At Loving the Cotswolds, we chose Love for Love, Swan Theatre, RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon as part of our 101 reasons because it captures something distinctive about this much-loved part of England.
You will find the background, local detail and small points of interest that make Love for Love, Swan Theatre, RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon worth knowing about, especially if you enjoy the stories behind the Cotswolds.
09/11/2015
Rating: **** By Colin Davison @IamColinDavison
What’s this? A plastic crocodile? Have we wandered into the RSC’s Peter Pan by mistake? Can it be panto season already?
What’s this? A plastic crocodile? Have we wandered into the RSC’s Peter Pan by mistake? Can it be panto season already?
We would not have been that far wrong in thinking so, for director Selina Cadell has turned William Congreve’s witty and fast-paced 1695 comedy into something of an adult pantomime.
Sailor Ben (Daniel Easton) rains fish; an animal cavalcade of variously abandoned props invades the action – just for a laugh.
And the actors enjoy throughout a deliciously knowing conspiracy with the audience, so even when a gag goes wrong – accidentally or by design – we enjoy it all the more.
Valentine (Tom Turner) is forced by his father Sir Sampson (Nicholas Le Prevost) into agreeing to sign over his inheritance to younger brother Ben in return for payment of his gambling debts.
The plot – or rather this strand of many mini plots – concerns his efforts and those of his beloved Angelica (Justine Mitchell) to get out of the deal.
As he feigns madness to avoid signing the fatal document, the spindle-limbed Turner flickers his tongue in and out like a loony lizard, and does a quick David Tennant tribute as he plays Hamlet-like with a handy skull.
Le Prevost is tremendous, a constant force of well-bred indignation who can defy the audience with a single raised eyebrow to doubt any of his unlikely boasts.
Here’s a man who claims many conquests that include cuckolding the king of Bantam, yet is tongue-tied by a bit of gentle wooing.
“Your hand is is as warm and as soft …” he tells Zoe Waites’ scheming Mrs Frail “- as what? … Odd, as t’your other hand.”
At other times you’ll need to stay alert to catch many of the fine verbal gags in this wordy play, often delivered prestissimo.
Jenny Rainsford as the country bumpkin Prue and the ebullient Jonathan Broadbent as Tattle revel under licence to over-act, an effect enhanced by the glorious costume designs of Rosalind Ebbutt, which make the latter resemble a strawberry instant whip amid a bowl of fruit salad.
The show is rather over-long at just over three hours including an interval, a fact even acknowledged in one of the many asides to the audience. I was forgiving by then. I felt in on the conspiracy.
Love for Love continues until 22 January. Tickets online and on 0844 800 1110.
Colin Davison
Sailor Ben (Daniel Easton) rains fish; an animal cavalcade of variously abandoned props invades the action – just for a laugh.
And the actors enjoy throughout a deliciously knowing conspiracy with the audience, so even when a gag goes wrong – accidentally or by design – we enjoy it all the more.
Valentine (Tom Turner) is forced by his father Sir Sampson (Nicholas Le Prevost) into agreeing to sign over his inheritance to younger brother Ben in return for payment of his gambling debts.
The plot – or rather this strand of many mini plots – concerns his efforts and those of his beloved Angelica (Justine Mitchell) to get out of the deal.
As he feigns madness to avoid signing the fatal document, the spindle-limbed Turner flickers his tongue in and out like a loony lizard, and does a quick David Tennant tribute as he plays Hamlet-like with a handy skull.
Le Prevost is tremendous, a constant force of well-bred indignation who can defy the audience with a single raised eyebrow to doubt any of his unlikely boasts.
Here’s a man who claims many conquests that include cuckolding the king of Bantam, yet is tongue-tied by a bit of gentle wooing.
“Your hand is is as warm and as soft …” he tells Zoe Waites’ scheming Mrs Frail “- as what? … Odd, as t’your other hand.”
At other times you’ll need to stay alert to catch many of the fine verbal gags in this wordy play, often delivered prestissimo.
Jenny Rainsford as the country bumpkin Prue and the ebullient Jonathan Broadbent as Tattle revel under licence to over-act, an effect enhanced by the glorious costume designs of Rosalind Ebbutt, which make the latter resemble a strawberry instant whip amid a bowl of fruit salad.
The show is rather over-long at just over three hours including an interval, a fact even acknowledged in one of the many asides to the audience. I was forgiving by then. I felt in on the conspiracy.
Love for Love continues until 22 January. Tickets online and on 0844 800 1110.
Colin Davison
