A KING AND NO KING (Red Bull Theater)**

 

By Dave

Link: https://www.redbulltheater.com/a-king-and-no-king

Available until: Friday 18^th December, 7pm EST/Saturday 19^th December 12.30am UK

It’s really hard to know what to say about this one. If you can watch it through to the end, everything does make a bit more sense and it turns out that there is a point to it after all.

But sitting through this play is not easy. It’s a dark, nasty and immoral play and a very uncomfortable watch.

It was written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, whose careers overlapped with Shakespeare’s and John Fletcher replaced Shakespeare as House Playwright for The King’s Men. Additionally, Fletcher is credited alongside Shakespeare as the co-writer of Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen and the lost play Cardenio. But Beaumont was a far more regular writing partner and he and Fletcher collaborated on thirteen plays, including The King and No King.

The story is considered a tragicomedy, with elements of both tragedy and comedy, but I really didn’t see the play as a comedy at all. It wasn’t funny. This could mean that the production wasn’t funny but it is difficult to imagine that this play could be seen as a comedy in any circumstances.

It tells the story of King Arbaces, who returns home after an absence of some years. It’s not an easy homecoming as his mother has just tried to assassinate him but he’s generally a forgiving sort of guy. Having beaten a man named Tigranes in battle, he then invites him to go home with him and marry his sister Panthea. It’s the kind of thing that could set up some sort of farcical situation, especially as Tigranes is in love with Spaconia, who decides to follow him. It’s not uncommon for women to do this in plays from around this time but they usually dress up as men. Spaconia doesn’t.

At this point, it’s all looking quite promising but then something happens. Arbaces takes one look at Panthea and falls in lust. With his sister.

He’s not a completely awful sort of guy and does at least have the decency to be horrified by his feelings. At first he does try not to act on them but his method of not acting them involves treating Panthea badly and soon his resolve begins to crumble.

As I said, it’s not the easiest play to watch.

It’s not just the subject matter that’s the issue. It might have been possible to make it work but the play is centred around Arbaces and much as we might root for Tigranes and Spaconia, they don’t really have enough of a story to hold our attention (or direct it away from less palatable concerns). The ending isn’t entirely terrible but we’ve sat through so much horror, it doesn’t really seem enough to make up for everything.

The actors do their best but (in my view, at least) they have an almost impossible task. Chukwudi Iwuji, who plays Arbaces, is a great actor. He has a powerful screen presence, the characterisation is strong and Arbaces is believable as a character. But he’s not likeable and I feel this is down to the script.

Cara Ricketts on the other hand is extremely likeable as Panthea. She is a strong character who knows her own mind but she is also compassionate, loving and welcoming to everyone. Her acting is very impressive and she conveys a lot just with her eyes.

Edmund Donovan is a personable Tigranes and Teresa Avia Lim, as Spaconia, is confident but humble. CJ Wilson’s characterisation of Bessus is clever and although Arane, the mother of Arbaces and Panthea, is another who is difficult to like, Franchelle Stewart Dorn delivers her lines powerfully. Craig Wallace is an intelligent Gobrius, and Robert Cocciou brings some much-needed sincerity and morality to the play as Mardonius.

It’s an interesting play but not an easy one. If you can accept the situation and get past the incestuous parts, it’s a good play but I didn’t feel comfortable and I doubt I’m alone in that.