Peter Viney's Blog

By Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Directed by Tinuke Craig
Set & Costume by Alec Lowde
Composer D.J. Walde
Video designer Ravi Deepres
Dramaturg Jude Christian

Royal Shakespeare Company
The Swan Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
Thursday 11th July 2024 19.30

CAST
Stefan Adegbola – Joseph Surface
Wil Johnson – Sir Oliver Surface
John Leader – Charles Surface
Geoffrey Streatfeild – Sir Peter Teazell
Tara Tijani- Lady Teazell
Jessica Alade – Lappet
Omar Bynon – Careless
John Dougal – Rowley
Riess Fennell- Bill
Siubhan Harrison – Lady Sneerwell
Emily Houghton – Mrs Candour
Yawemi Junqueira – Moppet
David Mara – Trip
Tadeo Martinez – Snake
Shazia Nicholls- Moregouse
Yasmin Ozdemir – Maria
David Partridge Sir Harry Bumper
Jason Thorpe- Crabtree
Patrick Walsh McBride – Sir Benjamin Backbite

We are back to traditional RSC – played in repertory with ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ with much of the cast in both. We’re seeing this on Thursday and the Merry Wives on Saturday. It adds a dimension of relating to actors as well as their roles. The RSC was always planned to embrace English classics as well as the bard. I guess Sheridan is the late end. The play is so stuffed with the feel of the eighteenth century that it needs a lift to work.

Think pink. Set and costume pink. shocking pink. It is highly stylised, the text has multiple updates too. Those are both positives, no actors In a play with characters called Sneerwell, Candour, Backbite, Snake and Surface should attempt naturalism. The costumes are hyper-real, no less than in Lady Sneerwell’s extravagant bustles which require her to enter and exit sideways. Entrances and exits are often via three rising platforms set into the stage. The location is projected on the back wall – Sir Peter’s House, Joseph Surface’s house (which has projected bookshelves). Music is modern, as is the dancing, yet the line up at the end mimics 18th century formal dance too. Gestures are extreme. They’re a major aspect of the fun, especially from Stefan Adgebola as Joseph Surface.

The prologue and epilogue are rewritten and with modern references, like creating life peers as examples of corruption and hypocrisy. These will be funnier when Rishi Sunak publishes his outgoing list of peers in a week or so, though Starmer’s plan to stuff the House of Lords to get legislation through should add to the merriment. Then there’s a rhyme leading up to the interval finishing with ‘back in twenty,’ then in the epilogue references to the digital grapevine. That is as it should be. The original references to the scandals of 1777 are long gone. I’m surprised the credit for dramaturg isn’t more prominent (Jude Christian).

The RSC are not being subtle on the TV series Bridgerton connection. Snake writes fake notes from Charles Surface to Lady Sneerwell which are then writ large and projected. The anonymous scandal mongering in Bridgerton connects directly to Sheridan’s play.

18th century plays (this is 1777) are notoriously hard to summarise briefly. The intricacies of plot were the appeal. The scandal mongers circle around Lady Sneerwell: Lady Candour, Snake, Backbite. We have two brothers, Joseph and Charles Surface.

Joseph is the smooth talking, popular hypocrite. Charles is a dissolute spendthrift. Both are pursuing Maria, as is Backbite. She is a wealthy heiress, but she is ward to Sir Peter Teazel. Sir Peter has married a young sexy, flighty wife. Enter Sir Oliver Surface, the rich uncle and benefactor to Joseph and Charles, who has been away for 16 years. He wants to test his nephews, and Sir Peter, his oldest friend, introduces financial expert Morehouse. Sir Oliver will disguise himself as Premium, offering to lend them money. Just to make things easier, he will also pretend to be Stanley, a poor elderly relative, to test their generosity.

Add that Joseph is trying to embark on an affair with Lady Teazel. Tara Tijani as Lady Teazel dominates the stage every time she appears. A fabulous performance.

