It is surely a challenge for any director, to make a play, first performed over four centuries ago, understandable and relevant to a modern day audience. Yet, under Toby Frow’s direction, Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, falls straight into your lap.
With wartime Britain still fresh in our mind courtesy of the King’s Speech, Frow springs us forward another decade, into the disparate culture of the 1950s. Before the play even starts, we are welcomed into a foyer in full be-bop flow. A beautiful band performs with exciting swing as red lipped girls and handsome boys dance and drink red wine. Think Parisienne hedonism, think ‘On The Road’, think lulling its audience into a very false sense of easiness and joviality!
Once in the theatre the joy is soon replaced, and the 1950s setting makes perfect sense of the quickly charged play. It is historical enough for us to understand the ‘old fashioned’ issues, yet modern looking enough for us to want to feel their relevance (aided by a striking cast and sumptuous costume that resemble classic stars we still admire today).
It isn’t long before electricity is surging. Upon hearing of the death of Edward I, Edward II (Chris New) immediately calls for his personal favourite, Gaveston (Samuel Collings) to return from exile. The magnetism between the King and his darling is intense. As this play sits in your lap, at times you don’t know quite where to look. The unimpressed nobles, tired of dealing with unpaid soldiers as the King lavishes titles and riches on his pet, decide Gaveston is to be re-banished or else the King deposed, so off Gaveston goes again much to the extreme anguish of the King.
A sharp and scorned Queen Isabella (Emma Cunniffe) takes things further by calling on the nobles to return Gaveston only to kill him off for good. She gets her wish, and while Edward enjoys a temporary honeymoon period with his lover, Isabelle returns to France with Mortimer (Jolyon Coy), who is quickly hers.
Events unfold at a rapid pace and once the pulse is racing, it doesn’t miss a beat. The speedy scene and costume changes are tight, concise and accurate. Slight swaps in chair and light style tell you all you need to know about location and mood. The cast are strong and maintain energy levels that are, at times, exhausting to watch (I did find myself, several times, having to straighten out a fully-furrowed concentration wince).
Ignoring the odd slappy baton on the back incident, the action and violence push you out of your comfort zone (if you have a comfort zone for violence that is – maybe hot pokers are your ‘thing’). The play, which runs at two and a half hours, flies by and you suddenly find yourself in the same foyer you had earlier that evening been enjoying a glass of wine along to some delicious be-bop, in a considerably more unsettled state.
Impressive? Yes. Recommended? Yes. Enjoyable…? Yes, deliciously so, though I feel as though I should run my mind through a white wash for thinking it.
Today I listened to: Fleet Foxes and Simon & Garfunkel
Today I watched: Mad Men (Am still catching up on season 2)
Great review. You remembered all the details. Were you taking notes?
Not exactly, I was sat next to the twitic organisers so had to remain alert :O)
I saw this on Saturday night. Pretty damn good production – they managed to keep the pace up even when the plotting got intricate.
They did, considering the complexity it was clear and easy to follow, quick and sharp.