The temptation to go all out for Boris must have been strong. In the end, however, the Royal Shakespeare Company has settled for something more akin to a chairman of the local Conservative party, in the form of the rashly tall and impressively padded John Hodgkinson to play the fat, horny Sir John Falstaff.
It is a splendidly suburban production that, with its mock-Tudor prefabricated buildings and plastic boxwood hedges, recreates the sleepy serenity of wealthy middle England.
Some scenes are set in a beer garden (the interior advertises ‘Pie Sports’), while domestic interiors are furnished with sofas, lamps and ready-made curtains from John Lewis. The Association should probably have a credit in the program.
But it is Hodgkinson’s Falstaff who rules (and laments) the day. He is perhaps the best Falstaff from The Wives that I have ever seen (his incarnation in three of Shakespeare’s historical plays is a much more classless fish soup).
Usually presented as a lecherous, lazy clown from the start, here he is a haughtier, higher-status creation, oozing pride and pomposity as he lords it over his ‘followers’, who are a rabble of ASBO teenagers.
Photograph of The Merry Wives of Windsor (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford on Avon)
It is a splendidly suburban production that, with its Tudor-style prefabricated buildings and plastic hedges
In his finely tailored navy three-piece suit and tie, Hodgkinson displays the demeanor of a lawyer, well accustomed to the commanding authority of his sonic boom.
But he really starts cooking when it comes to his mission to bed two of Windsor’s best women: Mrs. Page (Samantha Spiro) and Mrs. Ford (Siubhan Harrison).
They, in turn, set him up for a famous fall, as he escapes the wrath of the jealous Mr. Ford, first in a laundry basket, then in an oversized dress.
Spiro and Harrison are a perfect double act of fashionably coiffed middle-aged ladies, happily managing Falstaff’s project. Spiro is short and lively, while Harrison is her opposite, tall and breathless.
Meanwhile, Richard Goulding, like her husband Frank Ford, is almost constipated with jealousy; and Jason Thorpe amuses as French dentist Dr. Caius, offering to have a word in an anagram of someone’s “ears” (think background).
Trainspotters lovers will be glad to see Patrick Walshe McBride finally making his RSC debut, having spent so much time hanging around as the preening office actor in BBC’s Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators. Here, he is a young, gangly Mr. Bean, faced with the nervous prospect of marital misalignment.
It’s also evidence of the attention to detail in Blanche McIntyre’s formidably long (almost three hours) but still respectably tense production. Like Falstaff, it probably has too much weight, but that doesn’t stop it from being a very happy dance.
It’s not a bad thing to take liberties with Shakespeare, but Not Too Tame Theater Company’s new production of Twelfth Night at Shakespeare North Playhouse, starring Les Dennis, ensures that our Will’s writing is more honored in non-compliance than in observance .
Some scenes are set in a beer garden (the interior advertises ‘Pie Sports’), while domestic interiors are furnished with John Lewis sofas.
In his finely tailored navy three-piece suit and tie, Hodgkinson displays the demeanor of a lawyer, well accustomed to the commanding authority of his sonic boom.
The Bard’s melancholic romantic comedy transforms into a raucous rock musical with Elizabethan interludes, in what could best be described as a sing-along with Shakespeare. The story of castaway Viola and her twin brother Sebastian, who become caught up in the romantic intrigues of the duke, the countess of the country, and their servant Malvolio (Dennis), is electrified, literally, by a barrage of plugged-in classic pop and four-piece music. letters. improvisation.
We open with Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones, continuing with Shakespears Sister (Stay), with the occasional ad hoc rap from rock star Duke, Orsino.
There is a medley of howling songs, sparked by drunken, rowdy gentlemen Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek, in which the audience is urged to join in, only to be admonished by Dennis’s spoilsport Malvolio (a pink-cut pensioner disgusted at the find his Lady’s house destroyed). in a tavern).
When the revelers finally get their revenge, tricking him into thinking the Countess is sweet to him, he dons a hilariously bright outfit featuring a high-visibility yellow fur coat, topped off with eyeliner, aviator glasses, and a top hairdo. , all to the rhythm of You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate.
While Dennis finds pathos in his humiliation, the evening’s caustic energy arises largely from a gleefully manic cast.
Louise Haggerty warms up the crowd as a dim-witted Glasgow competitor; Purvi Parmar is Countess Olivia, the neighbor; and Kate James, as her mischievous maid Mary, is an intriguing Scouser. Georgia Frost and Tom Sturgess, as the estranged castaway siblings, show off their musical talents playing guitar and keyboard.
Reuben Johnson’s dim-witted Sir Andrew Aguecheek clowns Jack Brown’s demotic dipso Toby Belch, while Jimmy Fairhurst’s production seeks to bring Shakespeare to the people.
They succeed, but only by knocking him off his pedestal.
The Merry Wives of Windsor runs until September 7. Twelfth Night ends June 29.