Perhaps fittingly for an early Shakespearean comedy, Kate O’Connor’s production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona was at its best at its silliest and most amateur. The set channelled village pantomime, the band of outlaws looked like they’d stumbled in from a school production of Bugsy Malone and, should the weather permit outside performance during the rest of their run, the Christ Church gardens setting should only add to the hilarity.
Audience engagement was high, especially when the play was at its most overtly comic. Barney Iley’s Speed stole the show, slightly upstaging Stephen Hyde, who, as Launce, had to contend with difficult sight lines while seated with his dog in the play’s most well-loved scenes. The lovers had more of an uphill battle to climb. Alice Fraser worked hard to give Julia the depth of later comedic heroines and really came into her own in the second half of the production, but even the unorthodox ending couldn’t counter the awkwardness of the play’s denouement for a modern audience. Tim Gibson’s Valentine was largely competent and Amelia Sparling’s Silvia charming, but Ed Seabright’s Proteus less well-realised and his transition from loyal friend to Machiavellian villain made all the more bizarre by somewhat blunt characterisation.
The production was weakest when it attempted to be something more than a light-hearted romp. The Big Band era/Manhattan setting was laboured and unenlightening, the singing between acts slightly cringe-worthy and the final full-cast rendition of ‘New York’ tear-inducing for all the wrong reasons. Gestures were overblown and blocking could be awkward – directorial decisions which proved to the expense of the better actors among the cast. The decision to convert the Duke into a Duchess (Katie Ebner-Landy) also seemed to have little motivation beyond casting considerations and hampered the sense of the lines on a couple of occasions – a shame in a production which could provide a good introduction to Shakespearean language.
Overall, while the production may be a little rough around the edges, enthusiasm was abundant onstage and off and, as such, The Two Gentlemen of Verona should prove a fun night out for even the most uninitiated of Shakespearean theatregoers.
Two and a half stars
