The best of early modern times, 1.
Short of living in the London of the early seventeenth century, this must be the best of times for those of us interested in early modern theatre beyond the Bard. Tonight I’m off to the new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse for their new production of The Knight of the Burning Pestle with Pauline McLynn and Phil Daniels. The Duchess of Malfi (above, with David Dawson and Gemma Arterton) has just closed there and The Malcontent is to come.
In Stratford-upon-Avon Royal Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Gregory Doran has committed The Swan to a comparable focus on the plays of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. This year will see stagings of The Roaring Girl, Arden of Faversham, The White Devil and The Witch of Edmonton, together with The Shoemaker’s Holiday as a Christmas treat.
We now have major editions of the plays of Thomas Middleton and of Ben Jonson, each representing scholarly endeavour at the highest level. The Arden Early Modern Drama series is bringing us new editions of other significant works. And the new Collaborative Plays by ‘William Shakespeare & Others’, a gorgeous and glorious volume that – given that as a hardback it is currently available for just £21.25 – ought already to be gracing your bookshelves.
I have been disgracefully absent from the blog in recent days – journal articles, a keynote lecture, broadcast proposals and the making of the RSC trailer for Henry IV, Parts I and II (coming very soon) have taken up almost all of my time. By way of easing my way back in to regular posts, today’s contribution and a subsequent aim to bring together thoughts about and links for all of this exciting early modern drama activity.
I saw The Duchess of Malfi in the Playhouse on the first night, and I have to admit that I was disappointed. Not by the space or by the candle light, both of which are exquisite, but by Dominic Dromgoole’s slightly prosaic production and – for me – an under-powered performance from Gemma Arterton in the central role. Her flirty comedy was finely judged but I wanted more weight in the tragic scenes as her world is being destroyed by her brothers. As can be seen from the links below, the critics also had a mixed response both to her performance and to the production.
I also need to say that my Malfi evening was one of the most uncomfortable that I’ve ever spent in a professional theatre. I was in the pit, in the back row just in front of the lower gallery. The bench was narrow and hard, but what was far worse was the piece of timber that ran along the back, ensuring that one could not lean back. I hope tonight will be a more pleasant experience – and I’ll report back afterwards.
Meanwhile, I want to note some of the recent features linked to the opening of the Playhouse, and also some of the more substantial reviews for Malfi:
Feature coverage:
• Sam Wanamaker Playhouse: a Jacobean theatre on Bankside – Isabel Sutton, BBC Radio 4, 6 January
• Behind the scenes at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – Lucinda Everett, Daily Telegraph, 9 January
• Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse casts new light on Jacobean staging – Mark Lawson, The Guardian, 20 January
As ever, Peter Kirwan at The Bardathon has (just) contributed one of the most thoughtful and informed responses to the space and to production: ‘The production’s patient and methodical build-up of tension and violence worked well, using the shadows and crannies of the space to emphasise Malfi as a play of intrigue and subterfuge. Moments of more ambitious spectacle (Arterton running round the theatre as the Echo and sweeping in via the gallery to deliver her final line, or the bizarre and uncomfortably disjointed closing jig) felt unnecessary; what this trial run for the new space showed was that these plays capitalise on the basic resources of the indoor theatre. A great launch, and full of promise for the future.’
• Reinventing the language of candlelight: in another new post, Duncan at Margate Sands offers a detailed discussion of the use of candles in the production and the ways in which they contributed to and complemented the meanings of the play.
• Duchess of Malfi (Webster/Dromgoole), Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Feb 2014: do also read the lengthy piece by Holger Syme at dispositio which is an excellent response to the space and to the production.
Other reviews:
• What’sOnStage, Michael Coveney, 4*: ‘The space is almost indecently intimate, less rectangular than I expected, very high, with panels round the first gallery opening for artificial daylight, a square thrust stage, a vomitarium in the pit for switching the focus on entrances and exits… and at the still, sickly centre of the play, Gemma Arterton’s pellucid Duchess, serenely Oriental, a gorgeous doll with sensuality to burn.’
• Daily Telegraph: Charles Spencer, 3*: ‘Gemma Arterton makes so little impression as the Duchess. She is a beautiful vacancy, looking lovely but rarely conveying the anguish or the courage of a character who is so cruelly persecuted. There is little hint of a sexual spark in her relationship with Antonio (Alex Waldman), the servant she secretly marries to the fury of her brothers, and as the horrors mount – a severed hand presented to her in the dark and a tableau of her dead husband and child – her sangfroid seems barely ruffled.’
• Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times, 3*: ‘One palpable impression, in such a different performing environment, is that the Globe house style of acting in broad, clear strokes can seem over-simplistic. This is the case with almost everyone onstage here.’
• Alexandra Coghlan, The Arts Desk: ‘Carrying the play’s darkest drama as the murderous brothers, David Dawson (Duke Ferdinand) and the Cardinal (James Garnon). Garnon, as usual, does less to wonderful effect… Dawson offers the nervous tension to Garnon’s stillness, moving from repressed and confused passion to madness with horrible seamlessness, and making something properly pathetic from the transition.’
• Natasha Tripney, The Stage: ‘There are times where the production feels rather too staid and tame… With the exception of Ferdinand’s bout of lycanthropy and the scene in which the Duchess is presented with a group of lunatics, it often felt as if the play’s messier edges had been blunted.
Incidentally, I have heard that BBC Television recorded one of the final performances of Malfi, which for all my reservations about the production is definitely something to look forward to. When it is transmitted later this year, it will be the first early modern non-Shakespeare play to be broadcast since the 1993 production for BBC television’s Performance strand of Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling. If, that is, you leave to one side the rather fascinating 2009 ITV drama Compulsion, with Ray Winstone and Parminder Nagra, which updated substantial elements of the tragedy to modern-day London. Compulsion is released on DVD; for my Screen Plays blog about this, go here.
Meanwhile, Shakespeare’s Globe has produced some smart videos about the making of the Playhouse, of which the following is the seventh – I want to return to these in a future post.
Leave a Reply