| Inventive and Spirited |
Les Trois Mousquetaires |
| Theatre Sans Frontieres , Aberystwyth Arts Centre , October 6, 2009 |
With an artistic mission to tour plays by world authors in their original language there cannot be a company anywhere quite like Hexham-based Theatre Sans Frontieres. This tour of “Les Trois Mousquetaires”, revived from 2000, took in sixteen venues that included the Torch and Aberystwyth. Apart from Rew Lowe’s brief foray into English as the Duke of Buckingham the production’s language was French, led by Johanne Thibaut’s spirited D’Artagnan.There was no doubt about the artistic pedigree of the five-strong cast, four women and one man. The three musketeers, sporting ankle boots, leather blousons and moustaches held on by elastic bands, strutted and assumed manly Gallic expressions. The movement of the cast was superb, evidence of training that included Paris, Madrid and Krakow. At least two of the cast were adept on the accordion with perky ensemble singing. Director John Cobb pumped his material with wit and inventiveness. A plastic glove becomes a chicken. A small backpack is turned around to become an unruly horse. Three hands held high over a screen become a new character. A lanky cast member drops to his knees to become a shuffling pint-sized nun. This had the kids in the audience in stitches. However ““Les Trois Mousquetaires” suffered from the curse of the novel. Novels never fit into a dramatic shape. For all the energy and aplomb of the cast the flow of the piece was inevitably episodic. The second drawback was that of genre. The musketeers are not drama that an audience can care about but they are not parodic comedy either so that in tone it falls into something of a no man’s land. All the sparkle of the playing cannot quite sustain itself across its length. Were it an hour in the middle of the Edinburgh melee it would be superb; in this version it does sadly become a little bit dull. This is not to downplay the ambition of the company nor the skill of the players. With Robert Lepage as patron and collaborations coming up in New York, Montreal and Vienna Theatre sans Frontieres clearly has as bright a future as at any time in its eighteen year history. But it is a rare novel that makes the leap across to memorable theatre. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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