The Old Vic
226 September 2013
226 September 2013
Director: Mark Rylance
Talent: Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones
Danny Le Wynter as Don John made me laugh twice. Beth Cooke
as Hero was game. There are no other positives.
The set was, well, it was brown, which is to say it featured
a large brown ‘arch’ in the shape of a table, and a brown backdrop. There
were two or three chairs and a wind up gramophone. There was altogether far too
much business – people walking about at the back of the stage carrying chairs
or sweeping up or lingering at the side having animated pretend
conversations. The only real laughs of the evening were provoked by
the antics of a gardener dancing to a woefully performed slow blues. I
couldn’t watch myself, for embarrassment at the ineptitude of that particular
performance. The supporting cast – and Much Ado is distinguished by
its number of fully-drawn minor characters – I suppose did their best, but they
were up against it. Redgrave and James Earl Jones were very poor indeed.
This was the indulging of a whim: “This production was born
from the idea of Benedick and Beatrice being played by James Earl Jones and
Vanessa Redgrave” writes Mark Rylance in the programme. No
Shakespeare play can afford to be approached whimsically, not even the funniest
of his comedies (which I believe this to be). This was an insult to
the audience. Neither of the principals could be heard. Redgrave
is, in the end, a movie actress; she simply does not have the power or the
presence of, say, Judi Dench (who would have laughed Rylance’s idea out of
court). I couldn’t hear a word she said. Couldn’t hear
him either, except for “the world must be peopled”. Not by these two
(there was a titter from the stalls). Many members of the audience (I’m sure I
was not the only one) must have spent much of the time wondering whether James
Earl Jones would last out a scene let alone an act or the play. In
one early moment it took an age for him to sling a leg over the arm of the
chair and all one could think about once he had managed it was how very
uncomfortable the old man must be.
Much Ado is about young love. It is a play full
of energy and quick wit. Rylance has managed to render it moribund and
dull. Quite a feat.
To add insult to insult the programme contains an essay,
fatuously entitled ‘The Burning Question’, on “the authorship debate”. There
is no debate among serious scholars, and it is certainly not a “burning question”,
except perhaps for those who do not take the plays seriously (as evidenced in
this present production – Mark Rylance and Vanessa Redgrave both doubt the
ability of William Shakespeare to have written them.)
We all left at the interval.
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