Under the impeccable direction of Andrew Hilton, Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory (SATTF) is serving up a perfect confection of celebrity gossip and slanderous innuendo. How unchanged we are! While Sheridan wrote of the mischievous chatter of 18th century London filling the columns of the broadsheet newspapers of the time, today we are at the mercy of a phone hacking culture and a twitterati hungry for tittle-tattle. Hilton has built an amusing bridge between the two.
I’d challenge anyone to find a better rendering of Sheridan’s wonderfully witty exposé of deceit and defamation than this one. Every player owned his or her part – and all produced sharp and always tremendously funny performances. The Tobacco Factory space works so well for pieces like this – whispers can be heard, a raised eyebrow noticed and a glum face can fill the room.
Scandal gets off to a wonderful gallop. In Lady Sneerwell (Julia Hills) and the odious Snake (Paul Currier) we have a couple of knaves driven by lust and money. Sneerwell in particular seeks to benefit from the deception she can weave into a world where rumour has the potential to ruin. Drawn into this malevolent world is the sizzling Mrs Candour (Fiona Sheehan) seeking juicy tidbits of chat like a seagull eyeing a sandwich in the hands of an unsuspecting tourist.
Sneerwell, Candour and the effervescent Sir Benjamin Backbite (Byron Mondahl) form the backbone of what is in effect a celebrity gossip club. Later they will try to outdo each other when poor Sir Peter Teazle (Christopher Bianchi) becomes a victim to their inventions. Sir Peter’s young spoilt wife, Lady Teazle (Daisy Whalley), levered into higher society by marriage, has been starting to cut her teeth with this roguish band, but soon falls prey to it.
The play centres upon two brothers, Charles and Joseph Surface (Jack Warrier and Paapa Essiedu). Sir Peter Teazle has acted as ‘a kind of a guardian’ to them both since their father’s sudden death. Both brothers have received generous endowments from an uncle who lives abroad. While Charles has been frittering away his fortune with revelry and gambling, his elder brother Joseph has been slyly building a reputation for being a man of sentiment, while secretly lusting after Sir Peter’s wife, Lady Teazle, and planning to marry Sir Peter’s ward, the demure Maria (Hannah Lee).
The fun starts in earnest once the brothers’ benevolent uncle, Sir Oliver Surface returns suddenly. Constructing disguises for himself so he can test the brothers suitability for inheritance, there follows a delightful farce of mistaken identity, and an ever-present threat of disgrace and ridicule, before love has its day, and reason is finally untangled. This is the SATTF in top form, don’t miss it. ★★★★★ Simon Bishop 15/04/15
