THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA (Shake-Scene Shakespeare Company)****

 

By Dave

Link: https://www.patreon.com/shakesceneshakespeare

Available until: Unknown

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is one of the ‘problem plays’. It’s probably Shakespeare’s first play (it’s difficult to be completely sure about dates), though it might be his fourth. So it was probably his second or third, simply because that’s how life tends to work sometimes!

But as it was an early play, I think we can be understanding if things don’t quite work. After all, Shakespeare more than makes up for it later. It’s really interesting to see the aspects of this play which become such a feature of his other plays – two or more men in love with the same girl; rings being given to the wrong people; comedy characters who don’t strictly need to be there but the play wouldn’t be as good without them.

Shake-Scene Shakespeare Company decided to confuse us even further (and why not? Considering how confused the characters get, we’ve got it easy!) by having not two gentlemen of Verona but nine. Or maybe less than that as the fourth Protheus seemed to be the same as the first. There were also two Julias, except there were actually three as Lizzie Hughes helped out too. It wasn’t always possible to work out who they all were, my device decided it wasn’t going to make the actor names large enough for me to read properly no matter what I did but I can say honestly that the whole cast were great so anyone who isn’t mentioned is still appreciated as they did a great job.

There are lots of problems with The Two Gentlemen of Verona but one big one is the ending. I’m not going to talk about the ending too much as some people won’t know what happens but someone is caught when they’re about to do something really, unspeakably awful and it all kind of gets brushed under the carpet. There are other plays with similar issues but they tend to have some sort of redeeming feature. Measure for Measure is such an interesting play, you do appreciate it on an intellectual level even if parts of it do make you feel very uncomfortable. All’s Well That Ends Well is so farcical that, if the production is funny enough, you can kind of convince yourself that, in the spirit of the title, the end justifies the means. The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a bit more difficult.

So I think Shake-Scene have been really clever here. Firstly by having the major roles shared so you’ve got your brain partly focused on watching out for the new actors so that’s a nice distraction from the morality, or lack of. But secondly I think they haven’t tried to make it too much of a happy ending. One of the couples seems happy to be together at last. The other couple… I’m not so sure. If there had been an epilogue to this production involving that couple, I think it would have made very interesting listening.

The role-sharing worked surprisingly well. The actors all had their own ways of playing the roles – they don’t just copy each other – but it looks like they’ve agreed on what general direction they’re taking the character in, so while their appearances change, there don’t seem to have been any serious personality transplants, though of course the characters do change as they go through the story.

There are differences between Bridget Randolph’s romantic Protheus, Alexandra Kataigida’s calculating one, Hannah Harris’ apparently very sincere one and Suzanne Taylor (I think it was her)’s clever performance where Protheus’ words were touching but he just wasn’t quite trustworthy. Protheus is a character with a changing agenda and priorities so it’s actually apt that he’s a man of many faces. Great performances from all the ladies.

There is also a bit of a change in Julia as she is changed by her experiences so it makes sense that Nell Bradbury is a stronger and more confident character in her natural environment but Valentina Vinci’s Julia is responding to her circumstances and becoming more resourceful. The Valentines also do well with Bradley Crees (I think that’s the right name) and Larissa Oates showing his more playful side before Elizabeth Bell and another lady I can’t name (it’ll probably turn out that she’s in every play and I’ve just made myself look like an idiot! But I’m used to that) showing a more serious Valentine as he finally stops playing and starts to grow up. Again some great performances.

Charlotte Gallagher runs the full gamut of emotions as Silvia in a brilliant performance. Tamara Ritthaler strikes a balance between being very spirited as Julia’s maid Lucetta and still being convincingly a servant. There’s another remarkable performance from Linda Mathis as the Duke of Milan: powerful and commanding, though not quite as capable and sensible as he likes to appear.

Philippe Bosher, who I’m sure I remember from other online plays (Read for the Globe?) makes a strong impression as a very likeable as Eglamour. There’s also a lot of humour in the play, particularly from Dewi Hughes’ rather sweet Launce, and Eugenia Low as Speed, the first of many clever ‘fools’ created by Shakespeare. Siegffried Lowe-Walker gives Thurio slightly more character than he’s often given which works really well considering what he does in the final scene.

I would also like to give support to the decision to remove or change certain words which were apparently acceptable in Shakespeare’s day but sound racist now. It’s not part of the plot so there’s no need for it to be there. So I applaud Shakes-Scene for this, as well as for their great production of a difficult play.