At Wales Theatre Company |
| Wales theatre Company- Cymbeline , Grand Theatre, Swansea , October 7, 2004 |
| "Since the war," wrote Noël Coward, "a terrible pall of significance has fallen over plays." This much is true, though of course Coward was referring not to hostilities in Iraq or Afghanistan but to a global conflict which occurred generations ago. Director Michael Bogdanov is renowned for his ability to render the works of the Bard - the archaic language, the subplots, the very stuff of which Shakespeare's dreams and visions were made - as easily understood by modern audiences as any big-screen blockbuster or TV drama. This is as true of Cymbeline - a little-seen piece, unfamiliar to all but the most ardent Shakespearean anoraks - as it is of the other entries in Wales Theatre Company's eagerly anticipated trilogy of plays which seek to re-interpret Shakespeare's works for the MP3 generation. On this level, Bogdanov is to be congratulated for his adroitness and for his skills as a communicator: after all, retelling a story as complicated at this one for a modern audience is no easy task. The approach is encapsulated in the short, sharp summaries which are used in the company's poorly conceived publicity material, kicking off with the phrase "war on a pretext" - you can see where we're headed with this, can't you? - and as the plot unfolds it becomes apparent that references to the Iraqi conflict are going to be piled on top of each other until one eventually finds oneself looking ahead, waiting for the next one. Even the capture of Saddam Hussein is reproduced in the scene in which Cymbaline, the King of Britain, is dragged from his hiding place by imperialist invaders. The production suffers from several flaws and visual conceits, chief among which is a bizarre approach to costume design which exploits all the stylistic clichés one could possibly imagine in a contemporary Shakespearean production, throwing in such disparate elements as ammunition belts(excuse me but where are the guns?), combat trousers, flak jackets, swords, crossbows, sunglasses, wristwatches and shirts worn outside the trousers(no good asking me, I haven't got a clue). True, there are no computers in this one - one has to wait until The Merchant of Venice for that - but the potential is there and the visual jumble rapidly becomes distracting. In a nutshell, think of a cross between Arthur of the Britons, The Sopranos and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and you begin to get the idea... in visual terms at least. For all that, however, it still works and while one suspects that certain aspects of the production are being teased and tweaked here and there prior to its opening in Cardiff(something has to be done about those twiggy bits which keep falling over at the entrance to the cave - or is it supposed to be a tent?)it has to be said that it still works brilliantly as a piece of theatre: the performances from the fifteen-strong cast - including artists of the calibre of Bill Bellamy (Pisano), Kathryn Dimery(Helen), Nickie Rainsford(The Queen), Lisa Zahra (Imogen), Paul Greenwood (Belarius), Richard Nichols(Cloten) and the ever-reliable Ieuan Rhys(Lucius) - are assured and engaging, and the battle sequences(directed by Malcolm Ranson)are breathtakingly good. The music, too, is well chosen(apart from a brief introductory piece which can only be described as a Happy Shopper version of the theme from The Magnificent Seven), consisting largely of Riverdance-style Celtic/Jazz crossovers which are used largely to establish mood and provide links between scenes. For all its faults, this is a production which offers an opportunity to experience the timelessness and resonance of Shakespeare's work, and as such it deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. |
Reviewed by: Graham Williams |
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