|
|
|
|
|
A Knight's tale forged of legend
Joust in time: Lancelot (left) in disguise takes on the evil Mordred
Morte d’Arthur
The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford upon Avon
*****
SIR Thomas Mallory’s tale of Arthur and his knights of the round
table, of chivalry, honour and treachery are brought to life in this
stunning Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation by Mike Poulton.
Mallory’s epic brought together English and French myth and legend of
Arthur, Lancelot and Guenever along with some thoughts of his own and
became a best seller on its first printing by William Caxton in 1485,
the year of the Battle of Bosworth when Richard III is killed
incidentally, bringing to an end in many minds, the Middle Ages.
In this Arthur there is no modern dress just knights in shining armour
and realistic war horses in a tale of battles, wars and the duties and
chivalry of Knights.
Sam Troughton seems is a much happier Arthur than he is a Romeo in what
has been a parallel production though the summer.
As Arthur he manages the gauche youth plucking the sword from the stone
so matter of factly with humour and aplomb that hr could well be a
teenager rushing through life and within a couple of scenes he has
become the young King Arthur gradually growing older with each
minute of the next three hours.
We see him develop from the young king attempting to do everything at once trying to unite his kingdom to the old monarch. A wiser Arthur but still with a final, personal war to fight. Troughton is believable as the king as is Jonjo O’Neill as Lancelot. O’Neil, who was an excellent Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, manages to blend humility and passion in portraying the most famous knight of them all, a knight's knight if ever there was one although one suspects his protestations of innocence at his relationship with Queen Guenever, played with regal authority by Kirsty Woodward, might struggle a tad in court. He certainly had his way with the ladies with Elaine, Mariah Gale, who is Juliet in the current production, dying wondrously of grief when she is rejected by old Lance.
Noma Dumezweni as Arthur’s scheming half sister Morgan Le Fay is always
a pleasure to watch, and listen to, while her nephew, Mordred,
Arthur’s bastard son by his other half sister Margawse, is delightfully
wicked in the crooked hand of Peter Peverley.
He is a sort of slightly deformed, evil mate of The Likely Lads with a
penchant for the Richard III look.
His petulant 14-year-old battling adults to keep his hood up as he meets
the king - anyone who has had teenagers will recognise that attitude -
grows into a really nasty piece of work but Peverley manages to bring a
lot of humour to the role with his Geordie accent, gestures and
interruptions - you almost end up cheering for him.
Accents seemed to be big in mediaeval times with H’away man Mordred, a
Belfast Lancelot and Falkirk born Forbes Masson’s Merlin sounding like a
Plantagenet Billy Connolly amid the myth and magic.
The final battle is the one for England by the past - and some say
future - king.
The battle scenes are stylised with no dripping blood, severed limbs or
people run through with swords - poor old Gruffudd Glyn as Gareth dies
from a mild slap across the stomach with a sword for example - but the
scenes are made more realistic and brought to life by a sort of stereo
timpani arrangement with a set of bells, gongs and drums on each side at
the rear of the stage.
You can see swords missing by miles but add the crash of metal on metal
or flesh, drums and alarm, and you have a real fight on your
hands.
At three-and-a-half hours it is a long reign for Arthur but time flies
as the adventure rapidly unfurls before you with plenty of humour,
action, some sadness and no little education of the story of Mallory’s
Arthur. To 28-8-10 Roger Clarke |
|
|
|
Not that he was a bad Romeo, far from it, he was excellent, but at 33,
playing a teenage lovestruck adolescent devoured by his first love was
never the easiest of tasks. 