Peter Viney's Blog

The Two Noble Kinsmen
By John Fletcher and William Shakespeare

Directed by Barrie Rutter
Designed by Jessica Worrall
Music by Eliza Carthy
Choreography by Ewan Wardop

Shakespeare’s Globe, London
Saturday 26^thMay 2018, 19.30

CAST
Moyo Akandé – Hippolyta
Jude Akuwudike – Theseus, Duke of Athens
Andy Cryer- Jailer
Sue Devaney – First Queen
Bryan Dick – Arcite
Matt Henry – Pirithous
Melissa James – Second Queen
Francesca Mills- Jailer’s daughter
Kate Rose-Martin – Third Queen
Paul Stocker- Paloman
Ellora Torchia – Emilia
Jon Trenchard – Wooer
Jos Vantyler- Schoolmaster

MUSIC
Andy Moore – Musical Director, multiple instruments
David Delarre-guitar, tenor banjo
David Donneley – double bass
Doe Mehmet- percussion, violin
Abigail Newman – trombone

Barrie Rutter led Northern Broadsides from the front as a classic Actor-Manager, but here he steps back to direct only. After Michelle Terry’s talk of a hierarchy-free, director-less theatre, we at last have a director this season, though one who always used to act as well. Interestingly, Barrie Rutter directed the final Emma Rice commissioned play at the Globe, The Captive Queen.

The first attraction for me was music by Eliza Carthy. The RSC has used Jon Boden and Laura Marling for original music, though strangely they’ve never released CDs of either. Eliza Carthy is a great favourite of ours.

The Two Noble Kinsmen is a little-performed play, though Blanche McIntyre (who is also directing The Winter’s Tale in this Globe season) did a magnificent version at the RSC in 2016, with a cast of eighteen compared to thirteen here. My review of that quotes the researched opinion of which bits Fletcher wrote and which bits Shakespeare wrote, as well as mentioning that they couldn’t be bothered to name most of the characters (Wooer, Jailer, Second Queen …). It also gives a synopsis.

A surprise was receiving an e-mail offer a couple of days before for “Two for One” seats. I haven’t seen that at The Globe before. It can’t be criticism – it hadn’t even opened. Possibly just the little known nature of the play. The restaurant on a Saturday evening had several empty tables too (most unusual), though most central seats in the theatre were taken, except two next to us. The far sides had gaps.

The stage for The Two Noble Kinsmen

The first thing is they had dressed the set, a welcome change from the strict discipline bare stage for As You Like It and Hamlet. We had stags heads, green round a pillar and on the back, patches of grass and bunting. The other welcome return was a very good costume designer. Everyone looked great and colour coding had been applied. Red and purple for the nobles, yellow for Arcite and friend, blue for Palomon and friend. (You could add that all the court were BAME actors, the rest white). There were elaborate Morris dancing costumes,a model bull for Arcite’s god, Mars, a model swan for Paloman’s goddess, Venus. The five musicians were all costumed, and often on stage and in the pit as well as up in the gallery.

Accents were considered too – the locals were Northern, the nobles RP. Hippolyta, as a foreign captured queen, was Scots (though as a result we found she was comparatively hard to understand).

Barrie Rutter also played to the pit in Shakespeare terms. He has had vast experience of taking Shakespeare round the provinces and doing popular versions, an ideal qualification for The Globe. The text was heavily cut, thankfully so in the long prayers at the end. It came in at just two hours excluding the interval. The focus was on comedy, music and dance. His reward on a Saturday night with a crowded pit was double at least the applause As You Like It got a few weeks ago. The downside was that it was hard to follow the story which became incoherent and there was zero “beauty of the language.” It was designed for people who find Shakespeare a tad heavy so the “pill” of the text was too heavily sugared … and I became a fan of the Emma Rice regime which attracted similar criticism.

