My Brilliant Friend

adapted by April De Angelis from Elena Ferrante's novels

seen at the Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames on 23 March 2017

Melly Still directs Niamh Cusack as Elena and Catherine McCormack as Lila in this two-part adaptation of the four Neapolitan novels of Elena Ferrante, with a supporting cast of ten actors taking all the other parts. The set - an all-purpose and inventive use of the whole Rose Theatre stage and the galleries behind it - and costumes are designed by Soutra Gilmour.

This is a compelling piece of theatre with blisteringly good performances from the two women whose careers and experiences diverge drastically from their childhood in post-war Naples. The adaptation of four dense and complex novels into about five and a half hours of playing time is extremely ambitious, but it is triumphantly realised. It is clearly an adaptation from another medium, rather than a newly devised play, but nonetheless it is dramatically sound and intensely involving. I have not (yet) read the books, so I cannot comment on what has been sacrificed or simplified, but as a sheer piece of theatre I found it totally engrossing. I'm not entirely clear on the relations of some of the families - not helped here by the inevitable doubling of roles - but in the heat of the moment it was not much of a disadvantage.

The Herbal Bed

by Peter Whelan

seen at the RoseTheatre, Kingston upon Thames, on 28 April 2016

This play, subtitled The secret life of Shakespeare's daughter, was written in 1996 and originally produced by the RSC. It sees its first major revival here, directed by James Dacre and featuring Emma Lowndes as Susannah Hall, Jonathan Guy Lewis as John Hall, Philip Correia as Rafe Smith, and Matt Whitchurch as Jack Lane, with Patrick Driver as the Bishop of Worcester, Charlotte Wakefield as Hester Fletcher and Michael Mears as Barnaby Goche the Vicar-General of the diocese of Worcester.

The play derives from the records in the Worcestoer consistory court of a defamation case brought by Susannah Hall (Shakespeare's daughter) against Jack Lane, who had publicly alleged that she had illicit dealings with Rafe Smith. Here, Susannah and Rafe are indeed passionately attracted to one another, but no adultery takes place. Jack's allegations are founded on supposition, jealousy and drunkenness. Although he has not actually seen the pair together, it is known by the Hall's servant Hester that Rafe left the garden precipitously one night as she was coming to warn Susannah of Lane's approach.

The Merry Wives

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames on 23 March 2016

The usual title The Merry Wives of Windsor has been abbreviated in this production from Northern Broadside and the New Vic (Stoke on Trent) as the action has not only been moved forward in time to the 1920s but also moved geographically to the north of England. Local references have been altered accordingly - 'the fat woman of Ilkley' rather than of Brainford; Slender to marry Ann Page in Skipton rather than Eton, and so forth.

Barrie Rutter plays Falstaff and directs the production, which is firmly in the British farce tradition, broad brushed and raucous. The characters are close to stock figures of fun - the women wise, the husbands foolishly lax or foolishly jealous, Falstaff incorrigibly self-confident, the others various sorts of hangers on, and the young couple romantic but almost without personality. All this is emphasised by the acting style, which is direct and noisy.

Unfortunately the performance did not immediately engage the audience; perhaps the theatre itself, though inspired by 16th century architecture, is not a sympathetic space when the house is not full. At any rate, in the first half it seemed that the cast were at times straining for effect; and of course the language is old-fashioned in a way that can make it laborious to set up the jokes. In the second half laughter came more easily, though the cross-language obscene punning of the Latin lesson was not really effective (despite coaching in the progamme notes).

A further consideration is that there might really still be a faultline between northern and southern styles of humour. The whole play was given in thick northern accents (apart from Doctor Caius' deliberately ludicrous French accent and Parson Evans's Welsh). This made the verbal fireworks at times hard to follow, but also encouraged the almost slapstick style of delivery. Mistress Page and Mistress Ford laughed uproariously at their own cleverness, but it was something of a spectacle rather than an invitation to share the joke.

Good fun as a knockabout farce, but strained at times.

The Wars of the Roses

by William Shakespeare adapted by John Barton and Peter Hall

seen at the Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames on 29 October 2015

In 1962 John Barton and Peter Hall devised three plays they called 'Henry VI', 'Edward IV' and 'Richard III' from Shakespeare's original 'Henry VI' Parts 1, 2 and 3, and 'Richard III'. Presented under the overall title 'The Wars of the Roses', this was a major success for the then-new Royal Shakespeare Company, but the adaptations have rarely been performed since. Trevor Nunn saw the original productions as an undergraduate, and they inspired his vocation as a theatre director - he later followed Peter Hall as artistic director of both the RSC and the National Theatre. Peter Hall was also the founding patron of the Rose Theatre, and so Trevor Nunn has revived the trilogy here as a tribute to his mentor.

This production features Alex Waldmann as Henry VI, Joely Richardson as his queen Margaret of Anjou, Kåre Conradi as Edward IV, Alexandra Gilbreath as his queen Elizabeth, Robert Sheehan as Richard of Gloucester (later Richard III) and Alexander Hanson as Richard Plantagenet the Duke of York. The many other speaking parts are shared between these and sixteen other actors, some young boys and a 'company community chorus' of sixteen more assorted soldiers and peasants. The set was designed by John Napier and Mark Friend.