Geoffrey Streatfeild as Sir Peter Teazel, the older bachelor with a young feisty wife, had a particular task of hovering between the text and breaking the fourth wall. I love this sort of acting and his performance was masterly. He has the job of switching those imperial references from the text of 1777, which might potentially offend the Woke, so he says Sir Oliver made his fortune in the East Indies, blanches, and switches it to Sir Oliver travelled a lot and made money – but only by ethical means. There are several examples, and they mean confiding to the audience who have to be aware of the slipping in and slipping out of role. He gets a microphone and spotlight to mark later asides to the audience. Not many can do it, but is the mark of top comedians. In another modern reference, Charles (John Leader) exclaims ‘This is not consensual!’ As Lady Sneerwell clasps him to her bosom. Then Jessica Alade as Lappet, the put-upon servant to Joseph, finally snaps and drops an F bomb. What makes it so much funnier is her great dismay after she’s done it.

They have PC-ed the moneylender Morehouse, who is Moses in the original, with comments on his Jewishness. In 2024 that is certainly a necessary change – in 2012 when we saw it, they omitted all the potentially anti-Semitic lines too.

John Leader’s Charles does dissolute delightfully. When we see him partying, he’s dressed in female attire, though a better description is pink stage stripper drag. And his pals have corsets etc. Very trans. Charles turns out to be the hero. The key scene is when he auctions his seemingly absent uncle’s paintings, not knowing that Premium, the purchaser, is Sir Oliver in disguise. He admits he has already sold his uncle’s book collection and the family silver, The paintings are projected black and white photos here, with the one under discussion each time highlighted. They are also video, moving slightly to our surprise. The only one he won’t sell is the one of his dear uncle, and he donates part of the proceeds to poor old Stanley.

The favourite scene is when Sir Peter arrives at Joseph’s house and Lady Teazel (my spellchecker prefers Lady Tea Elf) has to hide behind a screen. Then on the news of Charles’ imminent arrival, Sir Peter has to hide in a ‘closet’ or here a trunk.

Stefan Agdebola exhibits star quality throughout as Joseph with his extravagant gestures and bows and his winks aside to the audience, we are waiting to see him caught out later as he declines to help poor Stanley with a series of lying excuses.

Patrick Walsh McBride plays Sir Benjamin Backbite as a camper version of Kenneth Williams, much as Christopher Logan has done in 18th century plays. A fabulous comic prancing gesticulating performance.

There is a happy ending …

I was surprised to see Arica Akbar’s two star Guardian review, though along with The Times, she can often be lower in stars than the others. She points out that the comedy lacks snap. To a degree she’s right on comic timing, but it’s not intrinsically snappy dialogue. You can’t hit the humour that way, and they compensate visually. There is a little too fast delivery as she notes, which long speeches can fall into. When I’ve seen productions twice, I find that this happens near the start of the run, as here, when speed aids line memory. When I’ve seen the same production a couple of months later, the weight and space often has changed. It’s running to 6th September.

Visually stunning, but a four rather than a five. Though it’s a six for wigs. I’d love to see it at the end of its summer run. I suspect it may have gained an extra one. On a personal note we had received worrying news just before the start, so we were not in comedy frame of mind. Otherwise it might have got that extra one.

****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

5 star
James Garrington, The Reviews Hub *****
4 star
Domenic Cavendish, Telegraph ****
3 star
Michael Davies, What’s On Stage ***
2 star
Arifa Akbar, Guardian **

LINKS ON THIS SITE

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN
The School For Scandal – Directed by Jamie Lloyd, Bath 2012
The Rivals, Watermill Theatre 2018
Jack Absolute Flies Again (after The Rivals) – National, 2022
The School For Scandal, RSC 2024

Most of the cast are in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

GEOFFREY STREATFIELD
Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward, Bath 2019 (Charles Condamine)
My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot, Donmar 2015 (Daniel)

WIL JOHNSON
Jitney by August Wilson, Bath 2022 (Becker)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Old Vic 2017 (Claudius)

SIUBHAN HARRISON
Me & My Girl, Chichester 2018

JESSICA ALADE
As You Like It, Globe 2023
The Vortex, Chichester 2023

DAVID PARTRIDGE
One Last Push, by Chris Chibnall, Salisbury 2024

PATRICK WALSH McBRIDE
Present Laughter, Bath 2016