24 July 2014
On
Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in
Stratford-upon-Avon to see 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' – one of
Shakespeare's earliest plays, and possibly his first comedy. It's not
often performed (the last RSC performance on the main Stratford stage
was 45 years ago) and you can see Shakespeare developing the
technique that he would use to create later greater works. But Simon
Godwin's Royal Shakespeare Company production is great fun and well
worth seeing. It's fascinating to spot the prototypes for scenes in
'As You Like It', 'Twelfth Night', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'The
Winter's Tale' and other plays. And I enjoyed watching a Shakespeare
play without knowing exactly where the plot was heading. 'Two
Gentlemen of Verona' is a fairly bonkers romp and the RSC's
swashbuckling production reminded me of the marvellous Not Man Apart
production of 'Pericles Redux' we saw in Edinburgh some years ago
(reviewed here in August 2008). The RSC cast were all impressive –
with Roger Morlidge giving a great comic turn as the servant Launce.
The RSC is very good at introducing wave after wave of stunning young
actors. Michael Marcus, Mark Arends, Peal Chanda and Sarah Macrae,
who played the four young lovers, were all excellent – and all four
are in their RSC debut season. But the star of the show was
undoubtedly the lurcher Mossup who played Launce's dog Crab. Mossup
was clearly an experienced actor and it was good to see that she had
her own biography in the programme (she has previously appeared in
'Legally Blond' (in Glasgow), 'Casualty' and 'The Tudors' on TV, and
the film 'The Invisible Woman'!). I also enjoyed Nicholas
Gerard-Martin channelling Morrisey in his desperate singing of 'Who
is Silvia?'. 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' is a hoot.
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