Much Ado about Tennant and Tate

It was January when we booked. A crazy day that I recorded on here, and which ended with a long rant as Corinne actually walked to the theatre to book our tickets in person, all web based efforts having failed. It was worth it, for we had fabulous seats. Definitely whites of the eyes (leading to the query ‘has he always had a wonky eye?’*)

Set in the early 1980’s, apparently in Gibraltar (though I don’t think you’d know without the programme), there were some lovely period touches, The play may refer to Messina, but these characters were thoroughly British. A hard drinking and smoking military community.

Initially, I had my doubts about Catherine Tate’s Beatrice, as she teetered on the edge of over-playing it at the start, but she settled into the play, and from the party scene onwards was excellent.

I had no doubts at all about David’s Benedick. He can speak Shakespeare as though it is entirely his everyday language. He brings a clarity and meaning to lines I’ve never really noticed before. He surprises me, and that is so difficult to do in Shakespeare. And he can deliver a line perfectly whilst reversing a golf buggy on stage. Now that’s skill.

His comic timing in the gulling scene was amazing. Unfair to spoil it here, but the scene is a gift to an actor, and he played it to the full.

As a production, it was ‘broad brush’ Shakespeare. Plenty there to hook in those who didn’t know the story (apparently the guy next to Corinne was genuinely surprised when Hero was alive!) But below the surface there were touches and nuances which made a Shakespeare geek grin. Crucially, they passed my ‘test’, which is the line ‘Kill Claudio’. A couple of sniggers, but that was all.

It has a very good looking cast, though I struggled to see beyond David (apart from Elliot Levey’s Don John). Claudio is a pig of a part, and even more difficult I feel if the play has a modern setting. You can only get away with it if he is played very young, which he was. The scene where he is tricked into believing Hero unfaithful the night before the wedding is played out during the stag and hen parties of the couple, all disco lights, music, drinking and disorienting revolve, which worked really well. The addition of his almost suicidal remorse helped, even if it did cut across the uncomfortable earlier scene where he and Don Pedro are cracking jokes until he is challenged by Benedick. There’s still a real issue about Hero forgiving him though.

The music, an 80’s pastiche which sounded authentic without using any actual songs, was excellent, and there were echoes of Wham in the final song and dance routine, which is always going to please me.

There was a real joy about the ending, and yet, we didn’t stand, though many of the audience did. It was great, but it wasn’t ‘Hamlet 1 November 2008’ great.

Afterwards, we did go round to the stage door. It wasn’t as busy as Hamlet. If I’d been determined, I could have got in there. However, I don’t need to push my way in. It’s the long game, and the time will come.

*The answer is ‘yes’, but it was more noticeable in this production. Possibly he’s tired.

Risen from the rubble

My first visit to the ‘new’ Royal Shakespeare Theatre was always going to be a bit of an event. It’s been getting on for 5 years since I’ve been to a theatre on the Waterside site, the last visit to the old theatre being Merry Wives the Musical in December 2006.

I remember the feeling of shock when I went down for The Glorious Moment and saw the shell of the theatre for the first time, and then gradually seeing the new theatre take place over subsequent visits.

The building has been open for a few months now, but the first productions specifically for the new auditorium have opened fairly recently.
As a building, it’s different, but the same. A place of mixed emotions, it feels strange to step back into what has always been the foyer, and is now the stalls bar. So much more space, now they’re not trying to cram everything onto that small area. The old fountain and the marble staircase up to the circle are back in place, but the circle bar is now accessible to all, not just to those with a circle ticket (and not, therefore, somewhere I’ve visited with much frequency). A new link corridor between the entrance to the RST and the Swan now provides shop space.

All the art deco features of the original building have been retained, the floor of the old stage has been re-laid in the public areas (and yes, I did find that thrilling), and some of the features in the old structure have been left exposed to show the history of the building. I can understand this, but am not sure I like it.

Through the doors which used to be the entrance to the stalls runs a semi-circular brick wall, the back of the new auditorium, with quick change areas for actors tucked away in alcoves. Higher up, bridges link across to the upper levels.

Inside the auditorium, it looks and feels like the Courtyard Theatre, which is slightly odd, as, if you know that theatre well, you feel like you’ve suddenly entered a different building, and one that seems very familiar. That theatre was always meant to be temporary, this isn’t, and therefore has some extra touches which make it feel finished off. None of the seats look to be that far way from the stage, and to have good sightlines.

Of course it’s the bits that the audience don’t see which have changed the most, the backstage areas, the facilities for wardrobe, technical, wigs make-up, dressing rooms . A rabbit warren of corridors that it must take actors a while to get used to. There’s depth below the stage that didn’t exist before. In the old theatre, there was so little space between the back walls of the RST and the Swan that actors appearing in each tended to bump into each other, now, it feels spacious.

At the moment, it still smells new, which feels exciting and full of possibilities. As for the Stage Door, well, of course I checked out where it was, for future reference