It reminded me of those 18th and 19th century versions of Shakespeare which picked out a character who was not supposed to be the lead, and made them the star. Falstaff or Bottom, for example. A better title for the play here would be “The Jailer’s Daughter” Francesca Mills gave a tour de force performance, and she is what theatre calls a reduced height actor. However since Peter Dinklage burst onto the scene so forcefully with Game of Thrones, I guess the rejected word “dwarf” is now permissible and with pride. It was a good idea, though it was entirely dependent on finding someone of reduced height who is that good to do it. This was certainly  NOT “stature blind” casting (I.e. casting her without regard to stature) because her height was used to create humour, and it definitely did. People near us were roaring with laughter at every move, and “ahh – Ing” at the pathos when she was rejected.  I had the uncomfortable thought as they guffawed so loudly about the fine line between laughing “with” and laughing “at.” I’m sure she kept every line in a role Shakespeare and Fletcher couldn’t even be bothered to put a name too. Not only that, in the play text, neither Paloman nor Arcite ever get to speak to the jailer’s daughter. Her role is to love Paloman from afar and let him out of jail, then go mad with unrequited passion as a comic interlude. Francesca Mills danced, sang, covered more stage metres than anyone else at speed. The most memorable role by a mile. The result was that the characters around her assumed greater importance: her father (Andy Cryer) the jailer; the Wooer, a rustic swain who has to pretend to be Paloman when she is mad with love for Paloman (Jon Trenchard) and The Doctor (Sue Devaney). The Daughter / Jailer /Wooer / Doctor scene was a comic high point.

The other one who shone in comedy (as in Northern Broadsides Merry Wives) was Jos Vantyler, ostensibly “the schoolmaster” or lead Morris Dancer, but also Paloman’s supporter. You can tell things in the final dance at The Globe, when the front line are “dance leaders” or “singing leaders” or in his case, both. Vantyler and one of the three queens held central position. The choreographer will put the strongest dancers in the front line, regardless of status in the play cast.

An aside on this:  In our days doing comedy sketch shows for ELT students, Karen decided that our stage movement was poor (she studied dance and drama). The whole cast enrolled for a weekly private stage dance lesson. The teacher always put Karen at the front, and called “That’s perfect, Karen … Just watch, Karen … Try to follow Karen ….” For years after, whenever Karen was directing a movement routine, the rest of us would grumble and mutter, “Just watch, Karen. Try to follow Karen.” That’s what’s happening in the final big dance routines at The Globe and RSC.

The Morris Dance. Jos Vantyler in green

Jos Vantyler’s camp intro to the long Morris dance which closed the first half was one of the best-received highlights (without a word of the text too). His role is “the schoolmaster” and he even gets a name, Gerald, though not in this programme.

The thing is, the play’s supposed to be about Paloman and Arcite, the two noble kinsmen of the title. I thought they were upstaged.

The play opens at the court of Theseus (Jude Akuwudike) and Hippolyta (Moyo Akandé ), with Piritous (Matt Henry) as some kind of chief lord or vizier. Three queens arrive in black to protest the savage death of their husbands at the hands of King Creon of Thebes. Here, they came from the audience and started their supplications backs to the audience. I liked the way Rutter used entrances through the pit in the play, it always works at the Globe, BUT for important opening speeches, backs of heads are never a good thing. Logic dictates that Theseus, who is merely listening has his back to the audience so we can see the queens. They did get up and move to the side after a few lines, but even so.  On stature, I thought the casting of two very short queens and one very tall one would have looked better with the tall one in the middle.

Theseus agrees to attack Creon, and this was pretty fast and jumbled. Assumed knowledge? Paloman (Paul Stocker) and Arcite (Bryan Dick) are two nobles in Creon’s Court, also they’re his nephews who dislike his tyranny, but are patriotic, so obliged to fight against Theseus ; I’m probably already explaining this at more length than the production did. We meet them doing knightly training … here attacking their padded assistants and a straw dummy. This was a much extended and funny scene at the RSC, but not here. They’re defeated (off stage), and imprisoned. Here the prison was a long cart, and they were chained to either end, so could nearly, but not quite meet. A good and efficient open air device. While imprisoned they see Hippolyta’s sister, Emilia (Ellora Torchia), in conversation with Hippolyta and both fall instantly in love with her, breaking their deep friendship as cousins. Paloman’s line “I saw her first!” Is a surefire winner in the play.

