The Daily Express
18th August 1976, Herbert Kretzmer
Of all
Shakespeare’s plays “Troilus and Cressida” is one of the least popular and most
rarely performed.
It is a cruel, joyless play, lacking an
overwhelming central theme or dominant character like Hamlet, Macbeth or Lear.
It has been called ‘a failure on a grand scale.’
Yet it is a play undeniably relevant to out own
time of bloody violence and moral faithlessness, and last night’s production
goes a long way to re-establish its grim sweep and stature.
The Greeks and Trojans are at war because Helen,
the most beautiful woman in the world, has been abducted. But this pretext has
been all but forgotten after seven years of siege.
Though men still speak of honour, they kill more
out of habit. Moral laws are flouted. The key line in the play is ‘Wars and
lechery… nothing else holds fashion.’
The young Trojan Troilus, not yet 23, is distracted
from military concerns by his passion for Cressida. But she wantonly betrays
him. The theme of treachery is crowned when Hector, the super-warrior, is
murdered when he is unarmed and defenceless.
As the long evening – three-and-a-half hours of it
– wears on, the play becomes a riveting study of man’s enduring inhumanity and
insatiable taste for blood
Notable in a large and splendid cast are: Francesca
Annis as the false Cressida; Mike Gwilym as Troilus; and, as the brave Hector,
Michael Pennington, an actor of magnetic physical presence who, on last night’s
showing, has a superb future ahead of him.
In short, a great play rediscovered.
Yorkshire Post 20th
September 1977, Anthony Seymour
The Royal Shakespeare Company, continuing its year
of great successes at the Aldwych, has brought in an enthralling and stately
version of “Troilus and Cressida.”
This revival was John Barton’s conception for
Stratford a year ago, where he directed it with Barry Kyle, who will be
remembered in York for his productions there some years ago.
Mr Kyle has re-directed it for London, and it is
his work which most impressed me in reviving Shakespeare at his most scornful
in deriding man’s aspirations.
It is a long play, running there for three and a
half hours, and it is not the easiest to stage nor, with its cynicism, the most
popular. Mr Kyle’s approach is uncluttered, direct, and smoothly highlights the
moral decay attendant on the siege of Troy.
In their beleaguered city, the Trojans hold the
abducted and beautiful Helen for whose return the Greeks have gone to war.
After seven years there is a stalemate with both sides bickering among
themselves. Simply by putting huge wooden struts around the stage, the designed
Chris Dyer, gives a claustrophobic effect of a city under siege.
I thought the company could do with some
strengthening in a few roles, but many contributing to the martial epic do so
outstandingly. As Hector, Michael Pennington is a most powerful, towering,
majestic and proud warrior. Richard Durden has an oily power as the abductor,
Paris.
Mike Gwilym, one of the company’s most arresting young
actors, moves from a love-sick dreamer to a vicious killer with compelling
power.
Francesca Annis is a skittish, flirtatious
Cressida.
Return to
Production Information