Peter Viney's Blog

The Rivals
by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Adapted by Beth Flintoff

Directed by Jonathan Humphreys
Designed by James Coterill
Composer / Sound Designer Simon Slater

The Watermill, Newbury
Thursday 22nd March 2018, 14.00

CAST
Daniel Abelson – Bob Acres / David a servant
Charlotte Bate – Julia / Lucy a servant
Emma Denly- Lydia Languish  / Fag a servant
Ncuti Gatwa – Captain Jack Absolute, Sir Anthony’s son
Christopher Logan – Sir Lucius O’Trigger
James Mack – Faulkland / a gentleman
Julia St. John – Mrs Malaprop, Lydia’s aunt and guardisan
Michael Thomas – Sir Anthony Absolute

L to R: Lydia Languish (Emma Denly), Servant (James Mack), Mrs Malaprop (Julia St John), Julia (Charlotte Bate)

The play that gave us the word malapropism. First, the plot: Lydia Languish is young and romantic and wants a love affair not an arranged marriage. So as to court her, Jack Absolute pretends that he is poor ensign, named Beverly. Lydia loves the idea of eloping. Her guardian and aunt is Mrs Malaprop. Two other men are after Lydia’s hand. Bob Acres is a country gent, and Sir Lucius O’Trigger is an Irishman. Sir Lucius thinks he is sending love notes to Lydia, but in fact Mrs Malaprop receives them and believes them intended for her. Add the on / off romance between the jealous Faulkland and Julia. As in so many 18th century plays, a comic duel ensues.

The Watermill at Newbury is one of the great secrets of provincial theatre. It’s in a tiny hamlet, Bagnor, but only a very short distance from the A34 / M4 junction making it a comfortable drive from Reading, Oxford, Swindon, Basingstoke and Winchester. We drove from Poole. The people ahead of us going in had driven from London. Newbury has a train station, though you’d need a short taxi ride

For The Rivals the small theatre has been configured with a thrust stage, making it uncannily like a smaller version of the Wanamaker Playhouse with gallery also above the thrust stage. The main difference is that The Watermill has proper seats. That makes no difference to the experience whatsoever, making us think once again what an arrogant and stupid idea the hard benches in the Wanamaker are … they always lose people at half time through sheer discomfort.

The play takes place in Bath in 1775, the year it was written. The set has been created with three or four layers of silky drapes. so that a different curtained area is always available to show scene changes. It’s simple and transportable (The Watermill does well with tours). It looks marvellous.

The play has been heavily cut and a cast of twelve is played by eight actors. The cast is a great mix of experienced and young actors. Christopher Logan (Sir Lucius) has been a central part of The Globe company for several years. We have seen Michael Thomas (Sir Anthony) at the Old Vic and RSC and Julia St. John has a distinguished theatrical bio, plus for us she was in The Brittas Empire as Brittas’s deputy. It is one of the sitcom complete box sets with a special place on our shelves. Provincial theatre? You will not see a better cast than this at the RSC, Globe or the more fashionable London theatres. Let’s add that the best seats were £16.50 compared to £60 for the equivalent at the RSC or National. Even more in commercial West End theatre.

Every member of the cast shone in their roles, and four of them had to double as servants. This meant accent and costume changes, and in the case of Emma Denly (Lydia Languish), a gender switch and elaborate costume and hair switch several times.

The adaptation is by Beth Flintoff. The addition is a Prologue and Epilogue, in verse with modern references. Charlotte Bate, as Julia, did both and it is a particular skill … more like stand-up with audience interaction.  It is very funny indeed. At one point in the prologue she mentions Lord and Lady Steen (it’s a nearby village) as present in the front row, and pointed to Karen and me. Of course we nodded graciously and then I realized that a little group to our right were leaning forward and staring at us with great interest. I wondered whether to offer them an autograph in the interval. I suppose I do look scruffily aristocratic. The epilogue was equally fine.

James Mack as Faulkland. Ncuti Gatwa as Jack Absolute.

