Written by: Ryan J. Brown (@freakyriddles)
Chelsea Theatre, London
****
At the centre of Shepherd’s The Shakespeare Conspiracy is the inspired
notion that all of William Shakespeare’s characters are 100% living, breathing,
and dysfunctional earth dwellers. Honing in on societies’ infatuation with a
decent conspiracy, particularly the multitude surrounding the Bard, Shepherd
intelligently creates a fast-paced, melodramatic and meta-theatrical delight
that draws its audience in with a constant blend of glowing pop-culture
references and intelligent narrative.
Photo: Holly Wren |
Martin Shakespeare, played with perfect
petulant and panicked notes by Andrew London, is the last remaining descendant
of the Shakespeare bloodline; a travel agent from Stratford caught up in a 400
year old conspiracy involving a Government agency operating under the guise of
the Royal Shakespeare Company, and a security unit inside the Globe Theatre
that houses Shakespeare’s creations, who are mostly villains that plot to
destroy the world and vindicate themselves.
Photo: Holly Wren |
The Shakespeare Conspiracy, not unlike a cocktail, is a tasty concoction
that is both sweet and equally sour, borrowing from several other materials:
often sounding much better on paper and leaving the audience with a great
hangover as they try and fathom what just happened. With a teaspoon of
Blackadder, a good squeeze of Dan Brown, a dash of Joss Whedon, 25ml of Douglas
Adam and a handful of Christopher Nolan’s highly conceptual narrative, The Shakespeare Conspiracy is a bawdy
and experimental adventure that is somehow very original despite reliance on
reference to other material. Issues do arise in Shepherd’s script when he veers
towards screenplay-like ambition and the biggest downfall of all is that
characters do suffer at the expense of such lengthy exposition; however
hilarious they might be, many characters never grow out much further than being
good for a few jokes. The character of Garfield Oberon for example is the
spitting image of Samuel L. Jackson’s character Nick Fury from the Marvel Avengers movie. Oberon not only shares a
similar role but also Jackson’s disposition and even a line almost identical to the film (“we have a Puck” – “we
have a Hulk”), which is undoubtedly much fun to play but is never more than a
borrowed image. The character of Edmund the Bastard (played by the roguishly
funny Lee White) closely channels
Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow and Shepherd himself, as Iago (a stand-out
performance), is a methodically manipulative Moriarty with the wild
theatricality of every Bond villain ever.
The fast-paced direction and genius concept
somewhat make up for the one-dimensional personalities that the actors also try
very hard to bring to life. Despite this character neglect, the production is
immensely enjoyable and hard to fault. With a fantastic set that fits perfectly
into the Chelsea Theatre’s black-box space, there is breath-taking fight
choreography and hilarious performances from nearly all of the cast, in
particular the talented Jack Baldwin as Benedick and charismatic Libby Evans as
Beatrice. This occasionally feels like an extended comedy sketch, but the
daring ensemble distract just enough for us to take a silly journey with a
powerful conclusion that leaves us lamenting for some time after.
This production runs until 24 November 2012.
For more information: http://www.tsc61112.co.uk
@ChelseaTheatre
This production runs until 24 November 2012.
For more information: http://www.tsc61112.co.uk
@ChelseaTheatre
1 comment:
Good review!
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