Peter Viney's Blog

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Joanna Bowman
Dramaturg Zoe Cooper
Set & Costume by Francis O’Connor
Composer John Patrick Elliot

Royal Shakespeare Company
The Other Place
Stratford on Avon

Saturday 30th August 2025, 13.30

CAST
Valentine- Johnny Khan
Proteus- Lance West
Sylvia – Siân Stephens
Julia – Aisha Goodwin
The Duke / Outlaw- Darrell Brockis
Outlaw / Musician – Fred Double
Speed / Thurio – Tom Babbage
Launce / Eglamour / Outlaw / Music Captain – Stu McLoughlin
Antonio / Lucetta / Host / Outlaw – Katherine Toy
Crab – Lossi

Yes, the one with the dog. I’m knocking off “The” in the title so it fits with previous in the lists.

We loved the two outdoor Garden Theatre RSC short and sharp 80 / 90 minute versions of Comedy of Errors and As You Like It. Now that The Other Place, just along the road, is back to functioning as a third theatre, the concept has moved indoors for The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Fair enough, but I can’t see why there’s unreserved seating … they have reserved seats for Macbeth coming shortly. A carp here. They have General Admission (red seats) which go first, and High Seating (grey seats) which are less desirable. The thing is, with no reserved seats, no one checks. Last time we had ‘General Admission” but by the time we got in, it was full because those with the uncomfortable high seats had taken the places. The system doesn’t work. We beat it this time by joining the queue to get in as soon as people started to line up, were fifth in the line and got front row centre seats. It’s all cheap. £25 wherever. This is to attract young people ands people new to Shakespeare. It works.

We like the new to the RSC cast concept too, and this is “Watermill” style as everyone plays an instrument except the dog. It’s in the round, with a circular ‘cage’ and walkway diagonally across the whole, with a neon Love is Blind sign.

Like the Garden Theatre 90 minute productions, it has no interval and is heavily cut. A better word than ‘cut’ is ‘focussed’ and it brings out the essence of the play with clarity. The dramaturg, if she was responsible for the cutting, deserves major credit. I always founds the play convoluted, and of the three I’ve seen since I started writing these reviews, I thought two were poor. This is outstandingly the best production I’ve seen of the play, which may be Shakespeare’s earliest.

He set out his themes in it. Both our ‘two gentlemen,’ Valentine and Proteus, have comic servants (Comedy of Errors and many other fools). Julia, one of the two heroines gets to dress up as a boy (As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Merchant of Venice, Cymbeline etc). The hero gets banished to a forest (As You Like It, Midsummer Night’s Dream). There’s a balcony wooing scene (Romeo & Juliet.) The banished outlaws are good chaps (As You Like It). There is an issue with exchanged rings being given away (All’s Well That Ends Well, Merchant of Venice). It takes place in Italy (I’m not even going to list these.) Here I like ‘banished’ not ‘banny-shed’ and thank goodness they avoided the silly affected ‘Millun’ pronunciation of Milan and said ‘Milan.’

I don’t usually do a synopsis for Shakespeare, but this is a less familiar one. The programme synopsis is good, but even better there are notes on each character. I’ll relate it to this production, which begins with the whole cast doing a LOVE song medley.

Johnny Khan as Valentine, Lance West as Proteus, Tom Babbage as Thurio

Proteus (Lance West) and Valentine (Johnny Khan) are young men from Verona, where Proteus lives with his mother. Valentine is to set off for a new adventure in Milan, the big city. They swear to be friends, and Valentine wishes him luck with Julia (Aisha Goodwin), who Proteus is infatuated with.

We first meet Julia doing boxing / kick boxing with Lucetta, her confidante (one of Katherine Toy’s multiple roles). Julia is no wilting violet.

Tom Babbage as Speed. Stu McLoughlin as Launce. With Crab.

They both have servants. Speed is Valentine’s servant (Tom Babbage) and Launce (Stu McLoughlin) is Proteus’s scruffy servant. Shakespeare’s fools can be problematic if the script is adhered to closely, and twin fools can be even worse, far too much of a punny, but not funny, thing. These two are both superb here. Launce is the one with the dog, and you have never seen a more mournful canine than Crab, his dog. Perfect dog casting and this is a very well-trained animal. They are. I’ve filmed with trained dogs twice. The scene late on when Launce describes Crab’s misdeeds (stealing chicken, smells, making water on a lady) was tears down the face funny, greatly assisted by the dog’s ‘hangdog’ expression.

