|
|
|
|
|
Uncle Richard
The Loft, Leamington
**** WAS
Richard III really the dastardly villain Shakespeare painted him? Was
his death a merciful event that spared England the ravages of a tyrant?
And were the two princes in the tower, Edward V and Richard, really
polished off at his behest? Or (as Josephine Tey’s book
The Daughter of
Time argued), are there different
views, and was the crookback monarch neither crooked nor a crook? One person who wants to know the ans
The whole story is played out by just three
actors – and what irresistible fun they bring to this curious and
determined treasure hunt. Tell Tale’s trio are a gifted, endlessly
entertaining ensemble who make of the history-ridden script, devised by
‘E. S. Cooper’, a magnificently enjoyable show, in which the story of
the previous hundred years is played out with a glorious comic touch
which captivates and enlightens at the same time.
Queen Elizabeth (daughter of Edward IV and
sister to the lost princes) is not averse to a bit of teasing: ‘Lazy
Lancastrians’, she dubs her husband’s side of the royal line. One of the
treats of this production – at every point – is the quick repartee, not
least by the young prince who is so keyed up he has an answer or a query
for everything – except, perhaps, the central question. Horobin’s Prince Harry is pure delight: an
absolute hoot - constantly on the move, firing questions from the hip,
and pulling a hundred
It’s a witty,
knowledgeable, well-crafted script. There is a long scene in which
Solanki rushes around the audience, who have been allotted various royal
name-tags, treating us to a history lesson which embraces every monarch
and royal sidekick from the time of Edward III and the Black Prince up
to the current day. Certainly, this bit of history is the true basis of
the events of 1483-5. By the time we have waded through Duke of Clarence
(‘Uncle George – disliked by everyone’), Warwick, York, Rutland,
Buckingham and so on this history lesson becomes, it must be admitted, a
bit wearisome, too repetitive and overdone: a slice of intelligent
cutting and trimming might surely have helped. (A couple of minor errors
crept in to the quick-fire biographies - but nothing serious.) But Richard, whom the story focused on in the
second half, seemed hard to extricate from blame; not least as ‘every
good story needs a villain’.
On the face of it, he has no chance. Eager and
persistent, young Harry probes and struggles by every possible means to
exonerate his great uncle and hero: so far and
wide do his theories reach that one of the choicest is that the princes
‘killed each other’. But what is
the truth? As Harry’s tutor reminds us, ‘Every king has his own
chronicler who paints him as he wishes to.’ Every little twitch and grimace, edgy shuffle and
sideways glance, scatty sword-wielding and batty jumping to conclusions
by young Henry was sheer delight. He was dressed like a mere stripling
and acted genuinely like an 11-year-old, or thereabouts. Horobin is a
marvellously inventive actor, and his every move brought something new
or wittily devised. But perhaps the really riveting moment came at the
end when Cooper’s Queen, the daughter, sister, wife, mother, niece of a
king, has a superb soliloquy which provided one of the most arresting
scenes of the whole play. Uncle Richard
was devised as part of the celebrations of the
reinternment of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. It is a splendid
celebration, well worthy of such an august occasion. It does not point
the finger, but opens the door to numerous possibilities. After all, he
was only 32 when he died. Who knows if, married to his niece, he might
have turned out as able a king as his Lancastrian rival? Roderic Dunnett 10-16 Touring to: Quaker Meeting House, Warwick Friday 28
October 7.30 p.m. Guildhall, Leicester Sunday 6 November 5.00
p.m.
|
|
|
|
different faces, endlessly varied and all appropriate. So, if his tutor
(Solanki) can concede ‘History is not really my sort of speciality’, it
certainly is the prince’s: young Harry is avid to have answers, and
insuppressible in his bouncy insistence on having them. On this agitated
and classy showing, one is tempted to describe Horobin as a comic
genius.
de
resistance was as young Thomas More, the page of the Bishop of Ely and
future Archbishop: changing sex, she delivered a delightful and clever
performance, astute and deftly moved. So persuasive was she (he), she
reminded one of Portia in