The Captive Queen
by John Dryden
Directed by Barrie Rutter
Designer Jessica Worrall
Composer Niraj Chag
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Shakespeare’s Globe / Northern Broadsides co-production
Sunday 11th February 2018, 13.00
CAST
Silas Carson – Arimant, Governor of Agra
Karan Gill – Asaph Chawn
Angela Griffin – Nourmahal, the Empress
Naseem Hayat – Aurang-zeb, the Emperor’s favourite son
Safiyya Ingar – Abas / Ambassador
Neerja Naik – Indamora, a captive queen
Dharmesh Patel – Morat, the Emperor’s warlike younger son
Sarah Quist – Zayda, favourite servant to the Empress
Selva Rasalingam – Solyman
Sarah Ridgeway – Melesinda, wife to Morat
Barrie Rutter- The Old Emperor
MUSIC
Laurence Corns – MD, guitar
Nawazish Ali Khan – voice, harmonium, violin
Keval Joshi- percission
Indamora, the captive queen (Neerja Naik) and Nourmahal (Angela Griffin)
The Captive Queen dates from 1675. You haven’t heard of it? Nor have I, and as the list of Dryden plays on Wiki includes Aureng-zebe the Mughal emperor, and a character in this, I concluded that it’s wisely been given a far snappier title. Note the historical Aurangzeb is spelled like this, while Dryden chose Aureng-zebe. Apparently, he was the most powerful ruler in the world in the 17th century, with 158 million subjects, and an empire which was 25% of the world economy. He was the son of Shah Jan who built the Taj Mahal.
I was interested in a play by Dryden, because the Globe did so extremely well with Milton’s Comus last year. I don’t like Milton, and the little I know of Dryden is negative … he is said to have imposed several anally-retentive alleged “rules” transferred from Latin onto the English language. One was the “rule” that you couldn’t end sentences with a preposition. That’s a rule up with which I will not put (to quote Winston Churchill when pulled up for doing so). Here’s the thing. The Thing here is. Anyone who writes in rhyming couplets habitually plays with sentence order to make it rhyme, and to force a significant word onto the rhyming end. When sentences convoluted write you do, ending chosen by you might be ‘through.’ Rather than “through might be.” So what was Dryden’s problem? Much of his writing sounds like Obi-Wan Kenobi anyway.
Dryden is NOT a bum’s on seats name. I’ve never seen so few people at a Wanamaker matinee (half full?), with even fewer after the interval, but interval drop-out is a given at the Wanamaker, back to the seat design decision years ago.
Before the play (someone announced photos were OK before the actors came on stage)
The production shifts it from Dryden’s exotic Mughal Empire Indian setting (then contemporary) to the last days of the Northern English cloth mills at the end of the 20th century. Trouble at mill, eh? The opening is in a cloth mill. That’s exactly what Bristol Old Vic Theatre School did in their touring Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2016, again as a justification for using Northern accents. With The Dream, where the rude mechanicals put on a play, there is a logical connection to a frame setting. Not here.
Add music inspired by Sufi traditions. Well, that’s what the publicity said, and that’s why we went, ignoring the fact that the historical Aurengzeb tried to eliminate the Sufis, as well as many Hindu and Sikh temples. For me, there was way too little music. Nawazish Ali Khan came into his own with ululating singing right at the end, but until then we just had 10 – 20 second snatches. There was good percussion at the very start, but that was from cast members. Music inspired by Sufi traditions as a sales point? Really not. Also it was an ultra-dumb decision to place the musicians on stage in full view throughout. They looked bored shitless. I’m sure they were, waiting 15 minutes for three or four bars, if that. Yawns, head stretching, gazing into space. The musicians’ place was up in the gallery where they could yawn and scratch to heart’s content. The music was NOT what was promised.
Barrie Rutter as The Emperor. Angela Griffin as The Empress
The Northern mill frame was a daft decision. Barrie Rutter is bowing out after a quarter of a century with Northern Broadsides, who toured where the Globe, NT and RSC do not go, vastly to his credit. He has championed Northern accents in Shakespeare and beyond. All credit to that too, but that battle on accents was won decades ago. It is really no longer an issue. The whole “mill” setting seems to be there only to justify the use of Northern accents from some, but not all of the cast. It doesn’t bring the story up to date in any way. You don’t need justification. American productions don’t need a frame setting to justify American accents. I’m not in the “let every actor do the accent they like” school of thought, because accent is a message, and I think that (say) members of the same family should be linked by a common accent. But if you want to stress Northern accents, what’s the issue? Just do it.