“I saw her first!” Arcite (Bryan Dick) and Paloman (Paul Stocker) in chains

Theseus decides to banish Arcite, but to keep Paloman in prison. Arcite goes off and returns as a champion wrestler in disguise … a scene which was reported, but you can potentially show. Given the style of the production with much physical work, I’m surprised they didn’t.

Bryan Dick as Arcite (champion wrestler)

Paloman is let out by the jailer’s daughter, and the cousins meet and argue. Theseus arrives and condemns them both to death, though the winner in a contest (here with spears) will survive and marry Emilia. They have “companion knights” who will be executed if on the losing side. Arcite wins, Paloman is about to have his head cut off then news arrives that Arcite has fallen off his horse ad sustained fatal injuries. Cue emotional farewell and Paloma gets Emilia.

Ellora Torchia as Emilia

Eliza Carthy’s music consisted of short pieces as well as the long Morris dance instrumental, a song for Emilia and a rousing final song for all. I didn’t hear enough to go home humming anything, but if they do a CD I’ll get it. It was an interesting combination, with trombone being a successful addition.

Barrie Rutter played to an open air setting with an audience who don’t know the text, but with The Two Noble Kinsmen even avid Shakespeare buffs don’t know the text. I thought the story got lost in the fun. Hippolyta looked commanding and impressive as Queen of the Amazons, but all actors employing (or naturally having) a strong accent should have an “intensity control” and a major change for me would be to lighten her accent considerably, so that it was a light inflection. We were as usual sitting in the back row of the lower gallery which may muffle sound (they are the best seats) but overall projection was excellent, in strong contrast to the 50% poorly projected As You Like It. But they need to work on Hippolyta’s accent and perhaps getting the three queens face forward. As I suspected, the lights on the audience were on throughout to restore “shared light” in the evening.

In many ways, Rutter was doing just what Emma Rice did – focussing on physical work, music and dance but without mics, theatrical lighting or amplified musicians. Hence a similar criticism on text. We saw the second listed full performance, at full price. The Globe does not list “press night” nor does it do reduced prices leading up to it, as the RSC does. This is a short run anyway.

Our assessments contrasted. In fact Karen really disliked it in losing so much of the language and thought the dance more vigorous than accomplished. That describes Morris dancing generally though. I thought it played to Globe expectations and you probably don’t need to know much about the play. I also thought it proved that as here, you need a director, set designer and costume designer. I was going for 4 stars, Karen for 2 stars, so it gets 3.

Overall: ***

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

The reviewers studiously avoid mentioning that Francesca Mills is a reduced height actor. Are you not supposed to have noticed? She’s also missing from the initial gallery of six photos. Odd as everyone picks out how brilliant she is. However, Andrej Lukowski gets near in saying “she can do nothing to stop the character being a rather distasteful figure of fun.”

4
Sam Marlowe, The Times ****
Sarah Hemming, FinancialTimes ****
Rosemary Waugh, The Stage ****
Cindy Marcolini, Broadway World ****
Daisy Bowie-Sell, What’s On Stage ****
Mark Shenton, London Theatre ****
3
Bridget Minamore, The Guardian ***
Jane Edwardes, Sunday Times ***
Adrez Lukowski, Time Out ***
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN
The Two Noble Kinsmen, RSC, Swan Theatre, 2016

BARRIE RUTTER
The Captive Queen, by John Dryden, Wanamaker Playhouse 2018
The Merry Wives, Northern Broadsides, 2016 (at Guildford)
King Lear, Bath 2015

BRYAN DICK
Hobson’s Choice, Bath 2016

ANDY CRYER
The Merry Wives, Northern Broadsides, 2016 (at Guildford)

JOS VANTYLER
The Merry Wives, Northern Broadsides, 2016 (at Guildford)

ELLORA TORCHIA
All’s Well That Ends Well, Wanamaker Playhouse 2018