Hansard

by Simon Woods

seen by live streaming from the National Theatre (Lyttleton) on 7 November 2019

Simon Godwin directs Alex Jennings as Robin Hesketh (MP and junior Cabinet Minister) and Lindsay Duncan as his wife Diana in an intense drama which begins almost innocuously as social or political comedy set in May 1988, in the week that the Local Government Act including the notorious section 28 was passed into law.

Robin returns to the marital home in the Cotswolds on the Saturday morning after the crucial vote to find Diana still not dressed, and a familiar sparring begins in which it becomes clear that she has nothing but scorn for the role of politician's wife, and, even more difficult for her husband, little sympathy with Tory policy or the general outlook of her husband.  The arguments are presumably well worn in the house, but still engaged on both sides with some degree of passion mixed with the sort of resigned weariness that allows the audience to be amused.

Antony and Cleopatra

by William Shakespeare

seen at the National Theatre (Olivier) on 2nd January 2019

Simon Godwin directs Ralph Fiennes as Antony, Sophie Okonedo as Cleopatra, Tunji Kasim as Octavius Caesar and Tim McMullan as Enobarbus in a production sumptuously designed by Hildegard Bechtler making inspired use of the famed Olivier drum revolve to resolve the difficult task of transferring quickly the scene of action across various sites in the Mediterranean world (though the programme informs us that the play is set in 'an imagined present').

Boldly, the play here opens with the final tableau of the text, Caesar pronouncing (most of) the final eulogy, and then Agrippa taking parts of Philo's opening speech as if commenting on the denouement rather than setting the scene. At this point the revolve reveals the Egyptian scene and the body of Cleopatra becomes the Queen lazily awaiting the arrival of her lover. 

Twelfth Night

by William Shakespeare

seen at the National Theatre (Olivier) on 10 April 2017

Simon Godwin directs Tamara Lawrance as Viola, Oliver Chris as Orsino, Phoebe Fox as Olivia and Tamsin Greig as Malvolia in a fascinating and at times hilarious modern dress production designed by Soutra Gilmour.

The gender confusions of this play, in which Viola (in Shakespeare's time played by a boy) spends much of the time disguised as a boy while falling in love with Orsino and being pursued by Olivia, are given added twists here by re-shaping the part of Malvolio as a woman, Malvolia, and also having the clown Feste played by a woman (Doon Mackichan). A couple of minor characters also become women, while the boundaries of friendship and the desire for a more intimate affection are also blurred for Antonio and Sebastian, for Orsino as he befriends the disguised Viola, and, at a comic level, even Sir Andrew Aguecheek's attitude towards Sir Toby Belch.

Hamlet

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, on 5 April 2016

Simon Godwin directs the RSC's first 'black' Hamlet with Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet, Tanya Moodie as Gertrude, Clarence Smith as Claudius, Cyril Nri as Polonius, Natalie Simpson as Ophelia and Hiran Abeysekera as Horatio. Only Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, even more out of their element than usual, were played by white actors as callow and tactless European visitors to Denmark re-imagined as an unspecific African state.

The Beaux' Stratagem

by George Farquhar

seen at the National Theatre (Olivier) on 3 June 2015

The play, directed by Simon Godwin, features Samuel Barnett as Aimwell, Geoffrey Streatfeild as Archer, Pippa Bennett-Warner as Dorinda, Susannah Fielding as Mrs Sullen, and Pearce Quigley as Scrub, with music by Michael Bruce and the set designed by Lizzie Clachan.

Two out-of-pocket London swells propose to gull wealthy Lichfield heiresses through marriage (or else, if that fails, they will try Chester, Nottingham and even Norwich; otherwise they will enlist and die). But what could have been a cynical or heartless confrontation between town and country values becomes something more complex and even radical in Farquhar's hands. Aimwell falls genuinely in love with Dorinda, thus turning callow opportunism into romantic comedy, while Archer finds himself matched (if not over-matched) by Mrs Sullen - young and attractive indeed, but already disastrously married. Their comic resolution is only made possible by a fantastical agreement to a divorce between Mr and Mrs Sullen, a project that would have been all but impossible in 1707 when the play was written. Mrs Sullen, who could have been merely a disillusioned and scheming flirt, proves to be a woman of spirit not totally daunted by her domestic misery.