The
Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward II King of England,
with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimore
I have been involved with
enough theatrical productions over the years to understand the difference
between a preview and the finished product. After last seeing the well oiled,
hugely reviewed Othello, last night we were at the
National for a preview of Edward II, a very different evening! Marlowe’s
play concerns one of the most scandalous kingships in the Medieval era, that of
Edward II and his lover, Gaveston. Marlowe is a more direct
storyteller than Shakespeare, and the action here is non-stop. We start with
Edward’s coronation, and celebrations are immediately cut short by his
demand for the return of his ‘favourite’ Gaveston.
No sooner has word been sent than Gaveston arises
from the audience, bare chested, tattooed and
decked out in gold necklaces. This is Gay 21st Century San Francisco
meets the Medieval court. He walks down the balcony edges, leaps on stage and
greets his king with a full-on kiss. The Barons are appalled, his sister Kent
embarrassed and his wife, Isabella furious. All action follows this: The
Barons force the King to banish Gaveston again,
Isabella, in an attempt to win her husband back persuades them to un-banish
him, then their behaviours is so shocking they all go to war. Gaveston is killed, but by then Edward has a new male ‘favourite’
Spencer. Isabella takes the young prince to France, Edward defeats the Barons
and executes the leaders, Mortimore
and Isabella invade from France and capture the King. Time for a well earned
interval! Thereafter the coda is typical Tudor, the victorious Mortimore and Isabella see their victory crumble to dust
as the defeated and pathetic King is treated appallingly by his captors, and
eventually (famously) sodomised to death with a red hot poker. The proud
victors fall and we end with the coronation of Edward as king. What has
changed? Lots of plot for three
hours, but the I await the reviews with interest. This
is a challenging production. As well as its out and out camp-ness and homosexual behaviour, it also uses live video in
a fascinating way – less successfully at first, but brilliantly once
the King is captured, his captivity captured in rough video imagery reminiscent
of footage of fallen leaders in the recent Middle East. It is neither in
period nor contemporary, as Kent changes for high heels and business dress to
full armour and the young prince attends his father’s coronation in a school
blazer. Pembroke is played by a woman and Mortimore
is black so Marlowe would struggle to recognise his characters. The set is
medieval though as you can see the production team at the edges, never in the
sense that you are expected to believe it. As well as Isabella carrying round
a bottle of bubbly at all times. Most of the barons smoke whenever they get
the chance. We are clearly in an imaginary time of theatre and it is best not
to worry about it. The acting was stunning throughout.
John Heffernan as Edward was at times very gay, very exuberant, athletic but also
sombre and eventually pathetic. He speaks the prose in so many styles yet is
never wrong (apart from once when he forgot the words!). Vanessa Kirby as Isabella
was also wonderful, a 21st century lush, a medieval She-wolf. And
the King’s sister Kent, played by Kirsty Bushall, the one baron who vacillates, is also a finely
played part. But all the characters, the soldiers as well as the leads were brilliantly
in tune with this anarchic production. It was a preview and it
did have many rough edges, the most obvious of which was Isabella getting her
necklace tangled with her microphone in the final scene, but these will soon
be ironed out. And while it ran at 3 hours last night, I suspect that 20 minutes
will disappear over the next couple of weeks. In fact, we are tempted to see
it again when it has run in. But through all the teething problems, I thought
this was a dynamic, exciting and original production, creating an
individualistic new take on the text and indeed the times. Many will
doubtless hate it, but is you love theatre, I suggest you get your tickets
now before the reviews come in! |
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you would like to comment on any of these Blog pieces please email me on: bjc@briancreese.co.uk