Well, I did it! Four plays in two days - what a terrific weekend. To the Old Vic on Saturday to see As You Like It in the afternoon. I had forgotten this was a "Bridge Project" production in which Sam Mendes has formed a company divided equally between American and British actors. Slight shock when I heard the first American accent but gone in an instant, and nothing compared to the shock on seeing Ron Cephas Jones, a tall, slim and elegant black man enter wearing a well-cut dark grey suit and tie and for just a second I thought, my God, it's Obama! I am not overly familiar with As You Like It and in response to Shakespeare's somewhat off-hand, take it or leave title, I think on the whole I would leave it. Even by romantic comedy standards the plot is absurd, and even by convoluted Shakespearean standards the word-play is sometimes tedious. However, what fascinates, me, at any rate, is the mysterious and melancholy Jaques who threads his glooomy way through the plot, neither adding to, nor subtracting from, the story, except at the very end when all the knots have been unravelled, the young couples reconciled and ready to be married and the Duke is about to start the happy , rustic revels - he suddenly and dramatically announces that he will withdraw from the company and remain in the wilderness! What a mysterious character he is and I must find time to examine him more closely.
Then to the evening performance of The Tempest, Shakespeare's farewell to theatre. Exactly the same company but this time in a play of great profundity. In this Mr. Cephas Jones played Caliban - excellently. Stephen Dillane played the marooned Prospero, erstwhile Duke of Milan, and now a self-taught wizard who deploys his magical powers to control - well, nothing much really, a typical piece of Shakespearean irony - just poor, old brutish Caliban and the trapped and enslaved spirit, Ariel. Dillane received much criticism in the prints for mumbling his lines and the message seems to have struck home because he was as clear as a bell on Saturday. He delivered the final, and deeply moving (to me), epitaph with great clarity and quiet sincerity, and as always, I was clenching my jaw to stop the tears.
I like these ensemble company productions. Being part of such a company and working together on two plays so that everyone is involved to a greater or lesser extent in both of them produces a cameraderie which is evident to an audience. Without any doubt the leader of the pack was the radiant Juliet Rylance who played Rosalind and Miranda. Possessed of tremendous energy, spirit and talent, she helped drive these two productions along to the success they deserved. I suspect, given the different traditions of American and British theatre, the possibilities of division in the ranks were manifold with a 'them' and 'us' attitude ready to spring out at any moment. Happily, actors, like soldiers, face a common enemy; in the former's case - the audience! In the end, however much blood is spilled in the rehearsal room, the audience must be faced and the ranks must close and teamwork rules. To me, from the outside peering in, this seemed like a happy company doing good work and knowing it and enjoying it.
I will pause here and return later to tell of you of the 'Henries'.
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