Wimbledon News, 5th
September 1975
The anti-smoking campaign got an unexpected boost at Wimbledon Theatre this week when King James I joined the ranks.
The right royal “Counterblast to Tobacco” which was
written by James himself, in true rip-roaring 17th Century style,
was delivered with all the gruesome conviction of the 20th Century
by James Grout of the Royal Shakespeare Company, who raised several laughs and
a few tell-tale coughs.
But James was just one of the many monarchs on
parade in “The Hollow Crown”. A tight little jigsaw of royal sketches fitted
perfectly together by five members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The only woman in the cast was Sara Kestleman and
she was splendid in all parts.
As the girlish Jane Austen she presented a potted
history of the English Monarchy under the teasing title of “A Partial,
Prejudiced and Ignorant Historian”.
And as novelist Fanny Burney she artfully describes
a brief meeting with George III which gave her a chance to show off a
marvellous talent for mimicry.
The music was provided by Adrian Harman and the old
melodies went down very well with the audience.
Both Paul Hardwick and Michael Pennington gave
stirring performances and with careful timing and good delivery made the most
of what might have been hard going.
All the actors were dressed in a soft brown and the
backdrop was a deep flame red. And with all of them seated around a coffee
table enjoying the occasional sip of Meade – it was a very cosy performance.
The Newcastle
Evening Chronicle, 26th March 1979, Phil Penfold
I don’t envy the task to any actress who has to
play the little girl of eight one minute and an old maid the next.
A daunting task, by any standards. But I admire – immeasurably
– Miss Brenda Bruce, who carried the thing off beautifully in ‘Pleasure and
Repentance’, the second of the RSC’s selected group of readings on Saturday.
In fact, I admire all the actors who took part in
both the anthologies of verse and prose – as well as their entire orchestra
Bill Homewood.
Indeed, Mr Homewood had a few about-turns to
achieve himself. Starting off as a wolf cub, he turned quite nicely into a
troubadour, and also managed to squeeze in, at one point during the day, a
guitar version of the national anthem.
What these programmes illustrate so neatly is the
beauty of the English language – whether it be descriptive of the
responsibilities of royalty – as in ‘The Hollow Crown’ – or of the stormy seas
of love, as in ‘Pleasure’.
It gives us the full range of writing from the
romantic to the acid-edged. And far from being a po-faced series of reading,
there are some quite delightful vignettes: Jane Austen (as played by Lisa
Harrow) bubbles enthusiastically for “that wonderful, tragic woman” Mary, Queen
of Scots, but would have had Elizabeth I beheaded, soon as look at her.
There is also a rather revolting account, divided
between Michael Pennington and Richard Griffiths, of how Edward II met his
extremely unpleasant end at Berkeley Castle. Mr Pennington and Mr Griffiths sit
– a la Norman Evans – like two old gossips over a garden wall, and go through
every gory detail.
The pay-off line is superb. With an inflection that
beggars description, Mr Griffiths observes after a pause: “He was buried at
Gloucester” – as if that excused all the tribulations of that sad monarch.
It is that sort of manoeuvre that makes the RSC
selections so appealing. Combine with that some delicious material (some
familiar, some as fresh as paint) and you have two remarkable experiences.
John Barton devised ‘The Hollow Crown’. Terry Hands
was behind ‘Pleasure and Repentance’. Both directed their own productions and
both are lit with distinction by Michael Taylor, who achieves a wealth of
effects without appearing to do very much at all.
That is the hardest task in all these shows – to
make the difficult (a handful of actors, a modicum of set dressing) look
deceptively easy. As a corporate effort, it is achieved without any fuss o
bother. But it is later that one realises what superb shows these are and what
influences they have on one.
As entertainment they are unsurpassed.
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