At the start Barrie Rutter comes on as the floor sweeper, with Angela Griffin as the tea lady. No lines. Anyway, the whole mill framing device is run out in about two minutes, abandoned and never referenced again till the very end (very funny, no plot spoiler). Except that the warlike Morat brandishes a monkey wrench instead of a sword, a sudden reminder of a setting we had forgotten. The mill setting or frame is a total waste of effort. The cast are in overalls / mufti (an Indian word) dressed up with bright scarves or cloaks. An awful choice, when a great deal of money has been spent (or rather totally wasted) covering the Wanamaker Playhouse’s mock-17th century interior with white brick to look like a dyeing factory. Any sensible designer would have kept the ornate Wanamaker background just as it was and spent the money on glorious exotic Mughal costumes instead. That mill frame piece does nothing, even if it is realised well with pipes, a clocking-in machine and a framed photo of the Queen and Prince Philip.
I like the hanging cloths. red for Morat, green for Aurang-Zebe, but they fit whatever. But you’re lighting it with candles. I cannot see any point in going for 17th century candlelight and a 20th century mill. However, unlike All’s Well That Ends Well , you could actually see by the candlelight in this production.
They’re all after her: Dharmesh Patel as Morat, Silas Carson as Arimant, Neerja Naik as Indamora, Barrie Rutter as The Emperor, Naeem Hayat as Aurangzeb
The play? The Financial Times sums it up as “King Lear with lust.” Fair enough. The Emperor, the Governor of Agra (Arimant) and both the Emperor’s sons (Aurang-zheb and Morat) have the hots for Indamora, the captive Queen. The old Emperor (Barrie Rutter) is getting it in the neck from Noah’s wife, sorry, the Empress. The Emperor shifts his favour from Aurang-zheb to his other more vicious offspring, Morat. They all try to woo Indamora. The Empress, in contrast, is after her stepson, Aurang-Zheb.
It’s in rhyming couplets, in the modern style, by which I mean that FOUND (fownd) does not rhyme with WOUND (Woond, as in injury). It probably did in 1675 (Wownd). Nor does FATE (fate) rhyme with FORTUNATE (Fortunit), not does DIE rhyme with UNFORTUNATELY (unfortunit-lee). That’s always a decision, though the trouble is, if you force it to rhyme it becomes funny and gets a laugh. Some of the cast, most notably Barrie Rutter himself and the wonderful Angela Griffin, as the Empress, carry off the rhyme with aplomb.
Silas Carson as Arimant, the Governor of Agra, acting as a kind of court vizier, carries off his rhyme brilliantly, knowing how to use timing and placing. He gets the most out of every line. Great performance.
Aureng-zheb (Naseem Hayat) and Nourmahal (Angela Griffin)
The cast is the main virtue. The very best scene in the play is where Nourmahal, the Empress, tries to seduce her stepson, the captive Aureng-zheb (Naseem Hayat). That’s because there’s movement rather than declaiming. Angela Griffin gives the performance of the day, and is a powerful lift to the play every time she walks on stage. How she got the hand towel into the bowl with a backhand throw, I’ll never know.
Neerja Naik plays Indamora, the object of desire, beautifully. She is facially perfect … the embodiment of a Persian or Indian miniature, the face of an exotically-illustrated Kama Sutra too. Both sons … Naseem Hayat as Aurang-zheb, and Globe / RSC regular Dharmesh Patel are outstanding. Dharmesh Patel rises to the more powerful role with ease. Full marks on the curtain call to Barrie Rutter, modestly hanging back in the second row and leaving the front to the titular leads.
The play is the issue. It’s verbose, in spite of major cutting. The history is both obscure and as presented by Dryden, uninteresting. (The real history would make a better play). The frame play is plain daft. The rhyming couplets move from tiring to tiresome in their relentless march.
We know Dryden knew little about the real setting. The Mughals, as they were Muslims, did not indulge in sutee (as Morat’s widow does). On the other hand the Mughals WERE Northern invaders into India … which might have justified Barrie Rutter’s Northern accents without all the mill frame fuss. I don’t think Dryden makes the mark nowadays, that’s the main point.
Overall: **
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
4
Kate Kellaway, The Observer ****
3
Michael Billington, The Guardian ***
Ben Lawrence, The Telegraph ***
Natasha Tripney, The Stage ***
Mark Valencia, What’sOn Stage ***
Tristram Kenton, Time Out ***
2
Sam Marlowe, The Times **
Sarah Hemming, Financial Times **
Debbie Gilpin, Broadway World **
LINKS ON THIS BLOG
BARRIE RUTTER
King Lear, Northern Broadsides 2015 (director, Lear)
The Merry Wives, Northern Broadside / New Vic, 2016 (Falstaff, Director)
DHARMESH PATEL
Titus Andronicus, RSC 2017
Julius Caesar, RSC 2017
Antony & Cleopatra, RSC 2017
Cymbeline, Wanamaker Playhouse 2015 (Soothsayer, Philario)
The Tempest, Wanamaker Playhouse 2015 (Ferdinand)
Two Gentlemen of Verona, Wanamaker Playhouse 2016 (Proteus)
Peter Viney's Blog 