21st May / Lantern Theatre.
Reviewer – Phill James.
Martin Derbyshire’s production of Tom Stoppard’s comic tragedy does full justice to the brilliant source material. The minimalistic set design, coupled with the intense, claustrophobic atmosphere of the Lantern Theatre, works perfectly to give the play-within-a-play format even more of a voyeuristic edge.
An amateur production in nothing but name, you could fire a pea shooter from the audience (literally) and hit a good performance. Rob Myles is brilliant as the constantly questioning Guildenstern. He embodies his character’s persona full board, whether morosely pontificating about his questionable fate or ordering his companion theatrically around the stage. Inexplicably, he even manages to look good in medieval garb. Johnny Syer’s Rosencrantz offsets this with a performance full of brilliant slapstick and panicky ramblings. The physical humour from both actors is a joy to watch and they bounce lines off each other quicker than professional table tennis players. But almost trumping them both is David Reid’s Player. Channelling a young Gene Wilder, Reid may have most of the best lines, but he squeezes every drop of humour from them. His opening scene as he directs his actors into ever more degrading scenarios is a triumph of comic timing from all onstage.
If there are quibbles, it’s that the actual Hamlet scenes don’t quite convey the weight of coming from that particular production. The dialogue is stripped down to focus more on our leads and whilst that works to a point, it would have perhaps leant even more pathos had we believed more fully in their twisted fate. This does nothing to detract from the main thrust of the narrative though, because Derbyshire and his team have lovingly created a version of the play which few would be disappointed by. As it twists and turns towards its inevitable conclusion, he succeeds in realising Stoppard’s aim to question not only our roles as audience and player, but our roles in life full stop. Are we defined by others? Or do we define ourselves? Most of us, unlike Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, will never get to find out. That this play can deal with such issues while making you laugh so hard that you spill your interval pint of locally brewed ale is a credit to everyone involved.
This production, along with the Lantern Theatre in general, confirms the quality on offer right on our doorstep. You could do a lot worse than catch something when the new season starts, especially given they now have a bar.
1 comment