Keswick.
’TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE
by John Ford.
Theatre By The Lake (Studio) Lakeside CA12 5DJ In rep to 6 November 2013.
Runs 2hr 25min One interval.
TICKETS: 017687 74411.
www.theatrebythelake.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 August.
’Tis better looked upon than listened to.
John Ford’s tragedy is among the less rarely seen plays from the generation after Shakespeare – which shows the value of a good title. One taken from the play’s closing line, and constituting a judgement spoken by a Cardinal who has just appropriated anything going to the church.
He’s hardly best-placed to judge. Because, as Ford and Ian Forrest’s slimmed-down Keswick Studio production show, ‘she’ is anything but a whore. ‘She’ is an innocent in a world of intrigue and murderous revenge, exploiting audience views on Italians and Spaniards – in an age when the hottest ticket in town was a play (by Thomas Middleton) which had the Spanish ambassador frothing at the mouth – as passionate, treacherous and vengeful.
Forrest has cast Annabella well. Sophie Melville is a gentle, delicate presence, every emotion genuine, someone who would never have embarked on a love affair with her brother had he not initiated it.
Hanging back in the opening religious procession, stubbly and making a statement of discontent by his presence, Benjamin Askew’s Giovanni is a sexual and social malcontent. Yet they share an innocence that would have disturbed nobody if left alone.
Unlike others, who plot, and counter-plot, poisonous revenge. Strangely, it’s the servant Vasquez, who deceives, murders and orders the blinding of others, who comes out less badly than the others, for his absolute loyalty to his employer, and for lack of any self-interest.
Apart perhaps from the national interest of being able to claim that as a Spaniard, he out-tricked a load of Italians – a moment of quiet triumph for Gareth Cassidy.
Visually, it’s a fine show. Elizabeth Wright’s design create an Italian piazza, with a large looming cross at one side and a colonnade the other, catching the influence of both church and society, both backed by bright red cloth suggesting the play’s notoriously bloody outcome, without any sense of being cramped.
Verse-speaking is less successful. Too often emotion drives the verse, rather than riding on it, which makes for over-pitched emotion and a lack of flexibility. But it’s a brave stab for Keswick in its ever-widening Studio repertoire.
Giovanni: Benjamin Askew.
Putana: Janine Birkett.
Vasques: Gareth Cassidy.
Friar/Cardinal: Richard Earl.
Soranzo: Ben Ingles.
Annabella: Sophie Melville.
Hippolita: Heather Saunders.
Director: Ian Forrest.
Designer/Costume: Elizabeth Wright.
Lighting: Jo Dawson.
Sound: Sanne Noppen.
Fight director: Peter Macqueen.
2013-09-03 10:20:11
