The Rivals - Liverpool Playhouse - 06/10/2016

Director Dominic Hill gave us a good view of the backstage workings of the Playhouse in his 2013 Crime and Punishment, and he begins this new staging of Sheridan’s 18th century comedy with a similarly bare stage, soon to be filled with the various elements of Tom Rogers' evocative set.

Everything about this production, including the chairs, is like a series of picture frames; an art gallery being constantly hung and re-hung with vividly lit tableaux. The performers in lavish costumes are directed in a way that turns every scene into a stunning visual image. Amidst the period garb and enormous wigs, Hill throws in some witty anachronisms with the props to remind us that the misogyny of the story is not as dated as it might at first appear.

But the show is not solely a treat for the eyes. As Mrs Malaprop might say, the text and its delivery are the very pineapple of perfection. The entire cast have enormous fun with their lines, tripping out the sharp wit of this comedy of manners at a rattling pace.

Desmond Barritt as Sir Anthony Absolute tries to persuade his son Jack (Rhys Rusbatch) that he must marry a wealthy young lady chosen for him in order to lay hands on her fortune, whether he cares for her or not. “If you have an estate you must take it with the livestock as it stands” he is told. What neither know is that the chosen woman is the girl Jack is secretly wooing, Lydia Languish, disguising himself as a poor serviceman, Ensign Beverley. When this becomes clear he goes on to regain his father’s favour by pretending that he will consent to marry purely to appease him.

The plot is filled with all the deceptions and intrigues of the genre, and the writing is generous with opportunities for all Sheridan’s characters to revel in its telling.

The entire ensemble produce splendid performances, but highlights must be Julie Legrand’s wilting Mrs Malaprop, with all her vocal confusions, and Desmond Barritt’s pompous Sir Anthony. The real show-stealer is Lucy Briggs-Owen, whose Lydia Languish lilts and swoons about the stage, arms flapping and hands fluttering, like something out of Ab-Fab or Made in Chelsea, with the vocal characterisation to match.

Atmosphere is completed with splendidly done lighting from Howard Hudson and subtle music played on a harpsichord placed to the rear of the stage.

Despite its vintage text and period setting, The Rivals feels bang up to date in Hill’s light handed, fleet of foot presentation, which is full of laughter but still packs a punchy message.

The Rivals runs at the Playhouse until Saturday 29th October.

Lucy Briggs-Owen in The Rivals - Photo (C) Mark Douet

This review was originally written for Good News Liverpool

Crime and Punishment – Liverpool Playhouse – 01/10/2013

Let’s have some toast and talk about murder.

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is not a man to mess with - he has an axe and some challenging views on morality.

Chris Hannan’s new adaptation distils the well over 500 pages of Dostoyevsky’s novel into just shy of 100 pages of play-text. I say distils rather than condenses, as what he has set out to capture here is what he believes to be the essence of the book. Members of the cast I have spoken to all seem to hold Chris in high reverence for the words he has given them. In his interview for the programme notes he describes the book as spiritual more than political, and the play certainly offers us a series of deeply philosophical arguments.

We became suddenly acquainted with the rear wall of the Playhouse stage a year ago, in the closing scene of Colin Richmond’s designs for the Alchemist. For Crime and Punishment, Richmond has taken this wall as the canvas for his backdrop, in front of which he has created a stark, distressed, atmospheric space for the performance, with scene changes able to take place fluidly, keeping the action moving at a pace.

A ten-strong cast not only play multiple roles but also create the soundscape that underpins the drama. A variety of instruments and sound-effects, from drums, pianos and bass through to rattling buckets, are ranged about the rear of the stage, where the cast remain throughout when they are not in a speaking role, forming a chorus, who watch and interact with the spectacle before them.

Try to congratulate Adam Best on his performance and he will shrug and try to deflect your attention to his colleagues, but his portrayal of Raskolnikov is genuinely mesmerising and I find myself at a loss for superlatives. This is a very complex character who, having decided that murder is his right and of benefit to all, spends the next two hours fighting with himself. You can see the inner punches as he reels and twitches about the stage and there is something terribly disturbing in his eyes.

He is right, though, in pointing to his fellow actors. It is very much an ensemble piece and there are many tremendous gems in this jewel box of characters. Cate Hamer is not only the drooling, ill-fated pawnbroker Alyona but among her other roles is the splendidly wrought Katerina Marmeladova, whose reaction to the accidental death of her husband is truly astonishing. George Costigan treads a fine line in balancing the comedy of Marmeladov whilst John Paul Hurley brings menace to his Ilya Petrovich. Obioma Ugoala gives a quiet solidity to Raskolnikov’s loyal friend Razumichin, and his considerable stature comes in useful in scenes where Adam Best becomes almost a rag doll in his hands.

Mabel Clements, Amiera Darwish, Chris Donald, Jessica Hardwick and Jack Lord complete the cast, and I could go on, but the list of their parts is seemingly endless. Suffice to say that the entire ensemble work together generously whilst producing a series of richly drawn characters.

I have already mentioned the sound design, in which Nikola Kodjabashia uses the cast members to perform his score, which is a sonic landscape that blends with Colin Richmond’s designs and Chris Davey’s lighting to create an atmosphere maintaining the tension and the ebb and flow of the narrative. Dominic Hill’s direction brings remarkable lucidity and an overarching architecture to the piece, and we do feel that we have travelled the troubled journey with the cast, rather than just sitting watching them play it out.

This is a hugely successful adaptation that very much achieves the sense of a piece written directly for the theatre.

As a postscript I can now add that I have become something of a glutton for this form of punishment, having returned to see it again a number of times since writing this blog posting, and it simply gets better with repeat viewings.

Crime and Punishment was co-produced by Citizen’s Theatre Glasgow, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh.

It runs at Liverpool Playhouse until Saturday 19th October 2013 after which it transfers to Edinburgh from 22nd October to 9th November.

See the trailer here and visit www.everymanplayhouse.com for further details and ticket sales for Liverpool.

See www.lyceum.org.uk for ticket sales for Edinburgh.

Adam Best – Picture © Tim Morozzo