Valentine sets off by train to Milan, where he swiftly falls for Sylvia (Siân Stephens). She is the daughter of the Duke of Milan (Darrell Brockis). The Duke looks like a nautical British royal with his beard.

Speed takes to Milan, and from then on sports a Milan football shirt with SPEED 99 on the back. In the Milan story, the issue is that the Duke favours Thurio for his daughter’s hand. Thurio is wet, diffident and a prat, also played by Tom Babbage and is so different that I never realised he was doubling the roles until I started this review.

Back in Verona, Proteus persuades his mother to let him follow Valentine to Milan. Katherine Toy again though the programme calls her ‘Antonio.’ Odd, if switching gender, Italian names are easy. It would normally change to Antonia. Proteus has fond farewells to Julia, and they exchange rings (Uh, oh! says the experienced Shakespeare audience).

Proteus arrives in Milan, and is instantly smitten with the gorgeous Sylvia. He watches the competition between Valentine and Thurio for her. Valentine has a plan. He will take a rope ladder and climb to her room which the Duke keeps locked (No, Shakespeare didn’t write Rapunzel.) Then they will elope.

Proteus decides to foil their escape by betraying his best friend to the Duke, and revealing the rope ladder plan. The Duke / Valentine with concealed rope scene can be one of the gems of the play, and is here.

Valentine gets banished to the forest where he is set upon by a gang of outlaws. After he blusters that he was banished for murder, they decide to appoint him as their chief. Three of the outlaws are gentle souls, the fourth (Fred Double) is extremely fierce. This was really heavily cut losing some of my favourite bits where Valentine talks to the outlaws in ‘a foreign language’, but I agree that the loss maintained focus on the main storyline.

Meanwhile, back in Verona, Julia decides to follow Proteus to Milan. It being dangerous for a lone woman, she decides to dress as a man. Technically this is with the name Sebastian, but if they named her, I missed it. It doesn’t matter at all. Shakespeare was a little careless with that – he forgets to name Viola in Twelfth Night when he should have.

In Milan, Proteus is after Sylvia, offering her Julia’s ring as a token. She spurns him and decides to escape to the forest. Eglamour (Stu McLoughlin) assists her escape by bike.

Sylvia gets captured by outlaws, rescued by Proteus who has followed, and is then set upon by Proteus. This version is the heavily Bowdlerized one, he merely grabs her arm rather than attempts rape- they are trying to attract families, and anyway, it always stretched belief that the watching Julia (as Sebastian) would forgive him. Proteus is ashamed of his action, but Valentine and Sylvia are prepared to forgive him. Julia then reveals her identity

The following Duke and Thurio are captured by the outlaws but saved by Valentine. The Duke offers Sylvia the choice of her suitors, Valentine is duly chosen and he asks for the banished outlaws to be pardoned.

The music runs through and I assume is original. Johnny Khan as Valentine misses the ensemble singing and dancing, because he’s the keyboard player in a booth opposite us. I’m not sure how much of the instruments are mimed. Launce definitely plays bass guitar. The Duke plays saxophone and electric guitar. Speed plays accordion. Katherine Toy plays violin, others guitars. I thought both Julia and another were miming bass, in that I could hear programmed bass , but the fingers looked different. It doesn’t matter. It looked and sounded very good indeed. They finished with a rousing Love Is Blind.

We gave Fat Ham five stars the night before. This was as good or better. We judge it for what it is as an entertainment designed to popularize Shakespeare, not against the full play. This was said to be 80 to 90 minutes. I made it at least 100 minutes, no interval, but that was no problem. Five stars.

*****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

4 star
Mark Lawson, The Guardian ****
The Times ****
Holley O’Mahoney, The Stage ****
Ros Carne, Stage Talk ****

3 star
Gary Naylor, The Arts Desk ***
Michael Davies, What’s On Stage ***
Nick Wayne, West End Best Friend ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG
Two Gentlemen of Verona Tobacco Factory tour, Winchester Theatre Royal
Two Gentlemen of Verona – RSC
Two Gentlemen of Verona – Globe, on tour 2016
Two Gentlemen of Verona – RSC Other Place 2025

JOANNA BOWMAN (Director)
Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads, Chichester Minerva 2022

TOM BABBAGE
The Motive & The Cue, National Theatre 2023
Peter Pan Goes Wrong, on tour, Bath 2019

KATHERINE TOY
The Man In The White Suit, Bath 2019
Much Ado About Nothing, The Rose, 2018
Coriolanus, RSC 2017
Vice Versa, RSC 2017

FRED DOUBLE
Much Ado About Nothing, Watermill 2024