Ncuti Gatwa plays Jack Absolute, and I have the feeling that he is one of those names I just had to check how to spell, but will not need to check in a couple of years’ time because I’ll have seen it often. He is a perfect, handsome Jack The Lad with a wide range of background facial expressions that had me laughing. His love interest, Emma Denly as Lydia Languish also excels in facial expression, and both appear to be recent graduates. They both have star quality. Ncuti Gatwa was Demetrius in Emma Rice’s 2016 Globe production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Mrs Malaprop (Julia St. John)

The most famous role is played by Julia St. John, Mrs Malaprop. I’d have loved an expensive prop like a sedan chair for her entrances, but that’s a National Theatre expenditure level, and this production gets on very well without it. I noted that Sheridan was just right in the number of malapropisms … they don’t come every other line for example. The adaptation has switched some … I’m sure Sheridan didn’t do calamari as a mistaken word for ‘calamity’, and no, I’m not going to check. I always think it’s good to update a few things.

Jack Absolute (Ncuti Gatwa) & Bob Acres (Daniel Abelson), Faulkland (James Mack) at rear

Daniel Abelson was outstanding as country oaf Bob Acres, vastly funnier when he’d changed to silky clothes and white face make-up to fit in with the gentry of Bath. He’s the classic reluctant duellist, led on by Christopher Logan as the fierce Irishman spoiling for a fight. Logan is an actor we’d book any play for because he’s in it, ever since we first saw him as Bottom in Headlong’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Always hilarious.

Sir Anthony Absolute (Michael Thomas), Mrs Malaprop (Julia St. John)

Michael Thomas is the angry Sir Anthony, with a knowing twinkle in his eye when he thinks young Jack has perhaps been too bold with Lydia, and eventually ends up fancying Mrs Malaprop. It’s the blend of experienced actors with young actors that works so well. All his scenes with Jack are memorable.

Charlotte Bate, as mentioned, has that prologue and epilogue as well as playing Julia. She was in Watership Down at The Watermill with Edward Bennett in 2016. She naturally seems the centre of activity when on stage, perhaps we identify with her as narrator. Add James Mack as Faulkland, jealously testing Julia’s affection for him. They create a fine ensemble, and though that doubling as servants must be arduous, it brings an air of a small, tight company working hard together.

L to R: Mrs Malaprop (Julia St John), Lydia Languish (Emma Denly), Jack Absolute(Ncuti Gatwa), Sir Anthony (Michael Thomas).

I loved the place they take the interval. It’s the scene illustrated above where if Lydia turns around, she will realize that Jack Absolute and Ensign Beverly are one and the the same. They blacked out here, then re-started.

The Rivals is first rate entertainment for touring theatre. I wondered about the proven classic repertoire nowadays, like Sheridan, Goldsmith and Wilde. I haven’t seen The Rivals for many years. It made me think of the surprisingly lukewarm reception from some critics to Classic Spring’s Oscar Wilde season in the West End, where I said in a review that these were standing ovation productions in the provinces. Theatre is dividing sharply, as I suppose it always has. Plays like The Rivals work very well with, ahem, older audiences in places like Newbury or Bath or Salisbury. This was a weekday matinee and this was just about the oldest “older” audience I’ve seen. Saturday matinees at The Watermill have been more mixed in age range. Then I thought how few of the 2018 plays at the Royal Court, Young Vic and Almeida appealed to us this year. The ideal theme seems to be heavily political, preferably adding violent rape and child abuse in an immigrant camp.

Bob Acres (Daniel Ableson) is dressed for Bath society. Sir Lucius O’Trigger (Christopher Logan)

The Rivals is superbly done here. It could tour the provincial theatres to great acclaim, and I hope it does. Four stars easily. I’m tempted to a fifth, but I need a musical and movement element added for that fifth star. Sheridan is intrinsically based on a lot of two person dialogue rather than action.

****

PROGRAMME

An excellent programme with entertaining essays on Bath in 1775 and on Sheridan (both written by John Good). Full colour, good 18th century illustrations, clear cast bios and £3 instead of £5. Full marks. They also had an errata slip pointing out that Christopher Logan had studied at RADA not LAMDA as stated (these things are important to actors!)

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

CHRISTOPHER LOGAN
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Headlong (Bottom, Pyramus)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Globe (Thisbe)
The Merchant of Venice, Globe, 2015 (Prince of Aragon)
Julius Caesar, The Globe 2014 (Casca)
The Way of The World, Chichester 2012
The Tempest, Wanamaker Playhouse, 2016
Cymbeline, Wanamaker Playhouse

MICHAEL THOMAS
Love for Love, RSC 2015
The Crucible, Old Vic 2014

NCUTI GATWA
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Globe 2016
Sex Education, Netflix, 2019 (Eric)

CHARLOTTE BATE
Watership Down, Watermill 2016