There’s nothing like a play on a cold, wet, Hilary night. Granted, the saunter up George Street to the OFS is not the best way of getting into a cultural frame of mind, but beggars can’t be choosers. On George Street they just get in the way. And after leaving my Bod card at home and being forced to cough up an extra two pounds by a miserly cashier, I was prepared to accept nothing less than a premium cut of theatrical steak.
Following the usual pre-performance rites of sitting down, complaining about the leg room, making a quick dash for the loos just before the curtain rises, the Edward II which was served up was more akin to cold mince. Credit must be given where it is due, I thought Omkar was fabulous, and Ben Galpin’s Edward was most convincing. A nice bit of tongue-on-tongue action is always fun too.
But the play’s staging was misguided. The power vacuum created by the death of Edward II was replaced with the death of the Krays, placing Marlowe’s political piece in a quasi-gangland Mods v. Rockers situation, simply vulgarising and attenuating the consequences of power struggles at court.
Particulary bad in light of the tension caused by Edward and Gaveston’s homoerotic relationship in the face of the Church’s importance in medieval England. On top of this, the clash between early modern English and the late 1960s setting was awkward to say the least, as brutish leather clad bikers spoke with improbable Renaissance turns of phrase. The historian in me was itching. Why was Edward II smoking?
The setting served only to distract from the main action, and whilst I do love theatrical experimentation, and accept that new interpretations allow audiences to view plays from a different perspective and interpret them in new and exciting ways, student audiences are critical and perceptive, so when directors take it upon themselves to experiment with pieces they must be prepared to do it properly.
This production of Edward II was not as strong as it should have been because its delivery was incomplete; the new setting was not adequately matched to the content of the play. For such innovations to work, the tensions of the original must be preserved when transposing a play into a different setting, and likewise this new setting must be complete in its delivery.
