Having ventured to the Southwark Theatre it seemed only sensible to check out everything on offer. After spending the afternoon at the disappointing, technology heavy "Howl's Moving Castle", "The Canterbury Tales" was certainly something a bit different. A hearty, highly physical production that didn't quite fly, though not for lack of trying.
The Southwark Theatre space has been dramatically reconfigured as a medieval tavern, the show is staged in the round with a central acting space as well as several raised platforms positioned around the seating area. The audience are regularly encouraged to grab a pint from the constantly open bar, indeed the atmosphere was wonderfully jovial. Into this arena a group of players re-enact a collection of the most famous Chaucer "Canterbury tales". Each delivered with tongues planted firmly in cheeks.
The smallish cast throw themselves into these stories with glee, playing musical instruments and singing as well as acting and dancing. There's an improvisational quality to the acting, lots of rough and tumble and plenty of attempts at getting the audience to shout and play along. Unfortunately, and part of this was the rather aged middle class audience, much of the interactivity fell on relatively deaf ears. The biggest problem though is that each tale stands alone and stripped of the pilgrimage hook, it meant the evening lacked drive and became repetitive. Little sense emerged of the players having personalities outside of the stories.
The cast are a likable lot, interacting with the audience in a playful, rather charming way. John Canmore held the whole thing together as Harry Bailey, the innkeeper. He enchantingly introduced all the tales in the original Chaucer text which added flavour though it is of course near unintelligible to modern ears (something the piece fully recognises early on). The rest do excellent work around him, Ellie Moore strong on both flirtation and violin playing while Rosalind Blessed did a fine turn as a stereotypical but warmhearted bar wench.
A thoroughly enjoyable evening but as it reached its end I realised that I didn't want more stories I probably wanted a couple less. Each tale stands alone well but the evening amounts to less than the sum of its parts. A jovial, bawdy evening that comes dangerously close to excellence.
(Review of Peformance on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at the Southwark Theatre)
0 comments:
Post a Comment