THE RIVALS AT THE ARTS THEATRE
All Photography by Ellie Kurtz
Take a well-known 18th century classical comedy with all its quirks and quips. Skilfully siphon it into a flappertastic farce; remove the entire cast from three hundred years earlier to decant into a liberated Charleston crazy wise cracking epic.
That’s the way the Beau Brummel of Regency theatreland, Richard Brindesley Sheridan ended up amid the razzamatazz of the Twenties. Did it survive the transplant? How did the humour of hundreds of years ago go down with a contemporary audience? Did the gags survive and the characters come over as real?
The Rivals at the Arts Theatre got the laughs it needed right from the outset. Lydia Languish, a superb Zoe Brough brings the world -weary wealthy heiress up to date , as she reclines on her chaise longue ‘and flicks through the books brought from the library by cheeky maid Lucy played with all the nerve and guile a surviving servant needs. - Joelle Brabban makes the most of this key role- she reveals how cunning ( and sly) servants have to be . Lydia and Lucy share a hilarious comic skit as the book titles get steamier and end up hidden under the cushions- and then flung out of the room entirely. Lydia is a real (deluded ) romantic and wants to elope to a life of poverty with a poorly paid Sergeant. He is in fact Captain Jack Absolute, played with panache and athletic vigour by Kit Young. This actor’s dance sequences reveal a daring athletic style – quite breathtaking in fact. We meet him in a bath scene ( lots of fun with towels when he emerges – ‘woman in the audience’ is ordered to ‘ look away’! ). Yet it is a role fraught with confusion. We never see his ‘Sergeant ‘ with the rough side – and there is no scope to express it. Easier to understand is his hilariously autocratic disciplinarian dad Sir Anthony ,the famous Robert Bathurst is a convincing idiotic termagant who always has to be right. And what a temper - he is so entirely un-self-aware his character is full of laugh-aloud humour. The celebrated Patricia Hodge is Mrs. Malaprop, famed for her confidently delivered mistakes in speech. Colourful and consummate in the role, there is almost a burden of linguistic mis-steps yet this great actor manages to bring warmth and nuance to the stern aunt – even as she imagines she has a lover herself, sadly that is a mistake too, as Lucius O’Trigger, the now American (Sheridan was criticized for this character as he was originally Irish and the role was considered an insult to Ireland - Americans in the twenty-first century are apparently fair game). has his lust set on Lydia Languish as well as all the other Rivals.
At its début critics thought The Rivals not just a slur on the Irish, but far too long. Sheridan, only 23 years old at this time, took the hint and cut it back. This critic has to endorse the past judgement. It is far too long. And if the ins and outs of love affairs, pretentious suitors still intrigue us – and keep their power to make us laugh, the fears and confusions over fighting duels (Sheridan only survived one by a whisker) have faded. If Molière and Shakespeare comedy still packs out audience, it is because of their relevance to our lives, despite the centuries between us. It was very hard to follow the second half of this production and its rendezvous with death by pistol. Perhaps a modern blue pencil to much of these prolix shenanigans.? And a word of defence for Mrs. Malaprop – the ferocious ageism she endures from the script is funny but in an age where respect for older women has won out over abuse (however wittily delivered) Roald Dahl had to cut it. in The Witches after all., it might get the chop or trim at least . Great there are no to insults to the Irish - but how about to older women?.
Such a gloriously colourful and action- packed piece of theatre will stay in the memory for a long time to come.
