.
Two Gentlemen of Verona tells the story of two young men, love-struck and misguided. Proteus is in love with Julia, while Valentine falls for the beautiful Sylvia. When Valentine tells his best friend of his love, Proteus’s fickle heart is won, and he transfers his affections to Sylvia. What follows is a precursor to Shakespeare’s later works – mistaken identities, cross-dressing love-interests, and complicated love puzzles unravelled in the end.
The sixties theme is quite unconventional, and yet works well with the rest of the play. The adolescent characters seem appropriately placed in such a formative decade, and the director’s choice to play with different musical genres to change the location of the action is clever. The players are all so musically-talented, that it would be a shame not to use their skills in music as well as in drama.
I was lucky to attend this performance on a beautiful evening and the Bodleian Quad was (as always) the perfect setting for an outdoor play, with a gentle breeze shifting the warm air. Why not take advantage of a few days of pleasant weather, take a cold beverage, and treat yourself to a few tickets to a play which will make you understand what people saw in Shakespeare right from the start. ★★★★☆ @BookingAround 21st July 2016
